Industry News
by saidiontheside

saidi’s take – 6/28/2023

Hello everyone,

  • Really weird box office weekend this past weekend.  From the middle of last week to the start of the weekend, “Spider-Man Across the Spider Verse” and “Elemental” both passed “The Flash” and were fighting for the #1 spot at the box office.  Over the weekend, “Spider-Man” edged ahead with $19 million, and “Elemental” was #2 with $18.4 million.  It’s the second weekend that “Spider-Man” jumped past the previous weekends #1 movie (it passed the “Transformers” movie last weekend).  Meanwhile, “The Flash” took a huge drop of almost 73% and BARELY beat “No Hard Feelings” to get the #3 spot.  “The Flash” made $15.14 million, “No Hard Feelings” made $15 million.

The average box office shows a completely different story.  Wes Andersons “Asteroid City” which opened in another 1670 screens this past weekend made an average of $5400 per screen.  The movie came in #6 on the charts but only because it was on a lot fewer screens.  The second-best average was “Spider-Man Across the Spider Verse” with $5000 per screen on about 3800 screens.  The third was “No Hard Feelings” with about $4675 per screen on 3200 screens.  If it was on more screens, it may have even reached the #2 spot since “Elemental” was on about 4050 screens (800 more screens) made $4570 per screen (about $100 less per screen).  “The Flash” was on 4250 screens and made $3550 per screen.  “The Flash” did so badly it was on MORE screens but “Spider-Man Across the Spider Verse” (about 450 less screens) and “Elemental” (about 200 less screens) beat it and “No Hard Feelings” (about 1000 screens less) almost beat it.

  • Worldwide “The Flash” also took a pretty big drop, going down about 60% in international countries.  Its international total is now at $124 million for a worldwide total just over $210 million.  “Elemental” did a lot better only sliding 18% in international markets.  However, last weekend “Elemental” was a lot lower than “The Flash” so it’s worldwide total is now $120 million.  In better news, “Spider-Man” is now the #4 best box office for 2023 so far with $560 million and “The Little Mermaid” is right behind it at #5 with about $500 million worldwide.  There’s still no one even close to “The Super Mario Bros Movie” which is currently at $1.330 BILLION (#2 “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 hasn’t $850 million worldwide yet).
  • Last week, the Academy changed their rules to force movie that will be playing on streaming services to play in movie theaters longer.  AFTER the initial 1 week run in 1 of 6 select cities in the same year to get an Academy Award nomination, the movie must now play for at least 1 week in 10 of the top 50 US markets OR at least 2 international markets no farther than 45 days after the first theatrical run.  So, that means that if a movie plays for 1 week the last week of 2023, then it needs to play for 7 days in at least 10 cities sometime no later than mid Feb of the following year.  This rule is ONLY for best picture nominees, but that’s the nomination most movies want.
  • In strike news, the writers’ strike is still going strong almost two months after it started.  It has shut down almost all new filming in Los Angeles area (for movies and televisions shows).
  • Meanwhile the director’s guild members ratified their new contract, and the Screen Actors Guild – which has their contract expiring this Friday say that negotiations have been “extremely productive”.
  • Looks like next month’s Comic Con isn’t going to have as many movie promotions this year.  Due to the writers’ strike and possible actors strike, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Netflix, Universal, and Sony all announced that they wouldn’t be doing any presentations at Comic Con this year.  That leaves just Warner Bros/DC as the main attraction for the year.  Although, this could change if the writers’ strike ends, and the actors strike doesn’t happen or ends before the convention.

Little Bit of Humor….

I don’t think it’s getting boring, but it is becoming VERY ANNOYING.  After the DC attempt at a multiverse with the recent “The Flash”, I think it may be time to let the whole “multiverse” theme rest for a while.