On Tuesday, the box office sensation notched another major milestone when passing up Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to become the biggest Warner Bros. movie ever in North America, not adjusted for inflation.
Barbie’s Tuesday box was $6.1 million, for a domestic total of $537.4 million. In 2008, The Dark Knight topped out at $536 million.
Inspired by Mattel’s famous doll, Barbie jumped the $1.2 billion mark at the worldwide box office on Tuesday, where it is the second-biggest Warners’ release in history behind the final Harry Potter film, which grossed $1.34 billion globally, not adjusted for inflation. ..
Epically bad numbers for the horror flick LAST VOYAGE OF DEMETER but Barbenheimer continues it’s odd summer rampage on the box office.
While did the movie do so bad? Some have opinions.. we think people are bored with vampires, the marketing was bad, and this is not the magic week of summer for horror. Closer to September always works better..
But from Deadline, they say this:
Unfortunately, the tanking of Amblin/Universal’s $45M-costing The Last Voyage of the Demeter stands out like a wart, since we haven’t had many misfires this summer. Granted, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘s profitability might be in question next to their exorbitant Covid costs. But these pics have put up tentpole grosses in the nine digits, and have been mass draws (just not as massive as they were hoped to be). Note the filmmakers aimed to keep this period horror pic as cheap as they could: Exteriors were shot in Malta, while interior were shot in Germany, both those countries respectively having tax credits of 50% and 30%.
— Read on deadline.com/2023/08/box-office-barbie-last-voyage-of-the-demeter-1235460243/
This is the biggest animated opening of all time globally, ahead of Frozen 2 and clearly best for this year so far as well as Illumination’s top debut ever passing Minions and Despicable Me 3 in like-for-like opening markets and Despicable Me 2, the previous biggest reported global weekend at $208M..
An animated movie also blowing away real life actors in Marvel movies..
This news developing tonight.. “Avatar 2” has come up short. Disney was hoping for a blow out with upwards of $175 million this weekend. The total is more like $130 million, which is certainly a big number but not the one to crow about.
It is starting to look like a Blue Christmas for a movie that everyone waited for for 13 years and cost at least $300 million and maybe as much as a billion with a B..
And consider it: With previews you will be at a theater for 4 hours or so. Is that worth it for a movie on the weekend before Christmas while Shopping and Dropping still has to take place?
Why am I not surprised by the negative reaction to “The Whale”? When I saw the film at the Hamptons Film Festival, I thought it was emotionally manipulative and over hyped. Since then, a lot of audiences didn’t like its take on the morbidly obese.
This second weekend of release saw a roughly 50% drop from the debut week. This weighty movie is not going to get off the ground. Brendan Fraser is fine, but his 600 pound fat suit is turning people off. The incredible nostalgia for Fraser, who was never a great actor, is not going to carry this thing over any threshold. Fraser is lucky: this is a light year for Best Actor nominees. He will get the semi-final nod because of it, but he won’t win.
Fraser’s 90s nostalgia seems similar, by the way, to the sentimental clamor for Ke Huy Quan in “Everything Everywhere.” It’s nice to see the “Indiana Jones” kid back, but this is a martial arts sci fi movie that becomes repetitive very quickly. Again, a nom for Best Supporting Actor, but Judd Hirsch and Brendan Gleeson are the real candidates for the top honor.
Meanwhile back to AVATAR… they have a long way to go to a billion.
Visually stunning, they call it.. ..unwatchable say others.. Just not enough time say the rest!
And deservedly so.. The film was spectacular–though perhaps a little on the run time scale than we’d like, but that is Marvel for you! With a run time of almost 3 solid hours, WAKANDA did at times feel like it was FOREVER.
The movie gave a beautiful theatrical sendoff to Chadwick Boseman through the film, the emotions seemed to go beyond the fiction of the movie and seemed to showcase true emotions of the cast..
And finally, the action sequences in Black Panther seemed original and inspired. Really, really good.
Now on to the box office!
It is expected that by the time the holiday weekend ends, WAKANDA will have earned over $18-185 million in the United States. Globally, the film is expected to exceed $300 million.
From reports, it did not do as well in Asia Pacific markets–perhaps playing into that is China refusing to allow its release in that country.
The $185 prediction knocks 2013’s HUNGER GAMES off the board in biggest November releases.
Audience exits still amazing for Wakanda Forever, with 93% on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak and an 85% definite recommend, with kids under 12 giving it a near 100% and 72% recommend. Guy-leaning at 52%, 45% between 18-34, with 37% over 35. Very diverse film at 44% Black-leading, 21% Hispanic and Latino, 20% Caucasian, and 15% Asian/other.
As much as some fans seem to hate HALLOWEEN ENDS, it has made money..
As per The Numbers, with the money it earned on Thursday, November 3, the final entry in director David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy has earned $100.1 million at the global box office.
That includes $62 million domestically and $38 million from overseas ticket sales. Historically, this series has always done better on the domestic side of things.
Regardless, against a reported $20 million budget, that makes this a winner for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse.
Landing the top offshore debut for the studios was Paramount’s Smile with $14.5M from 58 markets, and $36.5M globally. The horror audience grinned in all areas with good word of mouth for the Parker Finn-directed movie that was also tops domestically.
Reinforcing that audiences want to go back to the cinema for something fresh, on a like-for-like basis, the offshore start on Smile is 18% above Truth or Dare, 55% ahead of Hereditary and on par with The Black Phone. Smile, whose first footage intrigued exhibition at CineEurope earlier this year, was led by the UK with $2M from 520 locations at No. 2. France was also a No. 2 debut with $1.4M from 303 sites. In horror-leaning Mexico, the movie scored a No. 1 start of $1.1M from 855 locations. Rounding out the Top 5 were Germany ($1M from 316) and Australia ($800K from 206)
We saw the movie this weekend as well. Amazing cinematic effects–the upside down camera angles.. the dreadful music.. the dark hallways that did NOT have something jump out, and the scenes where something did..
It was all effective.
However there were some less than great things. It felt like a horror movie that turned into a thriller and then back into a horror again, with a twist ending that went right back to the ending that no one seemed to want..
We ended up liking the thriller angle of the film more than the horror. But boy. those jump scares. We thought someone walking down the aisle to go to the bathroom in the theater was going to fall backwards–they chose the scene that featured the jumpiest of the jump scares to walk down the dark steps..
The marketing for the movie was brilliant, with smiling people gracing baseball games and public locations for the past two weeks. Nice move!
But what few are talking about with this is the ‘smile’ concept. It is based on a short horror film.. but it also seems to borrow a lot of the concept of IT FOLLOWS. In that movie, what followed was a sexually transmitted disease and bad reputation. In this film, it is mental illness. We cloud it and hide it with a smile.
I am not sure if the film makers went for a deeper meaning than what we got, but it sure felt like something much more meaningful was hiding under the surface.
Homophobia is the excuse for the film doing poorly..
More from the DEADLINE article:
“Even with glowing reviews, great Rotten Tomatoes scores, an A CinemaScore, etc, straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn’t show up for Bros. And that’s disappointing but it is what it is,” he continued.
The comedian stands by the movie and encouraged “everyone who ISN’T a homophobic weirdo” to go watch Bros.
Just as the box office experiences its lowest profit weekend of the entire summer, this news is being reported to inspire your business:
For one day, movie tickets will be just $3 in the vast majority of American theaters as part of a newly launched “National Cinema Day” to lure moviegoers during a quiet spell at the box office.
The Cinema Foundation is a non-profit arm of the National Association of Theater Owners.. They are involved with this announcement.
The date: September 3.
It will be a nationwide discount day in more than 3,000 theaters and on more than 30,000 screens.
Major chains, including AMC and Regal Cinemas, are participating, as are all major film studios.
In participating theaters, tickets will be no more than $3 for every showing, in every format.
Despite having a few blockbusters weekends this summer, and record breaking movies, the last few years have been pretty awful. COVID can be blamed with theater shut downs.
Now that the COVID nightmare has quelled, the streaming platforms seem to have captured the dull imagination of movie-goers.. We have lost our zeal for a air conditioned and amazing popcorn filled frenzy of new movies.
This group seems to hope to make that return again.
Good luck.
It seems unlikely that we will have the beauty of the experience we once did.
And frankly, during a recession or even depression, spending money sure ain’t available to millions of people. Choosing between necessity and entertainment, we obviously know where the fundage will nbe thrown, right?
That perhaps is what makes this dicey.
Theaters have grown dark–but without movies being played.
At some point it breaks.
We lament when it will, and until then enjoy the moments we get to bask in the pale light of a projector screen inside a building or outside in a drive-in.
Three dollar day may help. A bit. It just won’t be the silver bullet to end all fears for future theaters..
A part of us feel that it may show low confidence in the film doing very in theaters.
Some have revealed that experiences at test screenings were met with mixed results. Perhaps the movie makers are hedging their bets and creating a back up plan JUST IN CASE word of mouth ruins the film’s prospects opening weekend..
Then again.. it’s Halloween. Even the worst of the films have a decent opening weekend…
Time will tell. Soon too. Believe it or not in just weeks now (where’s time going?!)
RESULTS ARE IN: Benedict Cumberbatch as DOCTOR STRANGE has made an estimated $185 million domestically for its opening this weekend, according to Disney..
That is on the higher end of expectations..It had the been predicted that it would make around $170 million to $185 million in North America. It also makes “Multiverse of Madness” the 11th biggest opening in domestic box office history.
The film’s more than doubled the opening weekend of the original “Doctor Strange.” ..
The summer box office season appears to have started with a bang.. call it the post COVID boom?
Other films are slated to be big hits in the summer months.
Marvel will premiere another potential hit in July:
“Thor: Love and Thunder,” the next film in the blockbuster franchise starring Chris Hemsworth in the mid summer..
INTERESTINGLY, the newest STRANGER did not get the grand ratings that SPIDER-MAN did.. Right now on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics score is hovering in the mid 70% range and fan rating did not have the movie above 90%..
The horror version of Doctor Strange?
Some felt the Sam Raimi style made the film more of a horror than action–but that played well among several demos..
But… perhaps who cares when showcased aside of the box office results..
