As a seasoned film critic who has been following the industry for decades, I must say that this past weekend at the box office was a bit of a letdown. I remember the days when a Labor Day weekend release could truly kick off award season with a bang, but alas, it seems those days are long gone.
Over the weekend, it was generally anticipated that Optimus Prime and his team would dominate the box office without a doubt. However, it was the spooky specter who emerged victorious in the third round of domestic box-office contests. On the other hand, Transformers One turned out to be one of the most intriguing financial flops of 2024. But let’s discuss Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the unexpected champion of the weekend. Due to Transformers One appealing more to adults than anticipated and not experiencing a typical Saturday surge (as is common for animated children’s movies), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had no issues claiming the market. This film featuring Winona Ryder brought in an additional $26 million, marking a 49% decrease from its previous release. With 17 days on the big screen, this movie now boasts a total domestic revenue of $226.8 million. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the second-biggest September release in history, trailing only the first It title. The good news continues to pile up for Tim Burton’s latest dark creation, which is expected to surpass $275 million by the end of its run.
Due to the ongoing success of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Warner Bros. managed to exceed $1 billion domestically this year, marking only the second time since movie theaters closed in March 2020 due to COVID that this studio has reached a ten-digit figure in North America. From 2008, when Warner Bros. started boosting its annual releases by incorporating New Line Cinema’s projects, until 2018, the studio consistently earned between $1.56 billion and $2.13 billion domestically each year. However, it still has some ground to cover to reach its pre-COVID levels. It’s worth noting that Disney and all other studios except for Universal and A24 are also striving to achieve the same goal. We’ll have to wait and see if a more regular release schedule in 2025 helps Warner Bros. regain its former domestic box office success from 2008 to 2018.
The movie “Transformers One” didn’t perform as well as expected during its initial release this weekend, earning $25 million. This is lower than the projected range of $30-35 million. Compared to other animated movies released nationwide, this opening is average but still underperformed compared to more recent releases like “Encanto” and older ones like “The Emoji Movie.” The film’s debut was even weaker than some earlier animations such as “TMNT” from 2007, “Gnomeo & Juliet” from 2011, and “Open Season” from 2006.
As a dedicated animation enthusiast, I must confess that the grand debut of “Transformers One” paled in comparison to the impressive opening weekends of the first two “Hotel Transylvania” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” sequels, which raked in over $30 million each. Interestingly enough, its opening was more akin to the $20-$23 million openings that several animated films have experienced in late September from 2016 to 2019. For instance, “Transformers One” was only $2 million higher than “Smallfoot’s” debut and just 18% ahead of “Storks'” opening weekend. At least it managed to open $4.6 million more than “The Lego Ninjago Movie” in late September 2017. Sony Pictures Animation has proven that animated family movies can indeed find success in late September. Regrettably, studios like Warner Bros. and the distributor of “Transformers One,” Paramount Pictures, have yet to replicate this achievement consistently.
In a disappointing turn of events, Transformers One managed to secure the second-lowest domestic box office debut for any 21st-century Transformers film, beating only Bumblebee’s $21.6 million opening. However, it’s worth noting that Travis Knight’s feature was released just before Christmas, which typically guarantees a long run at the box office. On the other hand, Transformers One may struggle to replicate this success given its excellent word-of-mouth, as The Wild Robot is set to hit theaters next week. During the final weeks of the year, it’s not unusual for multiple family movies to do well simultaneously. However, it’s much more challenging for a film like Transformers One to achieve this or recover from a lackluster debut in late September.
Prequels, as Max Max: Fury Road might tell you, can be quite challenging to pull off successfully. The first Transformers film received exceptional reviews among Transformers movies, but the concept of explaining how Optimus Prime and Megatron became enemies didn’t resonate with general audiences. People don’t care about their backstory; they want to see them battling iconic Earth landmarks instead. Unfortunately, the Transformers franchise has been on a downward spiral financially for quite some time, and even an animated prequel wasn’t enough to change its course. Given that the first Transformers movie made most of its domestic earnings from early screenings ($3.3 million), it might only gross around $70 million domestically. I’m truly sorry, Chris Hemsworth, but your star power may not be as strong in this film.
Over the weekend, I found myself excitedly watching as Speak No Evil hit the big screen on Friday the 13th – a date notorious for horror movie releases. As the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th demonstrated, this date can sometimes lead to a box office crash the following weekend due to viewers flocking to your film on that ominous opening day. Fortunately for its investors, Speak No Evil didn’t suffer such a steep drop-off; instead, it brought in an impressive $5.9 million during its second week, representing a 48% decline from its opening weekend.
Over the course of one weekend, a couple of horror movies were simultaneously debuted by Hollywood studios. The first among them was “Never Let Go,” produced by Lionsgate with a budget of $20 million, which managed to earn just $4.5 million upon release. Unfortunately, this opening weekend was one of Halle Berry’s weakest, lagging behind the debut of “Kidnap” from August 2017 by 55% and earning less than half of what “Moonfall” made during its North American premiere. With so many horror films currently available, it is challenging to captivate audiences without a truly exceptional offering. It seems the marketing campaign for “Never Let Go” never succeeded in overcoming this challenge.
Over the weekend, Deadpool and Wolverine relaxed a bit but still managed to earn another $3.9 million, raising their domestic total to an astounding $627.4 million. After nine weekends, this dynamic duo continues to attract big audiences. Marvel Studios should take note: these late July/early August timeframes are proving to be gold mines. Instead of filling the second week of July with Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp, consider releasing them later in the summer. This will give each film a longer run through September.
Over the weekend, another fresh horror movie that debuted was “The Substance,” earning $3.1 million. Mubi had hoped for a stronger opening for this film, considering they released it in 1,700 cinemas, including one starring Demi Moore. Additionally, the movie generated positive buzz for months following its premiere at Cannes. However, films in the body horror genre have historically shown unpredictable box office performance (even “Society” from 1989 doesn’t seem to have reported box office figures!). Therefore, the fact that “The Substance” was screened in over 1,700 multiplexes can be considered a success in itself. Interestingly, the film received a B grade from CinemaScore, which is quite an achievement given its decidedly offbeat third act.
Reagan brought in an extra 33%, earning an additional $1.9 million, bringing the total domestic earnings to $26.7 million. This week, the music documentary “Jung Kook: I Am Still” debuted in 720 theaters and made $1.42 million over the weekend and $2.5 million since its Thursday release. Lastly, “Alien: Romulus,” directed by Fede Alvarez, fell by 44% to earn $1.32 million this week, accumulating a domestic total of $103.6 million.
Once again, “The Forge” saw a drop of 39%, bringing its weekend earnings to $1.25 million and its total domestic gross to $26.3 million. Following closely was another Sony holdover, the hit movie “It Ends With Us“, which earned $1 million this weekend, boosting its overall total to an impressive $146.8 million. Interestingly, both “It Ends With Us” and a newcomer titled “Killer’s Game” reported similar earnings of approximately $1 million for the weekend. However, despite Dave Bautista’s star power, “Killer’s Game” suffered a 63% drop from its opening weekend, and with only $4.8 million in domestic gross, it’s clear that the film has not been successful.
Did you know this fascinating tidbit? Before its recent release over the weekend, the film “Whiplash” had never been screened widely across North America. Its maximum theater count back in 2014 and 2015 was only 567 screens, just shy of the mark for wide release. That’s mind-blowing, isn’t it? A movie that gave us catchphrases like “not quite my tempo” which we still use today, didn’t have a nationwide cinema run, but movies like “The Pyramid”, “The Identical”, and “Persecuted” from 2014 did. The world can be unpredictable indeed! This weekend, Damien Chazelle’s career-defining film, “Whiplash”, graced over 600 screens (to be precise, 695) to commemorate the movie’s 10th anniversary. It earned an additional $578,000 with a per theater average of $832. That’s almost 5% of “Whiplash”‘s original $13 million domestic total. It even surpassed the domestic earnings of several new Sony Classics releases this year. Let’s consider it a decent performer. Mark your calendars for the 10th-anniversary screenings of Chazelle’s “Babylon” in 2032, I have such affection for that movie and I believe it deserves more acclaim.
The film titled “My Old Self” saw a strong debut in 33 theaters over the weekend, earning $281,842 and averaging $8,541 per theater. In its first ten days, this movie has grossed a total of $512,301. Here’s hoping that it performs well when it expands to wide release this Friday.
2024’s first significant film release following Labor Day weekend kicked off over the weekend, with the movie “A Different Man” starring Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson. It opened at four cinemas, earning a modest $56,126 overall and an average of $14,032 per theater. This opening weekend performance places it behind “Eno,” “La Chimera,” and “Tokyo Cowboy” among other 2024 limited releases, despite being produced by A24 and featuring the popular actor Sebastian Stan. With a packed schedule of upcoming releases this year, “A Different Man” might gradually become less noticeable in the coming weeks.
This weekend, in limited release, we have “In The Summers” earning $10,950 across two cinemas, making an average of $5,475 per theater. Meanwhile, “Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field” garnered $10,254 from a single cinema. Notably, figures for “Super / Man: The Christopher Reeve Story“, screened on Saturday, September 21 by Fathom Events, have yet to be reported.
This weekend, the highest-grossing ten films earned a total of $76 million, which is lower than expected due to poor performance by “Transformers One.” Compared to the same weekend in 2019 when “Downton Abbey” dominated the box office, there was a decrease of about 31%. However, this year’s earnings are comparable to those from September 2018 when “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” was popular. Despite the release of a new Transformers movie, this weekend’s earnings were barely above those from the September 21-23, 2012 weekend, when “End of Watch” led the box office with $13.1 million in sales.
In my previous discussion, I mentioned that the monotony in the marketplace is causing a struggle. Apart from “Transformers One,” everything else seems to be horror-themed, leaving no room for up-and-coming arthouse films or romantic comedies (to name a couple of genres) to thrive. Despite this, September isn’t entirely lacking promise, as the impressive debut of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” at the start of September 2024 hinted at a potentially extraordinary box office month. As it stands, with approximately $460 million in earnings so far, September 2024 is unlikely to surpass $600 million domestically. It’s more probable that the month will close with slightly over $550 million, making it one of the lesser-performing Septembers compared to others.
After the phenomenal success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the pace has significantly decelerated due to a narrow range of new offerings in September 2024. Deadpool & Wolverine’s impressive earnings towards the end of July 2024 were succeeded by August hits like It Ends With Us and Alien: Romulus. However, the Tim Burton film has been maintaining momentum throughout September. A single hit can’t carry the marketplace alone, so we’ll see if seven new wide releases (including My Old Ass expanding to over 600 locations) next weekend can elevate September 2024 on a more positive note.
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2024-09-23 17:15