Box Office Thread

There's no upper limit, but the biggest opening for a film was Avengers: Endgame. Domestically, it made $357 million and internationally it made $1.2 billion (the only film to ever gross over a billion dollars on an opening weekend).

It's relative to how many theaters are available for the film. Star Wars or Avengers will premiere in 3000+ theaters domestically (big multiplexes will have it on one or two specialty screens and at least another two standard screens), normal big releases are around 2000 and modest releases are 1200. Inflation plus average ticket prices means it's always in flux regarding good release numbers. A domestic opening release for a film that is 40-50% the stated budget is generally considered the minimum to be alright, not fantastic but an okay start.

Of course the success of a film depends of several things besides its qualities, and one of them is how well distributed it is.

Let´s see if Ghostbusters have some legs from the mouth to mouth, the biggest challenge is called Godzilla right now, but I think the critics were really mean to a well made film that was made to entertain and took fun even on what Mathias wrote some post above (did Walter Peck wrote that post?)...

This week's Charts with Dan looks into the debut of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which has officially pushed the 5-film franchise into a billion-dollar one. However, Dan looks into whether or not this means the latest entry is truly a hit, and its chances to break even. Furthermore, we follow up on Dune: Part Two, Kung Fu Panda 4, along with the debut of Immaculate with Sydney Sweeney.

• 0:24; 13:28: Weekend Top 10

• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire:
  • 1:34: Top 5, 3-Day Opening Domestic Weekends
  • 1:52: Ghostbusters Franchise Opening Domestic Weekends
  • 3:23: Dan notes that the franchise's box office pull, unlike similar blockbusters, tends to USA/Canada dominated. It's not as strong internationally (with China automatically ruled out due to cultural reasons), so it can't rely on being carried by that factor.
  • 4:34: As noted earlier in this thread, the film received a "B+" CinemaScore, on par with Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. The previous film and Ghostbusters II both had "A-" scores. Dan labels this as a potential roadblock on the film's legs, which he highlights in the following "Pros and Cons" chart.
  • 6:19: Top 5 Ghostbusters Domestic Grosses
    • Based on the inflation-adjusted chart, Frozen Empire has to be able to fight against the franchise's diminishing returns.
  • 7:31: Ultimately, Dan estimates a possibility for the film to break even theatrically, if it holds well. However, he ponders whether Sony's expectations are lenient enough to allow the rejuvenated franchise's theatrical pull to be "low" compared to other blockbusters, but consistent (allowing merchandise and digital sales to push it past profitability).

• Dune: Part Two
  • 8:37: Top 5 Timothée Chalamet Opening Domestic Weekends
  • 9:01: Dune: Part Two vs Oppenheimer - Total Domestic Gross
  • 9:20: Dune: Part Two vs Oppenheimer - Daily Grosses

• Immaculate
  • 10:37: With Anyone but You, Madame Web, and now this film, Sydney Sweeney has been having an interesting year. Furthermore, the distributor Nenon (best known for Parasite (2019) and I, Tonya) is getting press for
  • 11:12: Top 5 Neon Weekend Domestic Grosses (All Release Weeks Included)
  • 12:12: Top 10 Highest Grossing Neon Domestic Releases

• 15:22: Closing this Week: 'Anyone but You and Argylle
  • Per Dan's estimates, Anyone But You is more than profitable with a 47.8 million return in the theatrical window alone. He argues that this film could be a good sign that low and mid-budget (romance) films can still succeed in a post-lockdown environment.
  • 18:09: Top 5 2023 Theatrical Legs (Biggest Multiple of Wide Opening Domestic Weekend)

• 19:05: Road to Recovery Domestic Box Office Chart

• 20:00: 2024 Box Office Market Share

• 23:46: Top 5 Weekend International Box Office
  • 24:20: Top 5 Weekend Worldwide Box Office
  • 24:53: Top 5 2024 Worldwide Hollywood Debuts

• 25:34: Per Theater Averages
• 26:28: Limited Release Films
  • 27:09: 2024 Top Grossing Limited Release Films
• 00:00: 2023 Fall/Holiday US Domestic Box Office
• 27:45: 2024 Annual Domestic Box Office
• 28:22: 2024 Worldwide Box Office
  • 29:00 365 Day Worldwide Box Office Chart
• 29:53: Box Office Flashback

I wonder if Madame Web will at least break 100M… seeing it stop at 99M would be kinda funny though.

Frozen Empire's probably not gonna have a good second weekend. I'd be surprised if it did though.

By the way, with Power Rangers 2017 now out for seven years, it still boggles my mind that despite how dark that movie was that it wasn't still a hit despite that. You look at how more adult certain parts of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle were too and how massively successful it still was despite that and…again, really makes you wonder. I mean the former often got criticized for how it barely had them as the Power Rangers while the latter jumped into the Jumanji portion right away as well (and unlike the winter, spring 2017 was an exceptionally busy time for movies).

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Mar 27th 2024 at 12:35:25 PM

I'm assuming that the Jumanji movies had bigger star actors than Power Rangers 2017 did.

Well, Jumanji did have the Rock. Star power has been something that has been widely disproven in modern box office, but he has been one of the last vestiges of the mediocre but marketable hot guy being a box-office draw. Caveats being that nobody pays thirty bucks for a date just for an actor nowadays, and also that Power Rangers are not as nostalgic for anything like plot or quality as Jumanji was. (See it how you will, it is known as a thin show for selling great toys).

Yeah, I think that Jumanji might have a much more fleshed out story than most of the Power Rangers franchise had and that probably played a lot into why the Jumanji movies were well received compared to the 2017 Power Rangers movie.

Why would Power Rangers being dark make it successful? Isn't that actually a little off brand?

I haven't seen either film, but Jumanji is a comedy with a talented cast. Also, while the 1995 film and the book are well known, I don't think that they were loved in a way that turning them into a comedy about video games would be controversial.

It helps that the Jumanji movies were about games and so, the new version of Jumanji didn't deviate too far from the original book and the 1995 movie since all the movies were about games. I'm guessing that the 2017 Power Rangers movie wasn't a success because it deviated too far away from the source material by making it darker and edgier in tone.

Wouldn't be the first time. When they made the original TV show Darker and Edgier, they accidentally did too good a job of it; the second Big Bad Lord Zedd was Nightmare Fuel given form. A lot of the kids' parents got mad about it, so the writers had to turn him into a Laughably Evil dork.

Edited by Demetrios on Mar 28th 2024 at 8:06:37 AM

I mean then again, you look at how Goosebumps 2015 was a definite box office success and still very much on brand, that's one of the gold standards to apply yourself too. Didn't work out with the sequel though obviously.

Yeah, uh, count me in on not following the logic there. "It boggles my mind that despite being dark, Power Rangers 2017 wasn't a hit" is a complete non-sequitur.

I am genuinely interested in how Godzilla X Kong will do. Because for once, I think that the movie is actually primed to succeed. We're running off a Godzilla high like we've never seen in decades, an Oscar win for a Godzilla movie, Godzilla vs. Kong has been Vindicated by History and was a ridiculous success considering its circumstances, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters did a great job of carrying the continuity during a downtime that was pretty well-liked, and the movie is getting pretty decent advertising it seems, without too much competition eating its lunch.

This movie should do well unless it's terrible.

Edited by Larkmarn on Mar 28th 2024 at 12:19:31 PM

WB was smart enough to release it a couple months after Minus One, and since the MonsterVerse has been doing well at the box office, I think it's guaranteed to be a hit or at least do well.

Huh? The movie was well-liked and successful right up front, and besides, 2021 is way too soon for something to be Vindicated by History anyway.

Successful yes, but the audience reaction has definitely further warmed with time (from the same people) from a kind of tepid "well it was funny and dumb" to more directly tying it into the Showa-era goofiness.

This doesnt pertain to any movie in particular but this article shows movie attendance was soft and less people went to the movies.

https://deadline.com/2024/03/amc-entertainment-shares-plunge-stock-sale-soft-box-office-1235870571/

If you cant follow the link the title is "AMC Entertainment Shares Plunge On Proposed Stock Sale As Chain Cites Soft Box Office, Cash Burn"

What do you think has to be done to get more people back to the movie theaters?

If you ask me I really dont know, but some sort of gimmick to make the theatrical runs more attractive would be a start. I dont know if 3D but something.

I wonder if they should bring back the 3D glasses to give the audience a more fun experience.

At this point, I'm not sure if there's much that can be done now. The studios have been gouging the theaters to hell and back in the ticket sales for several years now (and that's before getting into how the studios all built up streaming services to, in part, cut out that middleman), forcing the theaters to jack up the prices of concessions to keep themselves afloat, and there's only so much price hikes that the general public's wallets can take before the consumers decide to just wait for streaming or home video releases.

Edited by TrashJack on Mar 28th 2024 at 4:45:47 AM

Deadline says the Alamo Drafthouse circuit is up for sale… what does that mean long term?

https://deadline.com/2024/03/alamo-drafthouse-cinema-up-for-sale-1235871003/

Bumping with news on the Godzilla x Kong box office. Deadline is predicting a $175 Million opening weekend worldwide.

https://deadline.com/2024/03/godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire-china-global-international-box-office-1235871670/