AMC’s second concert movie, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, though clearly frontloaded in its previews/Friday with a Saturday tumble of -48% ($6M), remains solid enough to hit a $22M opening, per industry sources. AMC is calling the weekend at $21M. For a movie opening during the listless first weekend of December, that’s fantastic, not far behind Tom Cruise’s 2003 The Last Samurai, which still holds the weekend’s record of $24.2M. Box office org EntTelligence reports 900,000 attendees for Beyoncé this weekend. The 32x Grammy winner catapulted what is typically a truly off weekend at the box office to $95M+, the best the first weekend of December has seen since 2018.
Sources slapped their foreheads over AMC’s move, which was mutual with Beyoncé, to release the movie over what is a terrible box office weekend. However, here it is, and the movie fared quite well, slightly ahead of its $20M expectations. Should the movie have been programmed during 2024, where we need product? Should the movie have arrived so soon in the wake of unicorn Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour? Surely there were other options. But this was the choice that was made. NYC based distributor Variance handled booking for Renaissance stateside, a la Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, with Trafalgar handling the international release.
Renaissance repped the second straight No. 1 opening at the domestic box office from AMC Theatres Distribution. From Elizabeth Frank, EVP worldwide programming & chief content officer, AMC Theatres:
AMC’s second concert movie, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, though clearly frontloaded in its previews/Friday with a Saturday tumble of -48% ($6M), remains solid enough to hit a $22M opening, per industry sources. AMC is calling the weekend at $21M. For a movie opening during the listless first weekend of December, that’s fantastic, not far behind Tom Cruise’s 2003 The Last Samurai, which still holds the weekend’s record of $24.2M. Box office org EntTelligence reports 900,000 attendees for Beyoncé this weekend. The 32x Grammy winner catapulted what is typically a truly off weekend at the box office to $95M+, the best the first weekend of December has seen since 2018.
Sources slapped their foreheads over AMC’s move, which was mutual with Beyoncé, to release the movie over what is a terrible box office weekend. However, here it is, and the movie fared quite well, slightly ahead of its $20M expectations. Should the movie have been programmed during 2024, where we need product? Should the movie have arrived so soon in the wake of unicorn Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour? Surely there were other options. But this was the choice that was made. NYC based distributor Variance handled booking for Renaissance stateside, a la Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, with Trafalgar handling the international release.
Renaissance repped the second straight No. 1 opening at the domestic box office from AMC Theatres Distribution. From Elizabeth Frank, EVP worldwide programming & chief content officer, AMC Theatres:
“On behalf of AMC Theatres Distribution and the entire theatrical industry, we thank Beyoncé for bringing this incredible film directly to her fans through the magic of moviegoing. To see it resonate with fans and with film critics on a weekend that many in the industry typically neglect is a testament to her immense talent, not just as a performer, but as a producer and director. We are so grateful for her vision to bring her Renaissance masterpiece to the big screen.”
How much of a bounce Renaissance gets from the churchgoing crowd today remains to be seen. That is usually the halo effect with Tyler Perry movies. Many are figuring a Sunday that’s off 35% from yesterday’s $6M, for around $4M. Renaissance‘s start is in the $20M+ opening threshold of other big concert movies, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never ($29.5M in 2011) and Michael Jackson’s This Is It ($23.2M 3-day in 2009).
Demos for Renaissance were 72% female; broken down that’s 51% women over 25 (100% grade), 21% women under 25 (96% grade), men over 25 at 19% (96% grade) and men under 25 at 8% (90%). EntTelligence says that Renaissance “skewed older a bit, as evidenced by the daypart traffic” when compared to Eras Tour:
A breakdown of admissions on Saturday:
Beyonce Taylor Swift
Pre 1PM 12% 19%
1PM to 5PM 33% 33%
5PM to 8PM 34% 36%
8PM + 21% 12%
Also boosting this weekend is the third go-round of Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, with $14.5M, a very good -50% hold, and running total of $121.2M, as well as Toho International’s $11M start for its subtitled Japanese movie, Godzilla Minus One. For the latter, that’s the largest opening for a foreign film this year, overtaking Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, which opened to $10.1M back in March.
The marketing for Renaissance, similar to The Eras Tour, was limited and confined to a handful of trailer drops and a social media push. Per RelishMix before opening, the Renaissance campaign clocked 480.3M followers from Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok (The Eras Tour, because of Swift, counted a social media universe of 604.9M). Comparatively, Beyoncé is 101M under the overall social media universe of Taylor Swift at 522M.
“The Beyoncé movie runs more like brand campaigns that have incremental promotional elements, wrapped into the overall Beyoncé brand channels, and will roll forward way beyond the premiere date. Beyoncé’s fans engagement are trickling into her behind-the-scenes spots, ad partner spots, her Tiffany and Adidas cross promotions, as well as her other music promotional elements. So, more like a television series, which runs for seasons, the Beyoncé movie, as well as Taylor Swift push, are three-dimensional and ongoing,” remarks RelishMix.
Over a third of those who saw Renaissance said it was their friends/family who influenced them to see the film, while 22% said it was the online trailer, and 46% mentioned social media. The first trailer for Renaissance was dropped on Oct. 1, soon after the news broke about the movie. The singer also made a recorded appearance on the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, with another trailer dropped featuring Beyoncé’s daughter Rumi, who appears in the film during a dance sequence.
TV campaign ad spend figures didn’t register on ISpot for Renaissance. But the ad stat org noted that the campaign clocked 15M household TV ad impressions, with Tubular Labs data showing trailers with over 4M views across social media sites (YouTube/Facebook/TikTok) since October. This didn’t include videos published from fans at Renaissance World Tour stops.
Updated, PLF and Imax rep 49% of ticket sales, with the latter grossing $4.6M stateside, or 21% of the weekend B.O. for Renaissance. With an Imax global weekend of $5.1M, that’s the second- biggest worldwide opening for the large format exhibitor for a musical act (concert or documentary) film.
While AMC had the monster share of The Eras Tour‘s box office, many moviegoers thinking that was the only circuit they could see the movie, this time, for Renaissance, the No. 1 movie chain accounted for 51% of the pic’s marketshare (besting the 52-week norm average of 23.6%), followed by Regal at 12.3% and Cinemark at 11.6%. AMC counted 41 of the top 50 theaters. Regal popped into the top 5 with its Atlanta Station multiplex ranking third behind No. 1 AMC Lincoln Square and No. 2 AMC Empire, and ahead of No. 4 AMC Grove 14 and No. 5 AMC Madison Yards in Atlanta.
Top markets for Beyoncé in Friday-Saturday grosses were NYC ($1.9M), LA ($1.4M), Atlanta ($1M), DC ($960K), Chicago ($753K), Houston ($743K), Philly ($671K), Dallas ($649K), San Francisco ($493K), and Baltimore ($478K). Overall, best regions of play were East, South, and South Central.
Another interesting stat about Renaissance was that moviegoers came in groups: 25% brought a friend, while 23% attended with two to four friends, per PostTrak. Infrequent moviegoers actually came out to see the movie, with 35% saying they attend the cinema a few times a year, and 29% every other month.
Posttrak exits also found that 55% of those who watched Renaissance want to see it again in theaters, while 26% plan to buy the concert pic digitally, and 24% on DVD.
Godzilla Minus One‘s targeted campaign included the first trailer drop in July, which was a localized version of the Japanese official teaser and poster, which yielded over 3.5 million video views. A longer trailer, and a localized one for English markets, dropped in September, with 15M+ views across social platforms and YouTube. A second trailer was dropped on Nov. 3, with tickets going on sale for “Godzilla Day,” which marked the 69th anniversary of the first pic’s release. The Toho International marketing team partnered with the NY-based Japan Society to create a fan-first event hosting a screening of the original 1954 Godzilla film in 35 MM over NY Comic Con weekend, and showcasing the new domestic trailer that was soon to be released.
1.) Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce (AMC) 2,539 theaters, Fri $11.7M Sat $6M Sun $4.3M 3-day $22M/Wk 1
2.) Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (LG) 3,691 (-85) theaters Fri $4.1M (-63%) Sat $6.1M Sun $4.2M 3-day $14.5M (-50%) /Total $121.2M /Wk 3
3.) Godzilla Minus One (Toho) 2,308 theaters, Fri $4.7M Sat $3.7M Sun $2.58M 3-day $11M/Wk 1
4.) Trolls Band Together 3,613 (-280) theaters Fri $1.68M (-77%) Sat $3.5M Sun $2.3M 3-day $7.6M (-57%) Total $74.8M/Wk 3
5.) Wish (Dis) 3,900 theaters, Fri $1.63M (-80%) Sat $3.4M Sun $2.2M 3 day $7.4M (-62%), Total $41.9M/Wk 2
6.) Napoleon (App/Sony) 3,500 heaters, Fri $2.1M (-75%) Sat $3.1M Sun $1.88 3-day $7.1M (-65%), Total $45.7M/Wk 2
7.) Animal (Cine) 697 Theaters, Fri $2.8M Sat $2M Sun $1.3M 3-day $6.07M/Wk 1
8.) The Shift (Angel) 2,450 theaters, Fri $1.7M Sat $1.4M Sun $1.1M 3-day $4.35M/Wk 1
9.) Silent Night (LG) 1,870 theaters, Fri $1M, Sat $1.1M Sun $810K 3-day $3M/Wk 1
10.) Thanksgiving (Sony) 2,506 (-698) theaters, Fri $780K Sat $1.2M Sun $640K 3-day $2.63M (-63%)Total $28.3M/Wk 3
Other:
Saltburn (AMZ/MGM) 1,566 theaters Fri $504K Sat $645K Sun $419K 3-day $1.56M (-16%), Total $6.2M /Wk 3
Amazon MGM had 550 theaters that were up in gross from their previous Saturday. The pic’s top 500 theaters are accounting for 80% of the Emerald Fennell movie’s gross with the top 700 driving 90% of the weekend. Best markets are NYC, LA, Chicago, San Fran, Toronto, DC, Boston and Seattle.
Dream Scenario (A24) 1,578 (+1454 theaters) Fri $591,7K Sat $627K Sun $470K 3-day $1.68M (+163%) Total $3.47M/Wk 4