Hello everyone,
- Both new movies that opened wide this past weekend didn’t meet expectations. “The Flash” made $55 million over the 3-day weekend and approx. $64 million for the 4-day holiday weekend. Most people are saying that the lack of promotion for the movie (the only person who did interviews was newcomer Sasha Calle) contributed to the low box office numbers. Also, the disappointing reviews for the movie also probably contributed. I thought it was much worse than the not-final version I saw at CinemaCon.
- #2 was “Elemental” which also made a disappointing $29 million (3-day) and approx. $33 million (4-day). That’s the worst opening weekend for any Pixar movie release (other than the movies that only opened in a couple movie theaters and also started playing on Disney+ during the pandemic). Most people blame that low box office on the bad reviews ever since the first screening at Cannes. Although, the audience rating for the movie was “A” (“The Flash” got a “B”).
- “Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse” jumped past last week’s new movie “Transformers Rise of the Beasts” to get to #3 with $27 million (3-day) which was just slightly under “Elemental” at #2. If it was still playing on more screens it may have made more than “Elemental” (Spider-Man was on 3800 screens – Elemental is a little over 4000).
- The real winner of the weekend was “Asteroid City” which made an AMAZING $140,000 per location at only 6 locations in New York/Los Angeles (it opens wide next weekend). That’s the biggest per location average for a movie in YEARS – even before the pandemic. The last time a movie had a higher per location average was “La La Land” which came out at the end of 2016 ($176 thousand). The record for per location average was another Wes Anderson movie – “The Grand Budapest Hotel” made $800 thousand at only 4 locations back in 2014 ($200 thousand per screen). “Asteroid City” is the all-time highest per theater opening for a Focus Feature movie (beating Wes Andersons “Moonrise Kingdom” which made $130 thousand per location) and the highest per location average for a movie only playing at 6 locations (the last highest in only 6 locations was “American Hustle” with $123 thousand).
By the way, if you want to see the movie in the Los Angeles area you should go to the newly re-opened Sunset Theaters which Landmark took over. The movie is playing on EVERY SCREEN at the theater and the concession stand is decorated to look like a set from the movie.
- Earlier today in Rome there was the world premiere of “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1” where the director talked about the future of the movie franchise. Director Christopher McQuarrie told reporters that “they’re already talking about ideas for what comes next”. So, unlike previous reports, next years “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 2” will NOT be the final Mission Impossible movie.
- Speaking of Mission Impossible, the controversy over the IMAX screens for Mission Impossible and Oppenheimer continues. The CEO of IMAX recently commented “I feel sad in a way we can’t accommodate all of them. I know ‘Mission: Impossible’ is going to be a really big movie……Nolan has a special place in Imax’s heart because he uses our cameras and promotes us. It’s not a matter of us saying which we can make more money on. I would hope after ‘Oppenheimer’s’ run, we can bring back ‘Mission.” However, after 3 weeks I think that most IMAX screens will choose a new movie to show (“Grand Turismo” opens 3 weeks after “Oppenheimer”) instead of a movie playing in theaters for over a month. In fact, I’m pretty sure that on the 3rd week of “Oppenheimer” the IMAX theaters will be fairly empty – especially since the some are predicting that “Barbie” will do better at the box office than “Oppenheimer”.
Little bit of humor….
This is me almost every time I get popcorn at the movies. I blame the 15-20 minutes of trailers. I’m usually out of popcorn before the feature starts.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 