The Box Office Thread

A few days late, but whatever.

1. The Little Things - $4,700,000
2. The Croods: A New Age - $1,817,770 ($43,924,835)
3. Wonder Woman 1984 - $1,300,000 ($39,200,000)
4. The Marksman - $1,251,590 ($7,830,057)
5. Monster Hunter - $735,228 ($11,138,035)

Wonder Woman 1984 reached $40M domestically this weekend. To put that into perspective, Tenet made $57.9M in its total NA run and that didn’t have HBO Max. Are we still calling Tenet a “relative success” and WW84 a failure? Doomsday & SnoBorderZero, what’s the chatter in Tinseltown?

Pretty sure Wonder Woman 1984 is skewing those numbers.

Is this a period piece taking place in 2002? The fuck are those guys wearing? And why does a Detective Chinatown movie have a poster of them in Tokyo?

Guess I'll have to hop on the hype train to find out!

Actually that trailer answered all of my questions.

1godzillafan PG Cooper PhantomKnight

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-croods-2-shoots-to-no-1-in-12th-outing-beats-judas-and-the-black-messiah



Thank you to Doomsday, his wife and his two kids for helping the Croods accomplish what Tenet couldn’t. Cheers.

SnoBorderZero, Detective Chinatown 3 has been dethroned.

SnoBorderZero 1godzillafan

deadline.com/2021/02/tom-jerry-weekend-box-office-opening-pandemic-1234702484/

Warner Bros’ ‘Tom & Jerry’ Serving Up $12.5M Opening, Second-Best Opening During Pandemic

Warner Bros. day and date theatrical release of Tom & Jerry in theaters and on HBO Max had what would be considered a very solid day during the pandemic, with $4M on Friday and an expected $12.5M over three days at 2,475 theaters, according to Warner Bros. That’s a number that beats the 3-day of Universal/Dreamworks Animation’s Croods: New Age, which took in $9.7M over the 3-day weekend Thanksgiving weekend.

To date, Tom & Jerry is the second-best debut for a movie released during the pandemic, post August after Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman 1984, which did $16.4M. Tom & Jerry was directed by Tim Story and produced by Chris DeFaria.

Warners posted these numbers on Tom & Jerry in a current exhibition landscape where roughly 50% of all theaters are still closed, as well as No. 2 chain Regal, with New York City set to open this coming Friday. Moviegoing is only going to get better: Los Angeles is expected to reopen within the next month as well, and then we only have to wait on capacity restrictions easing.

Also, we heard Tom & Jerry didn’t do too shabby in China.

deadline.com/2021/03/raya-and-the-last-dragon-opening-weekend-box-office-new-york-city-disney-1234708406/

‘Raya And The Last Dragon’ Debuting To $8M As Pic Hits Disney+ & NYC Reopens: Why The Industry Is Greatly Concerned

Let’s start with Disney’s theatrical day and date Disney+ release of animated pic Raya and the Last Dragon which looks to be leading the weekend with a studio-reported $2.5M Friday and an industry weekend estimate of $8.3M at 2,045 theaters.

These numbers are slightly less than the $3M Friday and $9M-$10M we were hearing about, and they’re definitely less than the $14.1M that Warner Bros’ same day HBO Max release of Tom & Jerry posted last weekend. Raya‘s opening weekend is also less than Croods: A New Age‘s 3-day opening over its Thanksgiving stretch, which posted $9.7M. And that’s definitely because Disney did not reach a deal with No. 3 chain Cinemark, as we first told you (thus, losing around 250 bookings), Harkins, and Canada’s Cineplex. Even with New York City open, Raya isn’t the type of movie that would rally in the city like, say, a Marvel movie would.

Even though these numbers on Raya aren’t as robust (for the pandemic) as we saw yesterday, the release is striking plenty of fear for rival distributors and for exhibition. That’s particularly after Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s recent remarks Monday at a virtual investment conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in which he said things like, “The consumer is probably more impatient than they’ve ever been before,” and that given how the pandemic has brought a number of movies into the home, he’s not sure “there’s going back” to the way business was done prior. Even though Chapek said, “We certainly don’t want to do anything like cut the legs off a theatrical exhibition run,” many are concerned all of this is code for Disney moving forward with their theatrical day and date Disney+ model, and that Black Widow may emulate the same distribution path as Raya on May 7.

Keep in mind that even if Los Angeles is reopened by then and auditorium capacity restrictions ease, Disney still needs the rest of the world to move ahead with Black Widow and make the $1 billion grossing film that everyone wants to see, that is, for the title to remain a pure theatrical release.

What’s scaring many about Raya is that Disney gets to keep 100% of whatever they’re making from the $30 Disney+ PVOD purchase of Raya. Disney doesn’t have to split that PVOD revenue with any exhibitor. It was explained to me that Raya‘s $30 price point on Disney+ is roughly equivalent to the rental that Disney would get from five or six movie tickets. Wow. While I’ve heard Warner Bros. has been a partner with exhibition, and has made a deal on terms for their same day HBO Max titles. Disney hasn’t budged.

I’m told that Disney’s terms for Raya were a two-week minimum play with a scale that starts at a 50% rental if the film grosses ultimately between $0 and $37.5M, and then 51% if the domestic gross finals between $37.5M and $50M. While those terms aren’t stiff in a regular marketplace, we’re still in a pandemic, and people aren’t flocking to the movies in great numbers. Plus, movie theaters have to compete with the whole Disney+ PVOD of it all. How fair is that for exhibition?

Let’s see what happens with Black Widow, and if Disney emulates a Raya theatrical-Disney+ distribution pattern for that title. I would like to give Chapek the benefit of the doubt. Back at December’s Disney Investor Day, he clearly emphasized that a robust Disney+ slate wouldn’t be possible without the power of the big screen and the franchises it has created. He’s also the guy who crushed the theatrical-DVD window, starting with Alice in Wonderland back in 2010; and the studio still walked away with a $1.025 billion global gross on that movie.

Disney didn’t burn down the house to keep warm back then, and I still don’t think they will now. Currently, the studio says that Black Widow is still going theatrical on May 7, and exhibition hasn’t heard otherwise. They’re just very suspicious, since there weren’t any trailers for the Marvel movie on Raya this past weekend, only those for Disney’s May 28 theatrical release Cruella.

From a sheer box office optics point of view, one can argue that Disney left money on the table with Raya by boxing out Cinemark and Canada’s Cineplex. Why would you do that with a film like Raya, that has an A CinemaScore, is 95% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and fantastic PostTrak audience exits of 93%, with an 80% recommend from the general crowd?

Only Disney knows the answer to that question. When it comes to the potential non-reporting of Disney+ Raya PVOD figures, no news is good news. For anything greater would throw the motion picture distribution model off its axis.

I’m surprised you expected anything else from Godzilla.

$20M opening confirmed.

Doomsday lost an hour of sleep, but that’s not the worst thing about today. Jim Cameron’s 2009 epic Avatar (soon to be featured in a PG Cooper video essay) was re-released in China this weekend and grossed $20M. That’s enough to help it reclaim the title of highest grossing film of all-time with $2.8B worldwide.

But it’s not all bad news. The Croods: A New Age, released back in Thanksgiving 2020, has crawled its way to $54.3M domestically. That’s only $3.7M away from surpassing Chris Nolan’s Tenet. Dracula will host a CS! party once that milestone has been reached. Don’t forget to bring cake.

Raya and the Last Dragon is #1 again this weekend with $5.5M. Domestic total is now $15.8M. Tom & Jerry is closely behind with $4.1M. Its total is now $28.2M. Poor reviews hasn’t stopped 1godzillafan from watching the movie over and over again.

Tickets for Godzilla vs Kong are now on sale. It opens Wednesday, March 31st. Remember to get vaccinated and we’ll see ya at the movies.