OPENINGS: The box office for TWISTERS (Warners/Universal) was paradoxical. In the US, the movie strongly outperformed expectations with $80.5M. However, it showed much less appeal overseas, with $27.1M in 76 territories this weekend ($42.7M to date including some revenue from markets that opened last week). Twisters is also about to lose virtually all its […]
OPENINGS: LONGLEGS (Neon) captured the zeitgeist, successfully delivering the marketing message that it was the scariest horror movie in recent memory. The result was a$22.6M weekend, which set a new Neon record by a wide margin, and also marked the year’s highest non-franchise start for the genre. Production and marketing costs for Longlegs reportedly […]
OPENINGS: DESPICABLE ME 4 (Illumination/Universal) arrived at the high end of expectations with a $75M 3-day weekend and $122.6M since its July 3 opening. That was a tad below 2013’s Despicable Me 2, which also opened on a Wednesday July 3 with $83.5M/$143.1M. Despicable 4 should pass $300M in the US, which would put […]
OPENINGS: A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE (Paramount) handily exceeded expectations with $53M in the US, better than its predecessors ($50.2M and $47.5M respectively, although Part II earned $57.1M over its 4-day holiday launch). It was particularly impressive because Day One featured a different cast and creative team for the most part, suggesting that A […]
OPENINGS: THE BIKERIDERS (Regency/Focus/Universal) seized the opportunity to open on a prime summer weekend without any new tentpole releases, and the studio estimate (which assumed the strongest Sunday hold in the Top 10) was $10M, in line with expectations. The question is how well the indie will hold up next week against new action […]
OPENINGS: INSIDE OUT 2 (Pixar/Disney) overdelivered massively compared to expectations with $155M in the US, a remarkable $65M higher than the start for 2015’s original Inside Out, and depending whether you count the “live-action” CG remake of The Lion King ($191.8M) as animated, either the #2 or #3 US opening for an animated feature […]
OPENINGS: Hollywood breathed a collective sign of relief as BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE (Columbia/Sony) arrived moderately above expectations with $56M. That was down just 10% from 2019’s Bad Boys For Life (although that film opened on a holiday weekend, totaling $73M in 4 days). Ride or Die faces no direct competition for weeks, […]
OPENINGS: The major studios abandoned this normally prime summer-season weekend, and a flood of indies rushed in to grab the available theaters. None were able to capitalize to a particularly notable extent, with the anime HAIKYUU: THE DUMPSTER BATTLE (Crunchyroll/Sony) faring best at $3.5M. The genre is typically very frontloaded, so Haikyuu may not […]