The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes pulls a surprise Thanksgiving win, while Napoleon successfully invades mulitplexes. Meanwhile, Disney's Wish is that they get a do-over on November.
(Still catching up)
Thanksgiving is a time for food and a time for football. Indeed, every fourth Thursday in November can be described as a day for hunger and a day for games. That makes it appropriate that The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was the surprise winner of the weekend, staying at #1 while fending off two heavily hyped rivals.
The prequel to the widely popular franchise that starred Jennifer Lawrence brought in $29 million over the Friday-Sunday portion of the long weekend, for a ten-day total of $98.6 million. While this will certainly be the lowest-grossing Hunger Games entry by far (the four previous movies all grossed over $100 million on their opening weekends), the fact that it's continuing to perform well despite having none of the original stars bodes well for a leggy run through December. It should become the 21st film of the year to pass the $100 million mark well before next weekend.
One thing that 2023 might be remembered for is name-brand directors spending vast amounts of money on historical epics. Christopher Nolen spent $100 million on Oppenheimer, an investment that paid off very handsomely for Universal. Martin Scorsese spent $200 million on Killers of the Flower Moon, which is not likely to pay off for Paramount or Apple, except in Oscar nominations. In between is Napoleon, which Ridley Scott spent $130 million of Sony's and Apple's money to make (though reports say the actual budget could be closer to $200 million). And the results are--mixed. The historical drama, which comes in at a relatively short 2 hours and 38 minutes (nearly an hour shorter than Flower Moon) got considerably more mixed reviews than Oppenheimer or Moon got, which will likely limit its award season chances. It opened to a decent $20.6 million, which is less than Moon's opening weekend, but it has made $32.8 million since its Wednesday opening and seems likely to ultimately beat Moon's final gross. Still, neither film is likely to get a gross anywhere near its budget, and will be Apple TV+'s very expensive calling cards after people finish binging Ted Lasso and The Morning Show.
Still, you'd rather be Apple than Disney right now. Mickey and company have had a dreadful 100th anniversary year, with Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 and the legs on Elemental being about the only bright spots. Still, I don't think anyone was expecting a November this utterly disastrous. First, The Marvels will be the first megaflop of the MCU, and now Wish, their highly anticipated 100th anniversary commemorative feature, has fizzled right out of the gate. It limped to a meager $19.7 million Friday-Sunday and $31.6 million since its opening on Wednesday. By comparison, Trolls Band Together opened to $31.2 just last weekend, and it didn't get half the hype Wish did. In another comparison, Encanto took in $40.6 million over the Thanksgiving 5-day two years ago, and it couldn't get to $100 million domestic. And Wish doesn't seem likely to have a "We Don't Talk About Bruno" to fuel a surge of popularity in the film come January.
Speaking of Trolls, it grossed $17.8 million, or a bit less than $2 million than Wish did, for a ten-day gross of $64.8 million. One of the two animated films probably should have come out at some point during the long stretch in which Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie was the only game in town, instead of opening on top of each other. Trolls has a better shot than Wish does of hitting $100 million, but it's also possible that the two films could end up dragging each other down so both miss the century mark.
Slasher films are notorious for second weekend plunges. That's why the surprisingly slender 31% drop of Thanksgiving over Thanksgiving is such a surprise. Eli Roth's gruesome horror-comedy took in $7.1 million for a ten-day total of $24 million. With both Grindhouse and Machete stalling out at under $30 million, this looks like it will be by far the highest-grossing film in that franchise. Now that the holiday is past, I'd expect this one to nose-dive, but it is looking like it will end up profitable. How long until Edgar Wright announces a full-length Don't?
At least in its third weekend, The Marvels managed to stem the bleeding, as it took in $6.3 million. The superhero flick has now grossed $76.8 million. By comparison, there are only 6 MCU entries that had opening weekends under $75 million, and three of those were over a decade ago.
In 7th, The Holdovers actually had a slight rise from last weekend, coming in at $2.8 million for a gross of $12.9 million. Assuming that it is able to retain screens and not be thrown onto streaming quickly, this could make it to the $20-$25 million range.
Taylor Swift, who probably has $20-$25 million in her couch cushions, brought home another $2.3 million for The Eras Tour. The concert spectacular has now grossed $178.2 million.
After a limited release last weekend, Saltburn, Emerald Fennell's decidedly weird kinda comedy about a poor kid (Barry Keoghan) having an adventurous summer at his rich best friend's (Jacob Elordi) palatial estate, brought in $1.9 million from moviegoers, who may or may not have been aware of what they were getting themselves into. The film, which will probably not do as well at the Oscars as Fennell's previous, Promising Young Woman, has a ten-day gross of $3.2 million. Getting to $10 million would be a major triumph for this one.
Rounding out the Top 10, Five Nights at Freddy's isn't going to come close to doubling its opening weekend gross, but this film was so cheap I'm still pretty sure Universal doesn't care. The horror film brought in $1.8 million for a total of $136.2 million. I still expect to see FNAF 2 released next October, most likely on the 25th.
Outside the top ten, flop soccer comedy Next Goal Wins took in $1.6 million for a ten-day total of $5.7 million.
After a series of high-profile flops on that date, the studios started avoiding the first weekend of December, usually dumping cheap horror, cheap comedies, or arty films no one much wants to see in that slot. That may be what attracted Beyonce to the date, as her concert film Renaissance attempts to copy Taylor Swift's success. However, unlike The Eras Tour, which arrived at theaters on a wave of hype, Renaissance is comparatively sneaking into theaters, meaning its opening could be considerably more muted than Taylor's was. The other films opening this weekend are more in line with the usual fare of this weekend. Godzilla Minus One is Japan's attempt to reclaim its most iconic movie franchise from the Americans who keep teaming him up with King Kong. This one had Godzilla attacking Tokyo in the wake of World War II. The Shift is a sci-fi thriller about parallel universes, though given that it is being distributed by Angel Studios, currently sitting on a pile of money thanks to Sound of Freedom, expect it to have something to do with God. Neal McDonough and Sean Astin are the most familiar cast members. Finally, Silent Night is a thriller about a guy (Joel Kinnaman) who plans to spend the holidays spreading death and destruction in revenge after his young son was accidently killed by gang members the year before. This one is notable for being John Woo's first English language movie in twenty years, since the largely forgotten Ben Affleck vehicle Paycheck. Will Beyonce strut to the top of the charts? Could Godzilla make himself Plus One? Or could the Songbirds and Snakes continue singing one more time? We'll find out next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment