Hello everyone,
- The news keeps saying that “Cocaine Bear” and “Jesus Revolution” did surprisingly well at the domestic box office while “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was the biggest 2nd weekend drop of any Marvel movie. All those things are true, however “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was STILL #1 this past weekend – even with a drop of almost 70% – with $31 million. #2 was “Cocaine Bear” which beat expectations (expected to be in the teens) with $23.2 million. The #3 movie “Jesus Revolution” was a big surprise making $15.8 million (expected to make $6-7 million). Since “Jesus Revolution” was playing in approx. 2,000 theaters less than “Ant-Man” and 1,000 less theaters than “Cocaine Bear” the per screen average for the movie was especially surprising. It was $6384 per screen which was only about $1000 less than “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($7356 per screen) and only about $200 under “Cocaine Bear” ($6582 per screen).
- Worldwide “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” had a smaller 2nd weekend drop of 57% less than the previous weekend. However, it did come in #3 in China with two local productions “A Guilty Conscience” coming in at #1 and “The Wandering Earth 2” coming in at #2. The worldwide total for it is now $363 million. “Cocaine Bear” only made about $5 million internationally.
- The CEO of Cinemark said that he thinks the upcoming exclusive wide release of “Air” could be a sign that streamers are starting to warm up to the exclusive theatrical window. Although it hasn’t been announced yet, he thinks the exclusive theatrical window for the movie could be 6 weeks (45 days) before it shows on Amazon Prime. If it’s successful, streaming movies could contribute to the number of theatrical releases this year which some are hoping will be over 100 movies – creeping towards the pre-COVID average of 130 movies per year.
- In award news, “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” won the Producers Guild award AND the Screen Actors Guild award for best picture (the SAG award was actually for “Best Ensemble Cast”) this past weekend which, along with the Directors Guild win the previous weekend, makes it favorite to win best picture at the Academy Awards in 2 weeks since those 3 guilds are the majority of Academy voters.
- Also at the Screen Actors Guild awards last night they were all in on “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once”. The movie also got best actress for Michelle Yeoh, best supporting actress for Jamie Lee Curtis, and best supporting actor for Ke Huy Quan. The only SAG movie awards it didn’t win were the best actor which went to Brendan Fraser for “The Whale” and best stunt ensemble which went to “Top Gun: Maverick”
Little bit of humor…
If Will Smith snuck into the Academy awards and snuck on stage that would be something they never anticipated.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 