Nope, despite its B CinemaScore and 79% PostTrak, did not exactly fall apart between Friday and Saturday. If you back out those $6.4M previews out of Friday’s $19.59M, that means the Jordan Peele pic’s first day was $13.19M, and with Saturday at $13.95M, that’s a 6% rise. All of this results in a $44M opening.
While not the 17% rise that Us got over its Friday to Saturday (sans previews), Nope didn’t crater.
While not Us, it’s a respectable result for an original movie, and Universal has shown a talent to make and support those types of movies where some other motion picture studios fall flat. Again, the start for Nope is higher than late summer 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ($41M), also a piece of original IP, and higher than Warner Bros.’ Elvis ($31.2M), another adult counter programming title this summer.
All films this weekend grossed an estimated $125.1M, which is 37% ahead of weekend 29 a year ago. However, as we expected, it’s 53% below the same frame in 2019, which saw all titles make $263.9M, led by Disney’s Lion King. Still, there’s also another win for Universal this weekend, as six of their movies controlled 56% of the weekend box office.
Nope is the fifth Universal horror movie during the Covid era after Black Phone, Halloween Kills, Candyman and Forever Purge. The pic is the second top R-rated opening during Covid, after Halloween Kills ($49.4M). Said Universal Domestic Distribution Boss Jim Orr, “Jordan Peele is a master storyteller and with Nope, another example of his unique voice. He and his incredible cast led by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer thrilled audiences across North America this weekend with a film that is a true ‘see it on the big screen’ theatrical experience.’”
Nope was more guy-leaning than previous Uni horror pics at 57%, vs. Candyman (53%), Us (50%), and Get Out (48%) and older, meaning more over 25 at 63%, vs. Candyman (58%), Us (61%) and Get Out (59%). The 18-34 through yesterday turned out at 68%. The robust turnout of Black audiences at 33% for Nope is in line with these three other horror pics, as well with Caucasians at 35%, Hispanic and Latino at 20%, and Asian at 8%.
Broken out, guys over 25 repped 38% of the audience (78% score), women 25+ were 25% (75% score), guys under 25 were 20% (77% score) and women under 25 were 17%, but gave Nope its highest grade at 89%. Those 25+ at 25% came with a spouse/partner, while 16% came with date in that age range, and 17% came alone according to PostTrak.
Four hundred Imax screens drove 12% of the gross, or $5.2M, with 800 PLF screens repping another 20% of Nope’s ticket sales.
Top markets were L.A., NY, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Houston, Philadelphia, and Phoenix.
While distribution sources believe that this movie can get over $100M stateside, the question is with this production cost of $68M (before P&A) whether Nope profits like Peele’s other movies. For those movies opening under $50M, Uni typically sends them to PVOD after 17 days, followed by Peacock thereafter. However, on Nope, I understand it’s PVOD post theatrical 31 days, which is good because the Peele pic and Sony’s Bullet Train are the only marquee offerings during the late summer/early fall dry spell at the box office. Uni has a turnkey windows system, with monetizing opportunities in a subsequent Amazon window, to make bank. However, Peele’s movies only make a third of their global take abroad.
Nope become the first R-Rated movie to receive a push via NBCUniversal’s Symphony program, which markets tentpoles throughout the conglom’s subsidiaries.
Of note, there was the Jupiter’s Claim saloon attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. That set marks the first time that a Studio Tour attraction opened day and date with a Uni movie release. It will be staged within Universal Studios’ backlot, alongside other big movie sets, such as War of the Worlds, the Psycho house, and Courthouse Square from Back to the Future.
There were also spots running across NBCUni programming, such as American Ninja Warrior, America’s Got Talent, Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, NASCAR and WWE Raw.
In April, there was a custom spot that aired during NBA playoffs with Steph Curry, and in June, a new quartet of spots blanketed the NBA Finals. Similar to the Super Bowl, it was an opportunity to go after a wide guy audience with Nope. The four spots communicated a broad range of emotional tones. Each of the spots can be viewed here: Hell No, Rainbow, Once Upon a Time in Haywood, Choices.
The two official trailers of Nope racked up 120 million global digital views to-date, and were attached to such big pics in theaters as The Batman, Doctor Strange and The Multiverse Of Madness, Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion and Thor: Love and Thunder.
High-Impact digital takeovers included a Snapchat Grenade, as well as a Meta Blast across Facebook and Instagram and a YouTube Reach Accelerator, Twitter Spotlight Trend, and TikTok Top View.
RelishMix grades the social media reach of Nope at 180M at a 6.4, which is in the range of such horror movies as Us (6.9), A Quiet Place (6), and Halloween Kills (6.3). Social media champs from the cast include Keke Palmer with 28.3M across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, along with Steven Yeun, who’s new to social in the last few months for the movie at 4.8M fans, Peele at 3.2M, and Daniel Kaluuya at 548K.
Palmer getting ready for the world premiere drew over 145K views:
@kekepalmer #NOPE 😍💋
Weekend estimates as of Sunday AM:
1.) Nope (Uni) 3,785 theaters, Fri $19.59M/Sat $13.9M/Sun $10.4M/3-day $44M/Wk 1
2.) Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney) 4,370 (-5) theaters, Fri. $6.4M, Sat $8.9M Sun $6.8M , 3-day $22.1M (-53%)/Total $276.2M /Wk 3
3.) Minions: Rise of Gru (Uni) 3,816 theaters (-298), Fri $5.2M, Sat $6.9M, Sun $5.5M, 3-day $17.7M (-34%), Total: $297.8M/Wk 4
4.) Where the Crawdads Sings (Sony) 3,650 theaters, Fri $3.1M, Sat $3.9M, Sun $3.2M, 3-day $10.33M (-40%)/Total $38.3M/Wk 2
Great hold here for a female skewing movie during the pandemic, even better than the -45% decline Note Book had, and that was over a July 4th weekend. Industry outlook sees Crawdads’ final domestic B.O. in the $60M range.
5.) Top Gun: Maverick (Par) 3,160 (-132) theaters, Fri $2.7M Sat $4.1M Sun $3.2M , 3-day $10M (-19%), Total $635.5M/Wk 9
6.) Elvis (WB) 3,105 (-200) theaters, Fri $1.8M, Sat $2.55M, Sun $1.9M, 3-day $6.3M (-21%) Total $118.3M/Wk 5
7.) Paws of Fury (Par) 3,481 +6) theaters, Fri $1.1M, Sat $1.5M Sun $1.2M, 3-day $3.87M (-39%)/Total $13.7M/Wk 2
8.) The Black Phone (Uni) 2,055 (-222) theaters, Fri $1.07M , Sat $1.36M, Sun $1M, 3-day $3.45M (-36%)/Total $78.5M/Wk 5
9.) Jurassic World Dominion (Uni) 2,165 (-495) theaters, Fri $870K, Sat $1.2M, Sun $860K, 3-day $2.96M (-43%), Total $365.5M/Wk 7
10.) Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (Foc) 1,001 (+21) theatres, Fri $410K, Sat $540K, Sun $400K, 3-day $1.35M (-31%)/Total $4.65M/Wk 2