As a lifelong movie enthusiast who has seen the ebb and flow of the film industry, I must say this weekend’s box office performance left me more bewildered than a lost extra in a Tarantino flick. The dismal showing of Formpenter, or as I like to call it, “The Movie that Dared to Court Both MMA Fans and Christians but Ended Up with a Black Eye,” is a stark reminder that even the most ambitious cross-demographic strategies can’t guarantee box office success.
This weekend saw a scarcity of significant new films from major studios, except for the Sony/TriStar release “Here”. Contrastingly, in 2012 and 2016, Hollywood confidently released significant new movies during weekends preceding and following the general election. However, this year, the major studios chose to delay the launch of their new titles until mid-November. As a result, the early November marketplace was bereft of the blockbusters that typically rule this time of year. Nevertheless, with no major new movies captivating audiences or occupying screens, most holdovers experienced substantial drops.
It’s likely that many people are seeking a break from the troubling political climate we find ourselves in. Perhaps Hollywood missed an opportunity by not releasing a light-hearted or carefree film this week, something that could provide a temporary escape for audiences.
As a gamer, it’s clear that the impressive grip on the box office by Venom: The Last Dance was evident from the start, claiming the crown for the biggest movie of the weekend. After a slightly disappointing debut last week, Venom: The Last Dance managed to drop only 49% this weekend, raking in an impressive $26.1 million. This is not just a slight improvement over Venom’s 56% second-weekend decline and Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s 64% drop, but it’s also significantly better than the 65+% drops most 2022 and 2023 superhero movies have experienced. In fact, Venom: The Last Dance even had a better second-weekend hold than most other Marvel Studios titles. Only five Marvel Cinematic Universe features had domestic second weekend holds beneath 50%, and now The Last Dance has joined this exclusive club of films that performed better than expected in the superhero genre.
The unexpectedly strong performance of this film (which is quite remarkable considering the buzz around “The Last Dance”) doesn’t guarantee that the latest Venom movie will approach the $200 million+ domestic earnings of its predecessors. However, with minimal direct competition in the next two weekends, it has already earned $90.04 million domestically, and there’s a possibility it could reach $140 million in North America. This would be a decent return for a film with a budget of around $120 million, particularly given the impressive international earnings of “The Last Dance”.
Remarkably, “The Wild Robot” regained the second position at the domestic box office this week. What’s more, it saw an astounding 11% growth from the previous weekend – a rare occurrence for a movie in its sixth week of release! Over the past few days, it added another $7.55 million to its total, bringing its grand tally to $121.47 million. As a theatrical release, “The Wild Robot” has been generating strong word of mouth, propelling it to new box office peaks in a market lacking fresh family movies. Predictions suggest it will end its run with a domestic gross of around $140-145 million.
The Halloween festivities have wrapped up, but the sequel “Smile 2” has continued to perform well in its third weekend. It earned another $6.8 million, dropping only 29% this week. After 17 days, it’s amassed a strong total of $52.6 million. By the end, it is expected to reach approximately $70 million domestically. Interestingly, Warner Bros. allegedly declined to release “Juror No. 2” in theaters due to the belief that adult-focused dramas are no longer profitable on the big screen. This news has left the producers of “Conclave” chuckling, saying, “Now is when we laugh!
Over its second weekend in theaters, the film Conclave maintained a powerful grip on audiences, dropping a modest 20% and earning an additional $5.3 million. Removing its initial Thursday night grosses of $500,000 from the opening weekend total, this drop becomes even more impressive at 14%. This strong performance can be attributed to enthusiastic audience reactions for this Edward Berger-directed film. Interestingly, Conclave only added 43 theaters this weekend, indicating that word of mouth is spreading rapidly for this movie. Currently, it has grossed $15.2 million and has a strong potential to surpass $30 million domestically with its current total at $15.5 million after just ten days.
The genre of adult dramas isn’t extinct in the world of theater; it merely requires creating something that strikes a chord with the audience. The downfall of such productions is often rooted in issues specific to those movies themselves, rather than the audience abandoning non-blockbusters. To illustrate this point, let’s discuss the recent box office disappointment: reuniting the team behind Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, director Robert Zemeckis, and screenwriter Eric Roth) for Here resulted in a financially unsuccessful film. Debuting with only $5 million this weekend, it’s one of the poorest openings ever for a wide-release Tom Hanks movie, barely surpassing the earnings of 1984’s Bachelor PartyVolunteers, The Money Pit, and SplashThe Circle
The highly critical responses towards the film “Here” essentially guaranteed its disappointing performance at the box office (an adult drama with awards potential couldn’t overcome such negative hype). Selling a movie featuring a stationary camera, questionable digital de-aging effects, and lesser-known source material was never going to be an easy task. Unfortunately, the fact that “Forrest Gump” came out 30 years ago and attempting to revive the cast from that era has lost its appeal for viewers didn’t help either. Relying heavily on reminding people of “Forrest Gump” and showcasing the de-aging technology as a key selling point didn’t provide compelling reasons for audiences to watch “Here“. The question remains, what made this film unique or stand out? The promotional campaign failed to address that aspect effectively, causing viewers to choose other films like “Conclave” and “We Live in Time” instead. It wasn’t the lack of superheroes that caused “Here” to flop; rather, it was the specific aspects related to this Robert Zemeckis production that led to its underperformance.
Discussing that heartfelt drama, “We Live in Time,” has sustained an impressive streak at home during this week, maintaining a 28% hold and earning another $3.47 million. This marks its third wide release weekend, bringing its domestic total to $17.6 million. With this momentum, it’s looking likely that “Time” will be the first limited release of 2024 to surpass the $20 million mark domestically, much like the sequel “Smile 2.
In its expansion to 253 cinemas, the film Anora continued to dazzle, earning $1.89 million (a 109% increase from the previous weekend), equating to a $7,500 average per theater. Although it doesn’t match Parasite’s third weekend per theater average ($14,158), which Anora plays in twice as many theaters at this stage, its overall third weekend performance is slightly ahead of Parasite’s third frame. The fact that Anora is mirroring Parasite’s individual weekend grosses offers a very optimistic outlook for this emerging blockbuster. To date, it has amassed $3.946 million domestically without even reaching wide release yet. It currently ranks as the 18th highest-grossing Neon movie domestically and is just 2% shy of Parasite’s domestic earnings at the same point. We will now observe how it performs during its wide-release expansion…
In its debut weekend, Liam Neeson’s new movie, titled Absolution, earned $1.42 million, distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Pictures. It’s interesting to note that Neeson’s domestic openings have been decreasing significantly in recent years. However, as recently as February 2019, he managed to bring Cold Pursuit to a $11.03 million start. In contrast, three out of his last four wide-release films have opened below $2 million domestically. At least, Absolution performed 40% better than Samuel Goldwyn’s earlier release, In the Land of Saints and Sinners, which came out in March. There’s a possibility that it might become one of only 14 Samuel Goldwyn Films releases to reach $3 million domestically. Meanwhile, the animated family movie, Hitpig, starring Jason Sudeikis, opened in 2,000 theaters this weekend via Viva Pictures. Unfortunately, it was a flop, earning only $1.1 million and an average of $535 per theater. This is Viva’s second title ever to surpass $1 million domestically, which isn’t a promising sign for the distributor.
1,365 theaters welcomed back Godzilla Minus One this weekend to mark Godzilla’s 70th anniversary. The film earned another $510,000, resulting in an impressive $374 per theater average and a staggering $56.92 million total domestic revenue. Horror flicks continued their strong performance over the weekend despite Halloween already passing. This pattern was also seen in The Substance, which made $476,273 this week. Dropping only 24% in its seventh weekend, The Substance has now amassed a total of $15.44 million. Interestingly, The Substance has surpassed the domestic earnings of many 2024 releases, including MaXXXine, and is expected to outperform Borderlands and Immaculate this week. Unfortunately, another wide release failed to impress this weekend, with Lost on a Mountain in Maine earning a dismal $380,000 from 630 locations, averaging $603 per theater. This disappointing opening suggests that it will soon become Blue Fox Entertainment’s second-highest domestic-grossing film.
A Wonder Story” in 952 theaters this week, but the response was disappointing as it only made $300,000, averaging $315 per theater. In total, this film has earned a dismal $4.6 million domestically.
Warner Bros. is facing criticism for their handling of Clint Eastwood’s film “Juror #2,” as they have released it in only 35 theaters and have not disclosed its box office earnings. However, unofficial reports estimate that the movie made around $260-275,000 this weekend at these locations. If we consider the higher end of that range, this would mean an average of approximately $7,800 per theater. This solid per-theater average and a reported 12% increase in earnings from Friday to Saturday indicate that the film is performing well in the limited number of cinemas it’s being shown in.
In limited release, the newest indie film directed by Jesse Eisenberg, titled “A Real Pain,” had impressive box office numbers. Debuting in only four cinemas, it grossed $240,000 in total. Each theater averaged a weekend opening of $60,000, making it the third-highest per-theater average for 2024. We’ll see if its success continues like “Anora” or if it falters during wide release similar to “Saturday Night.
In an unexpected move this weekend, the film titled “The Carpenter” opened in 500 theaters. This inspirational drama about Jesus Christ forming a bond with an MMA fighter attracted both MMA enthusiasts and Christians. However, despite being present in such a large number of theaters, its box office performance was disappointing, earning only $140,000. This translated to a poor per-theater average of just $290, which is quite a financial blow for the movie.
Despite receiving some of the top reviews this year, “Memoir of a Snail” is beginning to slow down in its domestic box office performance. In its second weekend of North American screenings, the film expanded to 24 cinemas and earned $70,250, resulting in an underwhelming average of $2,927 per theater. To date, it has made a total of $145,091. Meanwhile, Steve McQueen’s latest movie, “Blitz,” didn’t report any earnings this weekend. Currently playing in only a few theaters, “Blitz” is set to be released on Apple’s streaming service before Thanksgiving. Some sources suggest that “Blitz” earned $60,000 from three theaters, yielding a strong average of $20,000 per theater. In the era of conglomerates, it seems the old cinema experience is struggling a bit, but hey, progress moves fast!
Originally showing in just one location, Dahomey expanded to nine different venues but managed only $13,230 in total earnings – marking a 49% drop from its initial weekend. Furthermore, the film averaged a meager $1,470 per theater during this period. After ten days on the big screen, the latest work by Mati Diop has garnered a modest total of $52,524. In contrast, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat opened in a single theater this week and earned $9,076.
Over the weekend, the highest-grossing ten films earned a total of only $62 million. Surprisingly, even with strong holdovers from October 2024, this is an unusually low income for the beginning of November. Normally, the first week of November sees blockbusters like Thor: Ragnarok, Bohemian Rhapsody, Doctor Strange, or Wreck-It Ralph grace our screens. Sometimes, even multiple big earners debut in this month, such as in 2015 when both The Peanuts Movie and Spectre premiered, each opening to over $45 million domestically. In 2010, Due Date and Megamind also both raked in more than $30 million during the first weekend of November.
In 2016, movies like “Doctor Strange,” “Trolls,” and “Hacksaw Ridge” graced our cinemas on the eve of Election Day, but fast forward to 2024, Hollywood seemed to have taken a break during that same period. It left an empty movie landscape, but on the bright side, it allowed films such as “The Wild Robot,” “Conclave,” “Anora,” and even “Venom: The Last Dance” to enjoy extended runs. This clearly shows there’s a strong appetite for theater releases and a diverse selection of them. Yet again, it seems that studios and streaming platforms are withholding potential blockbusters like “Blitz” and “Juror #2,” which could significantly boost the movie market if released. (As a movie enthusiast)
As a gamer, I’ve had a rough start to this month, and it doesn’t seem like things are going to pick up anytime soon. The next two weeks look pretty quiet, with no signs of excitement (I apologize Red One, but your trailers just aren’t doing it for me, they don’t give me much confidence in you becoming a blockbuster). However, there’s a chance things could get interesting around Thanksgiving 2024. If this weekend is any indication, some movies from October 2024 might stick around long enough to celebrate that late November holiday with us.
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2024-11-04 16:15