OPENINGS: THE LOST CITY (Paramount) opened at the high end of expectations at $31M, a particularly solid result these days for a movie that skews both female and older (the latter crowd evident in the 2% Friday-to-Saturday rise). Lost City faces little challenge in its target demo for the next month, so it could climb to $100M in the US before it’s done. Overseas, thus far it has $3.7M from 16 relatively small territories.
The Indian-language segment of the box office has been remarkably robust through the pandemic, and RRR (Sarigama) earned $9.5M at just 1200 theaters, giving it a higher weekend per-theater average than Lost City. However, part of that was due to ticket prices 2x as high as the US standard. Also, not unusually for this niche, RRR was incredibly frontloaded, crashing by 54% from Friday to Saturday. RRR also opened in India, where it reportedly started at $46M, and took in $3.8M from 16 other markets.
INFINITE STORM (Bleecker Street) attracted little notice with a $750K launch at 1525 theaters, a tepid $500 per-theater average.
A pair of upcoming US openings have debuted early overseas, with AMBULANCE (Universal, starting April 8 in the US) at $12.8M after a $6.7M weekend in 58 territories, and THE BAD GUYS (DreamWorks Animation/Universal, April 22) at $16.8M after a $6.5M weekend in 37 regions.
HOLDOVERS: THE BATMAN (DC/Warners), unlike some other pandemic-era hits, has been dropping substantially each weekend, and with a 44% Weekend 4 fall to $20.5M, it’s no longer clear that it will reach $400M in the US, especially since it’s due to lose many of its Imax and similar screens next weekend to Morbius. It has $340.9M overseas after a $25M weekend in all major markets.
UNCHARTED (Columbia/Sony) lost 36% to $5M in its 6th weekend, still hoping to hit $150M in the US. It also has $223.8M overseas after a $7.7M weekend in 55 markets.
JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 (Crunchyroll) fell heavily in its 2nd weekend as anime movies tend to do, down 69% to $4.6M and aiming to get past $40M in the US. It has $116.9M overseas.
X (A24) dropped 48% to $2.2M in its 2nd weekend and may get to $15M in the US. It’s barely opened overseas to date.
DOG (UA/MGM, also on VOD) was down 47% to $2.1M in its 6th weekend, stretching toward $65M in the US. It also has $10.4M overseas.
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (Marvel/Columbia/Sony) reached $800.6M after a 36% drop to $2M in its 15th weekend, only the 3rd movie in US history to hit that milestone (after The Force Awakens and Avengers: Endgame). Its overseas number is $1.09B.
The other holiday-season veteran SING 2 (Illumination/Universal) is still selling tickets as well, down just 12% to $1.3M in its 14th weekend and heading toward $165M in the US. It’s earned $227.2M overseas.
LIMITED RELEASE: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (A24) got off to a splendid start with a $51K weekend average at 10 theaters, the best average since Licorice Pizza last November (and that only opened at 4). It should be noted that A24 typically estimates extremely strong Sundays for its releases, and Everything is no exception. Also, while Everything is technically an “arthouse” release, it has a strong action/sci-fi component and probably skews much younger than, say, MOTHERING SUNDAY (Sony Classics), which showed the continuing weakness of that part of the box office by opening with a mere $2100 per-theater average at 5.
NEXT WEEKEND: The many-times-postponed MORBIUS (Columbia/Sony) finally opens. Limited releases include YOU WON’T BE ALONE (Focus/Universal).
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