SATURDAY AM: Update for charts and more analysis…. Despite Omicron sending many back to the comfort of their homes in January, people still go to the movies, specifically Sony / Marvel. Spider-Man: No Way Home who is snatching a fourth weekend of $ 30 million in 4,012 locations, which is higher than the fourth session of the previous big Christmas Star Wars Titles Last jedi ($ 23.7 million), Rogue one ($ 22 million) and Rise of Skywalker ($ 15.1M), and behind Force Awakens’ $ 42.3 million.
Spiderman received $ 8.3M yesterday, and by the end of Sunday it will increase its cume to $ 666.5 Million, which will make it the sixth highest grossing film at the national box office, ahead of James Cameron. Titanic ($ 659.3 million). Box office Entelligence says 54.4 million tickets for the Jon Watts-directed MCU sequel have been sold to date in the United States and Canada.
An insider keeps mentioning to me that Spiderman It is not the norm, it is an anomaly at the pandemic box office. I strongly disagree with that – it’s an event that touches all quads and sub-quads and underlines how you can still drive audiences away from their couches with the right product to appeal to the masses, even if we’re freaked out by the variant. Deep down, it doesn’t matter if it’s blue or red, everyone wants to go out and live their lives and manage security in a Covid environment. It just boils down to the type of movie that you’re going to spend extra time outside of your house for, and if it looks like something in a Netflix queue, you’re not going to sacrifice time.
Everett
The female action film directed, produced and co-written by Simon Kinberg The 355 It seemed like a perfect title for Universal to buy for $ 20 million, the movie fitting on their theatrical roster dealing with diversity and representation. Yet critics and moviegoers have spotted a very straightforward action movie, and that bad word of mouth runs deep. The 355 with a $ 4.3 million result in 3rd place. Critics with Rotten’s 26% say it should be avoided, while CinemaScore is better on B +. According to EntTelligence The 355BO weekend translates to 360K admissions.
RelishMix says of the social media chat, “I convene for The 355 Mixed-negative swings when fans feel like they’re being served a cliche cookie cutter action pack in the spirit of Charlie’s Angels or the “James Bond Daughters” with a diverse mix of super charged women. Fans of Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, and Penelopé Cruz are cheering with great support for the success, but amid the Covid resurgence, viewers are tapping for Peacock or another streaming service launch date. “
Universal
The title was the codename of the first female spy in the American Revolution and became the jargon of an intelligence agent. As Kinberg told us on Crew Call recently, star Jessica Chastain, who worked with him on his X-Men: Dark Phoenix Y The martian production, approached the writer / filmmaker with the idea of an all-female spy set. They approached Penelope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o and Bingbing Fan on the grounds of making the film outside of the Hollywood system so that they could retain fiscal ownership and authorship of the $ 75 million production and share in the benefits of the movie in various percentages. . FilmNation sold overseas at Cannes, and CAA Media Finance sold on domestic products and in China, as Deadline first reported. Universal kept this title throughout the pandemic. I am under the impression that the tight deals did not allow this movie to be sold to a streamer, however we have seen other overseas sales titles fall apart and go to streamers due to the pandemic.
Of course, older adults don’t break into movie theaters. The results here are not that far from the spy bomb of 2020 The rhythm section which opened at $ 2.7 million. Traditionally we would rake The 355 on the coals on how it is destined to be unprofitable. However, with studios practicing streaming, they are trying to fit the streamers’ volume accounting sense to their ledgers as they spend many millions of dollars on content and hope to offset that with subscriptions and other ancillary income and rentals. of global movies. . What happens now with The 355? Well, he’s in a 17-day theatrical window and heading to PVOD very soon. On its 45th launch day, The 355, just like the rest of the advancing Uni roster, it will appear at the Peacock pay tier. The 355 It will live in Peacock for four months, then head to Amazon Prime, available free to members, for another ten months before returning to the NBCUni streaming service. Somehow, somehow, Universal will squeeze the blood out of this rock.
Universal
Speaking of Universal’s short windows and titles appearing in PVOD after 17 days, Illumination’s Sing 2 was available in homes to be rented yesterday. That doesn’t stop the animation title written and directed by Garth Jennings from getting a $ 10.3 million third weekend, -49% and hitting $ 107.3 million. What does he officially do Sing 2 the highest grossing animated film of the pandemic in the national BO (from mid-March 2020) and shows that families will go out to see animated movies. (Do you hear that, Disney?).
Yesterday, Disney announced that they were withdrawing their film from Pixar. Turning red from theaters and shipping it to Disney + on March 11. Actions speak louder than words, and that maneuver screams the following: Disney + desperately needs new content to maintain subscriber growth; The ambitious slate of series from MCU, Lucasfilm, etc. that they announced on Disney’s Investor Day in 2020 seems rather slow to populate the service. Plus, original animated titles are a challenge to launch at the box office, and it’s conceivable that the studio would like a healthier market to capitalize on that. Also, the Pixar movie was not booked in summer, but out of season (as Pixar Ahead before the pandemic) and it is likely that the audiences’ diagnoses on the film were not good. Otherwise why send Turning red in homes? Again, right now, with experts predicting that Omicron will peak this week, no one expects the pandemic to worsen in the spring; Warner Bros. is currently sticking to its release date of March 4, The Batman. Says a mid-size exhibitor to Deadline this morning: “Turning red it would easily make $ 100 million at the box office. It’s not like I’m going to put pressure on subscribers. Send it to Disney + but give it to me too. “
Other great deals this weekend: UAR / MGM’s Gucci’s house crosses $ 50 million, remains the highest grossing senior drama in the pandemic.
Sarigama Cinemas’ RRR led by SS Rajamouli is prepared to $ 83 thousand in 23 theaters, after about $ 30K Friday from 23 theaters. Most of Friday night’s gross revenue came from the Galaxy Grandscape in Dallas. The film follows two legendary revolutionaries and their journey away from home before they began fighting for their country in the 1920s.
PLUS…
FRIDAY AM: Universal and FilmNation are heavily criticized (24% on Rotten Tomatoes), but a star-studded female spy movie The 355 has not had the best start with $ 350 thousand of the trailers on Thursday night that began yesterday at 7:00 pm in 2,300 theaters.
This will result in a single-digit opening for the weekend for the title of Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o, Bingbing Fan and Diane Kruger. The 355Thursday night is a little before the Paramount / Eon disaster in January 2020 The rhythm section ($ 235K Thursday night, $ 2.7M opening; and down from 20th Century Studios’ first month 2020 flop, Submarine, which saw a $ 500K on Thursday night, $ 7M for 3 days.
Meanwhile, Sony / Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home fell to its lowest daily gross level with an estimated $ 3.9 million yesterday, -11% from Wednesday. Gross daily revenue has fallen slowly Monday through Thursday for the film. The cumulative total of the photo is $ 635.7 million, the eighth largest film in history at the national box office, behind jurassic world$ 652.3 million and ahead of The Avengers ($ 623.3 million) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($ 620.1 Million)
Now before they start yelling “Look what Omicron is doing to the box office!” realize that SpidermanDaily dipping here is normal for the title of a big Christmas event in the New Year. Recent Star Wars The movies saw their weekday gross earnings drop to single digits immediately after New Years weekend and hit a low on the Thursday before their fourth weekend, i.e. Force awake ($ 5.9M on January 7, 2016), The last jedi ($ 4.3 million on January 4, 2018), Rogue one ($ 3.8M on January 5, 2017), and Rise of Skywalker ($ 2.1M on Jan 9, 2020). Comscore reports that most K-12 schools were already in session yesterday with just 8% off and 84% of colleges still on vacation.
The fourth weekend of No way home After a third weekend of $ 56 million, it is expected to drop about 46% to $ 30 million. Fourth weekends prior to the Star Wars movies include Force awake ($ 42.3 million), Last jedi ($ 23.7 million), Rogue one ($ 22 million) and Rise of Skywalker ($ 15.1 million). In other words, do not assume that the floor is moving out of the box office if Spiderman changes to a weekend from $ 20 million to $ 30 million.
The distribution sources are giving me mixed messages: Yes, Omicron is to blame for the box office slowdown; no, it is not your fault; that Covid is not the reason why some studies boosted titles. Like all things that stagnate the business, yes Covid is the reason why Morbius moved despite SpidermanThe success of Sony and the maintenance of its Imax and PLF displays. Why is that? The next Sony / Marvel movie was set for release at the end of the month, and the studio didn’t want an unpredictable business situation after the success of Spiderman. Best to have Jered Leto’s title release during a warmer and hopefully healthier time on the schedule.
All eyes are on Warner Bros. ‘ The batman March 4. If that movie moves further on the schedule, then we know we’re in a Covid déjà vu like 2020 where there is a random change to the release schedule, but I heard that is not expected to happen. So rest up and remember, in case you didn’t say enough, the box office is based on product and January is notoriously a horrible time for theatrical releases.
Rest of Thursday’s Top 5 by Industry Estimates: Uni Sing 2 ($ 1 million, -11%, $ 97 million total), Disney / 20th’s King’s man ($ 455K, -5%, $ 21.8M total), Warner / Village Roadshow’s Matrix resurrections ($ 299K, -6%, $ 32.5M) and Lionsgate’s American underdog ($ 290 thousand, -5%, $ 16.3 million).