OPENINGS: Despite a bounty of new titles, nothing touched the holdover at the top of the weekend box office. The newcomer with the closest claim to “success” in the US was THE POPE’S EXORCIST (Screen Gems/Sony), with $9.2M. The horror movie also reported $27.4M in overseas release, which would put it on a road […]
OPENINGS: Box office expectations were high for THE SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE (Nintendo/Illumination/Universal), but the video game adaptation blew past them with a record-smashing $204.6M 5-day opening (passing the $200.1M for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) that was huge in all quadrants. Even though Friday was its 3rd day of release, the 3-day weekend […]
OPENINGS: While DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES (eOne/Paramount) launched at the upper end of expectations, $38.5M (which included an unusually intense program of preview screenings) was a shaky start for a project with $250M in production/marketing costs and the hope to become a franchise. It will need to hold up extremely well over the next several […]
OPENINGS: JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (Lionsgate) roared to a $73.5M start, more than 20% higher than its predecessor Parabellum‘s $56.8M. If it holds at that pace–and it has no direct competition until Renfield on April 14–it should become the first title in the franchise to pass $200M in the US. (Already, Lionsgate is pushing […]
OPENINGS: Franchises continued to be the lifeblood (so to speak) of Hollywood, and this week it was SCREAM VI (Paramount) breaking its saga’s previous record with $44.5M, almost 50% higher than the $30M for last year’s Scream reboot. It was also above the $40M for 2000’s Scream 3, although that would change with an […]
OPENINGS: CREED III (UA/MGM/Amazon) launched with an impressive $58.7M, higher than the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend starts for the previous entries in the series ($42.1M/$56M), and also higher than any of the Rocky movies (not adjusted for inflation). As is typical for this franchise, overseas was somewhat softer, with $41.8M from 75 markets. Nevertheless, the […]
OPENINGS: The surprise isn’t so much that COCAINE BEAR (Universal) “overdelivered,” but that expectations were so low for a picture that had been the subject of pop culture fascination for months. The $23.1M weekend seems like a realistic reflection of that fact, and although business is likely to drop quickly now that audiences have […]
OPENINGS: There was no question that ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA (Marvel/Disney) would dominate Presidents Day weekend and become 2023’s first blockbuster. Its $104M 3-day weekend (projected to reach $118M including Monday) was in line with expectations. The film’s decent 2.26 Friday-to-weekend multiplier also demonstrated that, at least in the short term, the MCU is […]