Grosses haven’t changed seismically from yesterday in what is hopefully the last less-than-$70M weekend for a while. Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love is coming in at $13.5M, -53%, for a $71.1M total by EOD. But here’s the short and sweet takeaway from today: Exhibition (and studios) scream that they need product coming out of Covid, and even more so after the strikes turned the first half of the 2024 theatrical release calendar inside out. But there’s the deal: There were three wide releases this weekend — three.
Sony/Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Hashira Training did its job, bringing its fanbase out and opening to $11.6M. Great for TV episodes on the big screen, and higher than Demon Slayer‘s $10.1M start last August.
But two other movies –a very highly reviewed faith-based Kingdom Story movie (let’s face it, they’re like the A24 for the faith-based), Ordinary Angels, and a prolific star-studded Focus Features, Ethan Coen-directed movie, Drive-Away Dolls, (which was getting pushed to theater owners as early as last CinemaCon) were respectively meh ($6.5M opening for a $12M-$13M movie) and ‘Christ, really?’ ($2.4M start off a $20M negative pick-up cost; shockingly lower than the $3.69M of Focus’ fresh face genre pic Lisa Frankenstein).
Ordinary Angels‘ not over-performing off its great diagnostics is perplexing, and Drive-Away Dolls failure apparently gets pinned on the fact that it’s a bad movie (C CinemaScore, 66% positive on ComScore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak).
But here’s the long-winded point, and this relates to both Ordinary Angels and Drive-Away Dolls: In this post- pandemic environment, studios are cutting their marketing expenses, not really aiming for any type of robust theatrical number, so that they can get these movies into the downstream home entertainment windows where they break-even or perhaps make a little money. If no muscle is provided in sending a message to audiences that these titles should be seen in a theater, and a studio just automatically expects people to show up, then what hope is there for counterprogramming on the big screen?
It’s clear on these smaller films, theatrical is just merely being used as a form of advertising to tell people to watch these movies at home. Hey?! Why am I picking on these two little guys? Because a big deal was made back in the fall to protect these movies and move them away from a strike environment where actors couldn’t promote (Ordinary Angels says it moved because of Taylor Swift). Now, both titles open and they’re putting up box office that’s akin to opening in a strike-laden marketplace. Which begs the question of how much oomph was put behind them.
There’s something else going on with Ordinary Angels. Why did Jesus Revolution rally to a $15M opening, and not this? It had Jesus in the title. Quite often, what makes a faith-based film catapult to another stratosphere is its faithful-per-minute moment. Ordinary Angels doesn’t have that 100%, and that’s what is keeping the churchgoers at bay, despite the fact that this drama was screened a lot.
In the case of Drive-Away Dolls, Focus cut a fun trailer. And they chose a good date with a vacancy on the calendar. But apparently, both weren’t good enough to spur traffic to this Margaret Qualley, Beanie Feldstein, Geraldine Viswanathan, Pedro Pascal and Matt Damon romp. As far as the movie not doing more business, a major studio isn’t going to throw good money after bad and strain to rein in an audience on a title that has these types of audience scores (although critics were OK with the movie at 65% fresh).
Any studio executive who is preaching about a diverse film slate and more non-tentpole films to bring moviegoers back — it’s not happening unless you financially support these movies and make them niche draws.
We’ll have the chart soon in what will be a crazy Indie Spirit Awards and PGA Awards fun-filled day in the City of Angels.
Speaking of supporting counterprogramming — raise a glass to Sony for getting the comeback romcom Anyone But You over the $200M global mark. The $25M production is going to make more profit than the Culver City’s lot beaten-down Madame Web.
1.) Bob Marley: One Love (Par) 3,597 (+58) theaters, Fri $3.7M Sat $6M Sun $3.78M 3-day $13.5M (-53%) Total $71.1M/Wk 2
2.) Demon Slayer…(Sony) 1,949 theaters Fri $5.5M Sat $3.5M Sun $2.5M 3-day $11.6M/Wk 1
3.) Ordinary Angels (LG) 3,020 theaters Fri $2.33M Sat $2.32M Sun $1.85M 3-day $6.5M/Wk 1
4.) Madame Web (Sony) 4,013 theaters, Fri $1.6M Sat $2.6M Sun $1.7M 3-day $6M (-61%) Total $35.4M/Wk 2
5.) Migration (Ill/Uni) 2,434 (-21) Fri $660K Sat $1.36M Sun $980K 3-day $3M (-22%) Total $120.4M/ Wk 10
6.) Argylle (App/Uni) 3,060 (-587) theaters, Fri $740K Sat $1.27M Sun $790K 3-day $2.8M (-43%) Total $41.6M/ Wk 4
7.) Wonka (WB) 2,203 (-144) theaters, Fri $605K Sat $1.17M Sun $760K 3-day $2.53M (-28%) Total $214.5M/Wk 11
8.) Drive-Away Dolls (Foc) 2,280 theaters Fri $1M Sat $840K Sun $550K 3-day $2.4M/Wk 1
9.) The Beekeeper (AMZ MGM) 2,157 (-400) theaters, Fri $504K Sat $911K Sun $547K 3-day $1.96M (-39%) Total $63.1M/Wk 7
10.) Chosen Season 4, Eps 4-6 (Fath) 2,090 (-138) theaters Fri $518K Sat $747K Sun $530K 3-day $1.79M (-50%), Total $7.8M /Wk 2