Mostly everything is up Sunday morning with the overall marketplace now coming in at around $146 million. Not only is that the best result for the final weekend of April since the end of Covid, but it’s also the fourth best overall after Avengers weekends 2019 ($402M) and 2018 ($313.9M) and 2011, when Universal’s Fast Five drove the Friday-Sunday period to $158M.
The industry is jumping up and down. We caught up with AMC CEO Adam Aron last night at the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award for Francis Ford Coppola and he’s over the moon about how turnstiles are clicking, seeing April upticks in overall revenues and concessions. There’s a sense out there that the box office is finally on a roll.
The trick is, major studios, not having us lapse back into famine. When Marvel Studios/Disney’s Thunderbolts* hit NRG tracking three weeks ago, it was forecasted at $70M. Word is that the movie is much better than Captain America: Brave New World. Given the momentum for moviegoing right now, it only makes sense that projections on the MCU bad boys and girls superhero movie is significantly higher. That pic opens Friday.
Warner Bros execs are so wowed, they’re stopping by Los Angeles multiplexes throughout the weekend to observe the phenomenon that is Sinners with its jam-packed auditoriums full of bewitched moviegoers. The Ryan Coogler-directed, Michael B. Jordan-starring movie now counts a massive $45M second weekend, off 6%, a magnificent hold for a R-rated horror movie up there with Heart Eyes (+19%) and Get Out (-15%). As we told you in the previous update, this is due to the broadening audience for the movie beyond its horror and male demos. Imax screens contributed $10.25M in weekend 2, repping close to 23% of the pic’s second frame and taking its Imax U.S./Canada cume to $25.3M (21% of Sinners‘ domestic B.O. so far).
Warners/Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie is also higher with a fourth hearty weekend of $22.7M (-44%) in fourth place (a result that’s on par with the fourth weekend of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — just to give you some perspective on the continuing power of the big-screen take of the Mojang game).
Disney’s 20th re-release of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith has Force-pulled into second place with $25.2M, putting a slight choke hold on Amazon MGM Studios’ The Accountant 2 with $24.4M in third. Again, nobody saw this coming in regard to Accountant 2 penciling out third place, but competition — it’s a good thing. Accountant 2‘s weekend debut is $300,000 lighter than the 2016 original, but robust enough for a sequel to a crime thriller that’s also higher than Jason Statham movies of late. Revenge of the Sith counts a lifetime cume of $405.2M.
Sony Screen Gems’ David F. Sandberg-directed Until Dawn horror movie is coming in at $8M. That’s largely in the range of most myriad horror films this year (high single digits to low double) outside of Sinners and Neon’s The Monkey ($14M).
4DX, which is one type of PLF, is reporting a noteworthy take for Revenge of the Sith with $775K and a per-screen of $15K, becoming the highest-grossing catalog rerelease in the format’s history. The movie has the second-best opening for a Star Wars movie in 4DX since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($969K).
In regard to bolstering Accountant 2, Amazon MGM Studios made it known in early March with the global SXSW premiere of the sequel that a marquee movie was coming audiences’ way; the entire cast participated in an aggressive full-court press over the last month-and-a-half.
Accountant 2 won the Headliner Audience Award at the Austin festival. There was a global screening plan with over 125 word-of-mouth events, targeting diverse and youthful audiences including colleges, sports communities, accounting groups, multicultural segments, influencers, and military servicemen. Highlights include a New York tastemaker hosted by Complex and screenings for sports teams and commentators including the Detroit Pistons and Broncos, Celtic’s coach Joe Mazzulla, Drew Brees, ESPN’s Louis Riddick and Tony Hawk. The sequel was pushed on the Amazon ecosystem –the studio’s superpower– driving awareness and ticket sales with premium placements on Amazon.com, Prime Video, and Fire TV. Amazon’s owned and operated channels featured dynamic creative, included pre-roll ads, and a custom Amazon.com placement featuring a video clip linking customers to purchase tickets for the movie. The studio also offered fans a catch-up opportunity to see the original movie on Prime Video with a direct ticketing widget on the title’s detail page.
Paid media targeted males and multicultural audiences, while maintaining a broad reach to women. Amazon MGM engaged key psychographic targets including Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal fans, The Accountant viewers, and action-thriller enthusiasts. On television, they maximized visibility with spots on premium sports across NBA, MLB, NCAA March Madness, NHL, NASCAR, soccer, WWE and UFC, alongside primetime, early morning, late-night, cable, and Spanish-language programming. The digital campaign focused on key social and streaming platforms, audio/podcasts along with ticketing takeovers. There was also a high-impact and -frequency outdoor campaign in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago and additional outer markets. Some highlights include a Tax Day blitz including a TikTok TopView, Hulu Splash Ad, and TV/social/streaming blitz April 14-15 with custom Tax Day-themed creative while driving moviegoers to early Tax Day screenings of the sequel. There were custom spots on ESPN featuring Mookie Betts and on Bravo with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Erika Jayne humorously promoting the movie.
The outdoor campaign “Call the Wolff” spoofed popular insurance and legal ads that have an easy call prompt. Those who did dial Affleck’s Christian Wolff received film updates on Accountant 2.
Airstream campers make a cameo in the movie (Wolff lives in one). Hence, there was a nationwide partnership with Airstream with various stunts including social media, blog posts, a sweepstakes, popcorn buckets and email newsletters.
Social media reach for Accountant 2 stood at 92M across TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X and Instagram per RelishMix before opening. That was higher than The Accountant’s 82.6M with a further boost from Bernthal’s 3.8M fans, Daniella Pineda’s 177K followers and Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s 104K followers.
Studio reported Sunday figures:
1.) Sinners (WB) 3,347 (+39) theaters Fri $13M (-32%) Sat $18.8M Sun $13.2M 3-day $45M (-6%), Total $122.5M/Wk 2
3.) Revenge of the Sith (Dis) 2,775 theaters Fri $11.3M Sat $8M Sun $5.9M 3-day $25.2M/Wk 1 (re)
3.) The Accountant 2 (AMZ) 3,610 theaters, Fri $9.4M Sat $9.1M Sun $5.9M 3-day $24.4M/Wk 1
4.) A Minecraft Movie (WB/Leg) 3,841 (-191) theaters Fri $5.2M Sat $10.6M Sun $6.9M, 3-day $22.7M (-44%), Total $379.9M/Wk 4
5.) Until Dawn (Sony) 3,055 theaters, Fri $3.2M Sat $2.9M Sun $1.9M 3-day $8M/Wk 1
6.) King of Kings (Angel) 3,175 (-360) theaters, Fri $1.1M (-83%) Sat $1.8M Sun $1M 3-day $4M (-75%)/ Total $54.5M/Wk 3
7.) The Amateur (20th) 3,060 (-340) theaters, Fri $1M (-56%) Sat $1.7M Sun $1.1M 3-day $3.8M (-46%), Total $33.8M/Wk 3
8.) Warfare (A24) 1905 (-765) theaters, Fri $730K (-54%) Sat $1M Sun $836K 3-day $2.65M (-45%)/Total $21.8M/Wk 3
9.) Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXI (Trafalgar) 678 theaters, Fri $1.34M Sun $1.3M 3-day $2.62M/Wk 1
10.) The Legend of Ochi (A24) 1,153 (+1,149) theaters Fri $630K (+2900%) Sat $464K Sun $348K 3-day $1.44M (+2669%), Total $1.5M/Wk 2