Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love is going to be so high this weekend with a $51M 6-day that the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed movie is going to post a 3-day of $27.7M. That’s higher than Paramount’s own Rocketman ($25.7M), which happened during the pre-pandemic summer days of May-June 2019.
Bob Marley isn’t that far from the $31.2M opening of Warner Bros.’ 2022 Elvis. Essentially, Bob Marley: One Love did its job and opened exactly where pop legend musical biopics should. 4-day on Bob Marley is $33.2M. For box office trivia purposes: the multi-Oscar winning Bohemian Rhapsody posted a 3-day opening of $51M.
The global running total for Bob Marley: One Love stands at $80M.
Big shoutout here to the post-production team on Bob Marley: One Love, who hustled to get this movie ready for a Valentine’s Day launch. Originally, the movie was dated to go wide over MLK weekend. But the actors’ strike prevented that. Valentine’s Day wound up being the ideal release date.
Says Paramount Domestic Distribution Chief Chris Aronson, “The date became the kindling to start the fire over the long holiday weekend.”
“The movie’s title of One Love represented a message of love, hope, and peace and unity that’s Bob’s music, which is emblematic of Valentine’s Day,” Aronson added.
In addition, at the core of the movie is Marley’s relationship with his wife, Rita.
Filmmaker Ziggy Marley, who produced the movie, said, “My family and I are honored with the amazing response to Bob Marley: One Love. Like my father’s music, this movie is meant for the people, and his message of peace, love, and unity is clearly connecting with audiences around the world. We thank the people for embracing this film, and in so doing, helping to highlight the message of one love.”
Also, as of this minute, Sony/Marvel’s Madame Web is coming in at the higher end of its pre-weekend estimates with a near $26M ($25.8M) — now, that’s nothing to celebrate, as everyone knows this movie tanked, critically, fan-wise, and to a certain degree, financially. With $51.5M worldwide in Madame Web‘s start, I understand the loss won’t be traumatic, given Sony’s rich international TV output deals and its Netflix deal).
But still, everyone knows this wasn’t a win. It has nothing to do with fanboys turning their backs on female superhero movies, nor is it due to the fact that it’s too deep universe. Rather, at the end of the day, Madame Web is just simply a bad movie with a 54% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, C+ CinemaScore, and a 1 1/2 stars on PostTrak. Imax screens are currently delivering $3.1M. Imax and PLFs combined are responsible for 35% of the Dakota Johnson-Sydney Sweeney movie. Best markets for Madame Web are South, Central, and West, with the AMC Burbank leading the pack thus far with $32K through Saturday.
Bob Marley: One Love and Madame Web‘s better-than-expected forecast now stems from the former’s robust Saturday of $11.7M and the latter’s $6.4M yesterday. Bob Marley‘s Saturday was bigger than Elvis’ ($9.9M) and Rocketman‘s ($9.2M).
All of this underscores that moviegoers are starving for movies. The overperformance of Bob Marley: One Love and Madame Web‘s consistency provides hope that Legendary/Warner Bros’ Dune: Part Two will overindex beyond its conservative $65M estimate (the movie does have a very good chance of hitting $80M when it opens on March 1).
Box office firm EntTelligence reports that Bob Marley: One Love pulled in 3.8M patrons, while Madame Web drew 1.8M. Even though the 35-44 demo is the most dominant for Bob Marley: One Love at 22%, the movie is clearly playing across generations, with 18-24 (21%), 25-34 (17%) and the 45-54 (16%) and over 55 at 14%. Bob Marley: One Love is also a big multicultural pull with 37% Caucasian, 31% Black, 25% Latino and Hispanic, and 3% other currently attending.
PLFs are still driving 20% of the gross with the East, South, and West high on Bob Marley: One Love. The AMC Southlake Pavilion in Atlanta is the highest-grossing cinema so far with $45K.
Social media analytics firm RelishMix noticed the love for Bob Marley ahead of its opening, as the biopic counted 187.5M followers across Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, which was higher than comps Elvis (183.6M SMU) and Rocketman (113.5M SMU).
“The footage released was emotionally moving to fans, who are heading to the theater saying ‘It’s a long time coming for a Bob Marley biopic,’” said RelishMix. On Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak, 48% said the main reason why they went to see the movie was due to subject matter, versus 13% who cited actor in a lead role.
Point is these mega jukebox musical biopics about legendary singers can still break under-the-radar talent in the lead role (Kingsley Ben-Adir with the lead part here) and lead at the box office. They’re not contingent on a star, read Rami Malick when he played Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, Austin Butler in Elvis, and Taron Egerton as Elton John in Rocketman.
Overall 4-day weekend, thanks to a good Saturday, rises to $93M. However, the holiday frame is still 44% off from a year ago.
Fathom Event’s The Chosen Season 4, Ep. 4-6 is seeing $4.2M over its last 4-days of release. The episodes are playing best in the middle of the country, with the Cinemark 12 in American Fork UT the best venue in the nation.
1.) Bob Marley: One Love (Par) 3,539 theaters, Fri $7.5M Sat $11.68M Sun $8.55M 3-day $27.7M 4-day $33.2M Total $51M/Wk 1
2.) Madame Web (Sony) 4,013 theaters, Fri $4.3M Sat $6.4M Sun $4.475M 3-day $15.1M 4-day $17.6M, Total $25.8M/Wk 1
3.) Argylle (App/Uni) 3,647 (+42) theaters, Fri $1.1M (-42%) Sat $2.1M Sun $1.47M 3-day $4.7M (-24%) 4-day $5.55M Total $37.2M/ Wk 3
4.) Migration (Ill/Uni) 2,455 (-229) Fri $770K (+15%) Sat $1.66M Sun $1.32M 3-day $3.75M (+28%), 4-day $5M Total $116M/ Wk 9
5.) Chosen Season 4, Eps 4-6 (Fath) 2,240 Fri $1M Sat $1.4M Sun $997K 3-day $3.44M 4-day $4.1M , Total $4.8M /Wk 1
6.) Wonka (WB) 2,347 (-417) theaters, Fri $760K (-2%) Sat $1.5M Sun $1.13M 3-day $3.4M (+11%) 4-day $4.4M, Total $210.8M/Wk 10
7.) The Beekeeper (AMZ MGM) 2,557 (-500) theaters, Fri $713K (-26%) Sat $1.45M Sun $1M 3-day $3.25M (-4%) 4-day $3.9M Total $60.5M/Wk 6
8.) Anyone But You (Sony) 2,020 (-785) Fri $650K (-30%) Sat $1M Sun $410K 3-day $2.06M (-22%) 4-day $2.825M,Total $85.1M/Wk 9
9.) Lisa Frankenstein (Foc) 3,143 (-1) theaters, Fri $550K (-68%) Sat $870K Sun $610 3-day $2.03M (-45%), 4-day $2.37M Total $8M/Wk 2
10.) Land of Bad (Var) 1,330 theaters, Fri $680K Sat $645K Sun $475K 3-day $1.8M 4-day $2.05M /Wk 1