Box Office Thread

OMG that's HUGE!

What was the highest opening weekend for any film?

I mentioned it last page, but Avengers: Endgame had the biggest opening with a $1.2 billion opening weekend.

Edited by chasemaddigan on Mar 30th 2024 at 8:06:56 AM

Think you mixed up something because Google says it's 357 million.

Edit: Oh wait, you meant internationally, my bad.

Edited by Ikedatakeshi on Mar 30th 2024 at 8:15:22 PM

The Matrix was released 25 years ago today, and looking at Box Office Mojo I notice it didn't make as much as I assumed; its domestic box office was less than a quarter percent higher than Tarzan.

Meanwhile, Dune has just shot past 600M (626M). I didn’t think it’d have the legs to hit 700M but maybe that’s not out of reach after all…

I can't believe that Dune Part 2 is doing so well in the box office!

Hearing Dune: Part Two might be heading to digital soon. That might cut its legs off at the Box Office too early. Then again, didn't hurt Wonka any…

Sandworms don’t need legs anyway.

Funny.

It might keep it from 700 million worldwide though, meaning money left on the table. A theory I heard was that WB did it to bolster and not cut the legs out from under Godzilla x Kong with friendly fire, but I think both movies probably would've been fine.

Can't say that I'm surprised Frozen Empire dropped like a rock though. It had only barely made it over the line right out of the gate last weekend.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Apr 2nd 2024 at 7:53:26 AM

This week's Charts with Dan shows the kaiju-sized debut of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (There are a lot of frozen empires emerging in March, huh?). Furthermore, we follow up on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Dune: Part Two.

• 00:54; 11:10: Weekend Top 10

• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
  • 2:03: Top 5, 3-Day Opening Domestic Weekends
  • 2:36: Top 5 Easter Opening Domestic Weekend Grosses
  • 3:15: Top 5 Monsterverse Domestic Opening Weekends
  • 4:00: Top 5 Monsterverse Domestic Grosses
  • 4:26: Dan estimates this film should easily pass the domestic grosses of Godzilla vs. Kong (COVID-impacted) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) (a "disappointment") by next week.
    • With a responsible $135-150 million budget and little competition, it could potentially eclipse the current highest-grossing Godzilla (2014) by next week.
  • 5:10: Top 5 Godzilla and/or Kong Domestic Openings (Inflation Adjusted)
  • 6:00: Legendary Pictures has two back-to-back hits with their Warner Bros. Discovery collaboration, with this film and Dune: Part Two. They'll be getting a sizeable cut.

• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire:
  • 7:41: Frozen Empire vs Afterlife - Cumulative Gross Tracking.
    • If the film continues to flatline, it'll severely hurt its chances to past $100 million domestically, much less match Afterlife. Last week predictions about its CinemaScore, mixed reviews, and competition seem to be taking an effect.
    • Dan thinks Frozen Empire should've exploited the January through February season, since it was completely barren of comparable anticipated films. It's a repeat mistake of last March, when Mario, John Wick, Dungeons & Dragons came out and some didn't fair well.
    • As a reminder, the franchise tends to very dependant on USA/Canada audiences more so than other films. Next week's prospects aren't looking good for the film to be even a breakout or small hit.

• Dune: Part Two
  • 9:36: Dune vs. Oppenheimer - Total Domestic Gross

• 13:48: Road to Recovery Domestic Box Office Chart
• 14:51: Closed this Week - Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and The Beekeeper

• 19:05: Top 5 Weekend International Box Office
  • 19:58: Top 5 Weekend Worldwide Box Office
  • 20:46: Top 5 2024 Worldwide Hollywood Debuts
  • 21:28: Top 5 Monsterverse Worldwide Grosses

• 22:14: Per Theater Averages
  • 23:19: Top 5 2024 Per Theater Averages
    • Interestingly, it's likely that Godzilla x Kong sold more tickets in its first week compared to Dune: Part Two. However, the expensive premium format push for Dune: Part Two meant it got a higher domestic debut.
• 24:04: Limited Release Films
• 24:47: 2024 Annual Domestic Box Office
  • 25:25: 2024 Domestic Box Office (Calander Gross)
• 26:00: 2024 Worldwide Box Office
• 26:53: Box Office Flashback

Frozen Empire as I said is flawed in that I think it doesn't balance the old with the new well enough—and in that the main plot doesn't take off until the final act. That's why I think with it already not starting from the strongest place box office-wise that it having such a big drop this weekend is definitely not gonna help it at this point. While it could have great holds in the weekends that follow and I could be wrong, it's definitely not gonna get easier though.

This week's Charts with Dan handles the monkey business of Monkey Man's debut, along with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's continual success. The former is the directorial debut of Dev Patel, with a modest $10 million budget, and was originally a streaming original for Netflix. After being dropped from potential distribution and content issues with the Indian government, Universal and Jordan Peele pushed for its theatrical release.

Furthermore, the debut of The First Omen and following up on a few other ongoing runs.

• 1:07 ; 7:14: Weekend Top 10
  • Generally Godzilla x Kong seems to have held "okay" within usual blockbusters (not bad; not great), but having a big opening weekend makes it look good.
  • For Monkey Man's size, the debut is respectful (though not huge).
  • Ghostbusters also has a "fine" hold in its third weekend.
  • Interestingly, Indie Wire claims that expectations for Monkey Man and First Omen were $11 million each. However, despite great critical reviews, their CinemaScores seem mixed, and the latter has a $30 million budget.

• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire:
  • 3:00: Top 5 Monsterverse Domestic Grosses
  • 3:53: Dune: Part Two vs. Godzilla x Kong - Total Domestic Gross

• 4:16: Monkey Man:

• 5:43: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

• 6:20': Kung Fu Panda 4

• 09:27: Closed this Week: Wonka and The American Society of Magical Negroes
  • Generally, Wonka has past profitability with a $56.3 million haul in the theatrical window. While it might seem small, it's worth pointing out that the film earned most of its gross internationally. Therefore, Dan thinks this is a good example of how the "gross 2x its budget" is a situational rule of thumbnail, and where incoming money is from is equally important.
  • Generally speaking, Timothée Chalamet has been doing well with this and Dune: Part Two being back-to-back Warner Bros. successes.

• 11:37: Road to Recovery Domestic Box Office Chart
  • Notably, we're still down compared to the peaks of last year (Mario's overperformance) and pre-lockdown levels (Furious 7), despite some good current successes.

• 12:33: Weekend International Box Office
  • 13:25: Weekend Worldwide Box Office
  • 14:00: Top 5 Monsterverse Worldwide Grosses

• 14:50: Per Theater Averages
• 15:37: Limited Release Films
• 16:18: 2024 Annual Domestic Box Office
  • 16:54: 2024 Domestic Box Office (Calander Gross)
• 17:29: 2024 Worldwide Box Office
  • 18:08: Worldwide Box Office (365 Day Chart)
• 19:05: Box Office Flashback

Welp, it’s done: Dune 2 is now at exactly 666 million.

Civil War's sounding like it's gonna be a big hot button movie. Be interesting to see how it performs financially.

Well would you look at that, Madame Web did end up crawling into 100 million after all...

Producer: "See, I told you this thing had potential!"

I mean you look at the movies that hit a billion or more since the pandemic and Jurassic World: Dominion while it definitely took the longest still got there though. Then again, Madame Web only made 100 million worldwide. I'd be more impressed if it made 100 million domestic and in actuality, it didn't even make half of that.

Oh and I liked Dominion while I didn't Madame Web.

And somehow Oppenheimer just barely missed out on reaching a billion and Dead Reckoning didn't get the expected boost from Top Gun: Maverick to it either. In fact, it barely made half a billion as is.

Be interested to see what kind of business the fourth Bad Boys does as well. This especially with both the third being a big success thanks to making all its money right before the pandemic and this being Will Smith's first theatrical release since that thing he did over two years ago.

1998 was quite the year for animated films, especially two specific outside of Disney: Antz was the first non-animated Disney film to make 100 million worldwide and The Rugrats Movie was the first to do it domestically.

Quick couple edits to see which made more money… Antz did since it made over 170 million while The Rugrats Movie made over 140 million.

Checking the domestic numbers too real quick since I know which one obviously made more there, but wanted to see by how much though… It was close: Antz made just over 90 million and The Rugrats Movie was just over 100 million.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Apr 10th 2024 at 11:16:57 AM

Dead Reckoning just had the bad luck that it came out the week before Barbenheimer and that Oppenheimer took up all of its IMAX screenings, it's not necessarily its fault that it didn't do very well (though I will never forgive it for killing off Ilsa).

Tbf the Imax ceo asked the MI people to move it as he thought they'rd be an issue. But they refused.

So Tom Cruise's beef with Christopher Nolan was basically easily preventable.

@Night Yeah. Unless she's somehow Faking the Dead, they could've handled it better.

@mir Well it's too bad they didn't. Movie probably would've been an outright hit and it could've avoided a lot of grief.

Abigail's getting a lot of good word of mouth and momentum's picking up. Melissa Barrera needs the win. Glad to hear it.

I've got a couple of friends in the MI fandom and we're all staunch believers of the theory that Ilsa faked her death, and there are also a lot of people who meticulously searched through every scene and Freeze-Frame Bonus to try to find proof that she was still alive. It also just caused a huge ripple effect within the fandom as Christopher McQuarrie lost a lot of the goodwill and the Creator Worship that he'd spent years accumulating practically overnight.

I mean at least they didn't kill kill her off in the opening. That arguably would've been worse.

Dune: Part Two's slowed down last weekend is what I heard, so maybe it's heading to digital at just the right time after all. Will it make it to 700 million worldwide by the way?

While it's on digital soon if not already, it's on DVD on 5/14 if I'm not mistaken. It'll have time to maybe still get there before then, though it depends certainly.

I remember when my brother and I saw 22 Jump Street in theaters almost ten years ago and it was a packed house on a Friday night, so I'm hoping for more movie experiences like that again someday certainly (and I'm trying to remember how many I saw Dune: Part Two with now too come to think of it…).

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Apr 12th 2024 at 1:42:11 AM

700M is a definite possibility still, there's only 30M left and its last weekend drop was the best one thus far at -35%.