TAGGED AS: Box Office, movies, news
The box office has not had a billion-dollar autumn season since before the pandemic in 2019. Last year was the closest, as the two-month period cleared over $900 million, and this year is shaping up to have a shot at it. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is going to get them at least a quarter of the way there by itself. Joker: Folie a Deux could handle another quarter. Those two films alone will outgross the top four (maybe even the top five) films of last Fall, and we have not even factored in the likes of Smile 2, Venom: The Last Dance, The Wild Robot, and this week’s new animated offering, which looks better in this context than all by itself.
In a bit of a surprise this weekend, the sixth highest-grossing domestic film of the year, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, led the way for a third straight weekend. The Tim Burton sequel fell back 48% to $26 million in its third weekend, bringing its total to $226.8 million. As September comparisons go, the proximity to the It films are getting stale. Instead, lets look at the third weekend, 17-day counterparts in its vicinity. On the day-by-day map, Beetlejuice is trending right on target with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, which had $227.3 million at this point but with only an $18.8 million weekend. On the other hand, Beetlejuice’s weekend is closer to Iron Man 2’s $26.3 million third frame, albeit pacing around $24-25 million behind the latter’s $251 million 17-day number. Mockingjay got to coast a bit through its holiday season to $281 million. Tracking $24 million behind Iron Man 2’s pace would amount to a final landing around $288 million. That’s pretty solid for a film that is likely to surpass $400 million worldwide.
It may not seem like a whole lot of money, but it is worth acknowledging when an indie distributor continues the recent trend of getting films out to a wider audience. Mubi, the distributor and streaming network, who has put out films in North America such as Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, and Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex, just grossed nearly more in one weekend than those three films combined. It was all thanks to releasing Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley into 1,949 theaters, where it made $3.1 million. This joins the list of indie distributors like Neon, IFC, A24, and Magnolia releasing some of their highest-grossing films ever this year, thanks to wide releasing instead of limited platforms. The critically acclaimed body horror satire is Certified Fresh on the Tomatometer and made more in its first weekend than the openings of Back to Black, The Killer’s Game, The Book of Clarence, The Exorcism, and Drive-Away Dolls. The bottom line may not be great for the $17.5 million budgeted film, but sometimes you need a little extra to make a little extra on screen, and thanks to moviegoers having better access to it, the ledger still looks slightly better.
The hits just don’t keep on coming for Lionsgate, as the new Alexandre Aja horror film, Never Let Go, opened to just $4.5 million. This is their third 2,500+ theater launch in a row to start with less than $5 million after The Crow and The Killer’s Game (which fell to $1 million this week for a total of just $4.8 million). The film won’t join the ranks of the biggest losers of the year, but even a $20 million-budgeted film wants to get a lot closer to a $10 million first week, which Never Let Go failed to achieve. Again, despite some low-budget winners this year, the studio has not had a film gross $36 million or more since The Hunger Games prequel last November. Only The Strangers: Chapter 1 has made it to $30 million for them since then.
Paramount brought the Transformers back to its animated roots this weekend with Transformers One. Over time, the franchise has lost a lot of its luster here in America, but thanks to international dollars, even its weakest entry (last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) still grossed over $438 million. This new film may have an easier time joining the ranks of the series’ winners with only a reported $75 million budget, but it won’t be due to its domestic opening of just $25 million. The lowest domestic grossing film within the Transformers franchise was 2018’s Bumblebee. The Christmas holiday release opened to $21.6 million and finished with $127.1 million domestic and $467.9 million worldwide. Transformers One will end up being the new low on the pole.
Prequels have had a mixed bag this year as A Quiet Place: Day One and Alien: Romulus can be labeled as successes, but The First Omen and especially Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga were certainly not. Like with Bumblebee, apparently appealing to the younger fans is not where the money is. Though Transformers One is set to open in bigger international markets next week, just $14 million in the 50 locations it did this week may cause a few gulps. Universal’s The Wild Robot made $6.9 million in just eight international markets, including China, where Transformers will open next week. Again, as long as it gets close to just $200 million worldwide, the franchise will have another success, but it will have to at least double its domestic haul, which could end up in the $65-75 million range.
Blumhouse’s remake of Speak No Evil fell back to third this week with $5.9 million. That brings its 10-day total to $21.4 million. Not a lot to see here. If you want to make a comparison, the numbers are similar to the dreadful Sandra Bullock comedy All About Steve. That one grossed $5.6 million in its second September weekend, bringing its 10-day total to $21.6 million. It finished with $33.8 million. Speak No Evil has already added over nearly $21 million overseas, which, coupled with its final domestic haul, will be more than enough for it to turn a theatrical profit.
Hanging on in the top five for its ninth straight week is Deadpool & Wolverine. It joins recent films Black Panther, The Lion King (2019), Wonka, and the Jumanji sequels on that list. Unless a certain passion project completely flops next weekend, it will probably just miss joining fellow summer releases Barbie and Top Gun: Maverick for 10 straight. A ninth weekend haul of $3.9 million drives its total up to $627.2 million. The film is in a tight race with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie as to what will end up (for the time being, at least) the 12th highest-grossing domestic release of all time. Barbie had $625.9 million after its ninth weekend gross of $3.8 million and followed it up with a 10th weekend of $3.2 million. A bigger drop by D&W next weekend could give Barbie the ultimate advantage of just holding the patriarchy at bay. Don’t be surprised if Disney and Marvel mount a late re-campaign to help get it into the top dozen. The film’s worldwide total stands at $1.317 billion.
The conservative double feature of Am I Racist? and Reagan combined for $4.1 million this weekend, with $2.5 million for the former and $1.6 million for the latter, bringing their respective totals to $8.9 million and $26.8 million. The latest from Dinesh D’Souza, Vindicating Trump, arrives in theaters next week from SBG Entertainment after his last film, 2000 Mules, grossed just $1.4 million. Its distributor, Salem Media Group, had to release a public apology for falsely representing one of its subjects.
Another indie distributor made the top ten with Trafalgar Releasing putting out Jung Kook: I Am Still, a documentary about the South Korean singer and member of global sensation BTS. It made $1.4 million over the weekend and has made $2.5 million since its release on Wednesday. Alien: Romulus rounds out the top 10 with $1.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $103.6 million and over $341 million worldwide.
Meanwhile, Amazon MGM continues to slowly roll out My Old Ass, now in 33 theaters, where it made $282,000 this weekend. It is now up to $512,000 and moves into 1,200 locations next week. A24 had their Sundance film with Sebastian Stan, A Different Man, in four theaters, where it grossed $56,000. Sony Classics re-released Whiplash into 695 theaters for its anniversary and it made $578,000.
Universal releases the new animated film from How To Train Your Dragon director Chris Sanders. The Wild Robot is likely to replace the other animated robots currently occupying the No. 1 slot. Lionsgate will give it yet another whirl as it puts Francis Ford Coppola’s mega passion project Megalopolis into 1,500 theaters. How far will curiosity take moviegoers after it has divided critics since Cannes? Also opening in limited release is Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, about the premiere of SNL, currently doing well with critics. There is also Roadside’s release of the war correspondent biopic Lee with Kate Winslet, which isn’t doing quite as well with the critics.
77%
81%
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
(2024)
– $26 million ($226.8 million total)
88%
98%
Transformers One
(2024)
– $25 million ($25 million total)
83%
85%
Speak No Evil
(2024)
– $5.9 million ($21.4 million total)
64%
55%
Never Let Go
(2024)
– $4.5 million ($4.5 million total)
78%
94%
Deadpool & Wolverine
(2024)
– $3.9 million ($614 million total)
89%
68%
The Substance
(2024)
– $3.1 million ($3.1 million total)
73%
98%
Am I Racist?
(2024)
– $2.5 million ($9 million total)
19%
98%
Reagan
(2024)
– $1.6 million ($26.5 million total)
- -
100%
Jung Kook: I Am Still
(2024)
– $1.4 million ($1.4 million total)
80%
85%
Alien: Romulus
(2024)
– $1.3 million ($103.6 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.
[box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by Parisa Taghizadeh/©Warner Bros.
