SATURDAY AM: Refresh for chart and more analysis After two weekends of overperforming, the September box office steps on the brakes, down -49% from last weekend to $76.9M. Sony/Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Universal/Monkeypaw’s Him are in a dead heat with $15M-$16M apiece— it’s still too early to call which one is No. 1.
Infinity Castle is playing exactly like an anime movie, completely front-loaded, with a second weekend drop around -78%, but as we told you, the highest grossing anime movie at the domestic box office is expected to cross $100M today.
Him won Friday with $6.47M and a C- CinemaScore, with Rotten Tomatoes ratings at 28% Critics, 58% audience score. Universal is calling the Jordan Peele produced movie at $15M in second currently, with an anticipated drop on Sunday due to NFL games of -37% for the football horror movie.
Here’s the sad news of the weekend, and everyone saw this coming: Sony’s play for female moviegoers with the Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell star-studded romance drama, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, is finding no road at the box office with $3.5M for the $50M studio acquisition in 6th place. The Sony release is getting beaten by an animated movie and a horror film with a fresh face actor and 1990s comedian (Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans). Many sound the bell for original movies, which this project was, a title off The Black List, penned by Seth Reiss and directed by rising auteur Kogonada. However, what this shows is that star power alone attached to non-IP fare, can’t pull in moviegoers when its weighted down by poor critical reviews (this movie panned at 38% with great complaints over its pace), and not-so-hot audience scores with a 44% definite recommend and 2 1/2 stars on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak as well as a B- CinemaScore. Oy.
By comparison, the specialty adult summer play, A24’s Materialists, with Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, looks like a blockbuster with an $11.3M domestic opening (and now $100M+ global gross for the net $20M movie). But that had better views at 79% certified fresh. Interestingly enough, Materialists and Big Bold Journey have the same audience exits of B- and mid 60% RT popcorn score.
Despite having a social media reach according to RelishMix at 266 million across TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube, which is 57% ahead of other romance movies (but 21% behind the Sony-Wayfarer title It Ends With Us which hit over 377 million on social), there’s a bad stink on Big Bold Beautiful Journey with the analytics corp noticing mixed-to-negative comments.
Reports RelishMix, “Some viewers smell sentimentality and algorithmic gloss. Skeptics tag the vibe as trailer-deep with lines like ‘This feels like a trailer for a fake movie’ and point to tonal saccharine with ‘Touchy feely picture… emotional diabetes.’ Comparisons skew cautionary with Black Mirror and even AI commercial jokes, plus a few drive-by age and body takes dragging the cast. Receipts land with ‘What Black Mirror episode is this?’ and ‘Looks like a AI generated commercial.’”
Him is 51%/49% men-to-women with a low definite recommend of 41%, but it’s horror, which gives it more mojo than Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Diversity demos are 36% Black, 34% Caucasian, 20% Latino and Hispanic and 6% Asian American. Men over 25 rep 33% of ticket buyers with women over 25 at 31%, men under 25 at 19% and women under 25 at 17% for the R-rated title. PLFs, which are split with Demon Slayer, are driving 37% of the weekend. An even play throughout the country for Him with notable touchdowns in the West, South Central, South and East after a slew of spots since August on football. Best gross in the nation so far comes from AMC Universal’s Citywalk Hollywood (CA) with close to $32K.
Big Bold Beautiful Journey saw 59% women with 44% women over 25 (who gave the movie its best grades at 71% on PostTrak). It looks like some guys got pulled into this movie as +1s with the second most-attending demo being men over 25 at 32%. This is further underscored by the stats that close to 40% came with a spouse/partner/boyfriend or girlfriend. Diversity demos are 58% Caucasian, 25% Latino and Hispanic, 8% Asian American and 5% Black. A handful of PLFs which only represent 12% of the weekend, I understand with West, Midwest and Mountain regions being where the bulk of the business is. AMC Grove is the top grossing venue so far this weekend with just under $12K.
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FRIDAY AM: Universal and Monkeypaw’s football horror movie Him did $2 million from previews that began at 2 p.m. Thursday. That number is just above Lionsgate’s preview take on Stephen King’s The Long Walk ($1.3M) a week ago, and Blumhouse’s Speak No Evil ($1.3M) a year ago. Him, which stars Marlon Wayans, Julia Fox and Tyriq Withers, is expected to open in the mid-teen millions this weekend; The Long Walk opened to $11.7M, while Speak No Evil did $11.4M in its first frame.
Critics aren’t sticking around in the stands for Him at 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, and last night’s audience wasn’t impressed at 59%. Yikes. We’ll see where this goes. Him was made for a net $27M.
Sony/Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is expected to stand tall in its second weekend with a take between $14M-$21M. The movie will share Imax screens with Him but hold onto PLFs. Pic’s first week ends at $87.4M after a $2.6M Thursday, down 26%. It’s already the highest-grossing anime movie of all time at the domestic box office, having surpassed 1999’s Pokemon from Warner Bros ($85.7M). Next, Demon Slayer will conquer securing $100M stateside, again a first for anime movie in the U.S. and Canada.
Columbia Pictures’ Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie romance A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, is not huge in its previews with $400,000 from Thursday early shows that began at 4 p.m. at 2737 locations. Critics had no patience for this one at 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. No audience score. Sony sees the opening at $10M, others see it much lower.
Top five for the week:
1.) Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (Sony) 3,315 theaters, Thur $2.6M (-29% from Wed), Week $87.4M/Wk 1
2.) Conjuring: Last Rites (NL) 3,802 theaters, Thurs $1.56M (-8%), Week $33.2M (-68%), Total $138.2M/Wk 2
3.) Downton Abbey: Grand Finale (Foc) 3,694 theaters, Thurs $1.38M (-16%), Week $25.3M/Wk 1
4.) Long Walk (LG) 2,845 theaters, Thurs $890K (-17%), Week $16.4M, Wk 1
5.) Toy Story 30th anniversary reissue (Dis) 2,375 theaters, Thurs $174K (-33%), Wk $4.4M, Lifetime cume $227.6M/Wk 1
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