FRIDAY NOON UPDATE: Paramount has everything to be happy to tackle the weekend as a horror movie Smile come strong with $3.85 million today for what looks now a $13.1 million second frame in 3,659 theaters, -42% – spectacular for a horror movie considering they typically drop 60% or more on weekend 2. This will bring the 10-day gross of the directed and written genre title by Parker Finn at $45.4 million.
In second place right now is Sony Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile with $3.3M today and an expected $11 million opening in 4,350 rooms. This fight between Lyle, Lyle and Smile comes down to Saturday (isn’t it always?) and how many moms and kids come for this version of Bernard Waber’s 1965 book. Again, this type of family movie has an age limit – probably under 9 as far as those who want to see it go, plus while it’s a classic title, it’s not quite as marquee as Sony’s. Peter Rabbit which opened at $25 million in 2018, or Weinstein Co’s Paddington which saw a nearly $19 million start in 2015. The Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes at 82% is higher than Peter Rabbit(56%) and Paddington (80%).
And amsterdam goes up in smoke. Friday’s estimate $2.5M includes previews from last night putting the period comedy directed by David O. Russell between $6.6M to $7.3M in 3,005 locations. No star power in this movie including Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor Joy, Rami Malek, Taylor Swift, etc. could not save him. More deconstruction of this period of arthouse comedy 2 hours and 15 minutes later. While it’s customary that adult movies aren’t necessarily profitable as moviegoers have returned from the pandemic, this is a huge bombshell for New Regency/20th Century Studios; even by pre-pandemic standards, an $80 million production cost for a movie like this is unwarranted. Too much for absurd comedy. Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score of 67% is currently higher than critics’ score of 34%, but even that isn’t good.
TriStar Weekend 4 The female king in 3,342 theaters sees $1.3 million today, -27%, and 3 days off $5 million-26%, for a cumulative total of $53.8M.
The third session of New Line don’t worry darling booked in 3,324 locations aims for a $1 million Friday, -57% from a week ago, and 3 days of $3.35 million, -51% for a cumulative total of $38.3M.
FRIDAY UPDATE: Not exactly the flashiest Thursday night for previews, as Sony picks up the classic children’s book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile seen $575,000 off hours that began at 3:00 p.m. at 3,453 locations, while New Regency/20th Century Studios/Disney’s amsterdam cooked $550,000 excluding previews which began at 6 p.m. in 3,005 locations.
Here’s the problem: sometimes studios with family movies don’t even offer previews outside of the summer. There were only 15% of K-12 schools on Thursday. Sony didn’t hold previews for the first Peter Rabbit, which debuted in February 2018, but kept them for Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which made $900,000 on June 10 of last year from 2,572 theaters. Lyle, Lylethe numbers of are higher than another live-action/CGI hybrid based on a classic children’s book, Paddington 2, who made $325,000 in January 2018. Lyle, Lyle is also higher than the $175,000 collected from 8 p.m. of the sessions of the first Paddington in January 2015.
It all comes down to Saturday morning business, and Sony is betting little on Lyle, Lyle at $11M and $12M, while industry estimates are much higher between $15M and $18M. Sony put the movie here because it’s Indigenous Peoples Day weekend and 42% of all K-12 schools are closed on Mondays per ComScore. Lyle, Lyle is 67% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Disney was hoping David O. Russell’s absurdist period comedy would make around $10 million. It could be in the high numbers if business doesn’t pick up – and the film has all the Imax screens. Photo previews are ahead of Bob Odenkirk’s R-rated action flick Nobody, which made $410,000 on Thursday March 2021 before filing an opening of $6.8M, and they are below Michael Bay Ambulance, which saw $700,000 on its preview night ahead of an $8.6M opening in April. amsterdam suffers from 35% poor reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch, it’s an 80 million dollar movie, twice as much as Russell’s american unrest, which boasted the star power of Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.
Taylor Swift, who also stars in amsterdamis doing its part to get the Swifties to see the film:
from Paramount Smile had a strong week with average weekday earnings of over $2 million from 3,645 theaters. Thursday was $2.1Mdown 13% from Wednesday bringing the horror film’s first week total to $32.29 million, 21% off the first week of High-speed train, which made $41 million in its first seven days. Yeah, weird comp, but it’ll just show you the power of Smile — the fact that there’s $8.7 million less on a Brad Pitt action movie. Smile is expected to gross around $11 million in weekend 2.
RELATED: ‘Smile’ review: procedural horror that makes trauma the antagonist
new line don’t worry darling finished second Thursday with $555,000 in 4,121 theaters, -13% compared to Wednesday, for a second week of $9.5 million and a cumulative total of $34.97 million.
by TriStar The female king in 3,504 theaters did $506,000-17%, for a third week of $9.1M and a cumulative total of $48.8M.
Damien Leone took fourth place with a full open Thursday out of 886 sites. Terrifying 2what did $403.9,000. Logline for the film written by Leone: After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the shy Miles County town, where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night. The suite is managed by Iconic Events Releasing.
Universal’s Billy Eichner comedy Brothers did $380,000 in 3,350 theaters for the 5th Thursday and a $6.74 million first week in 3,350 theaters.