Hello Everyone,
For the first time since it opened, “Barbie” was knocked out of the #1 position this past weekend. Warner Bros isn’t too upset though because it’s new release “Blue Beetle” was #1. “Blue Beetle” made approx. $25 million which is on the low side of predictions – possible due to everyone on the west coast staying home due to the hurricane/tropical storm. Also on the low side of projections is the other new movie – coincidentally from Universal – “Strays” which was pushed back to August so it would get more promotion.
I guess it should have been pushed back more because it was #5 with approx. $8 million. #2 was “Barbie” with approx. $21 million. #3 was “Oppenheimer” with approx. $10 million. Some predictions at the start of the weekend said that “Strays” would be #4 so it would be a 2 Warner Bros movies and then a 2 Universal movies weekend.
However, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” slipped ahead of it to make it to #4 with $8.5 million. Although, according to per screen average, “Strays” WAS #4 with $2560 per screen. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem” made approx. $2450 per screen but was on about 250 more screens. So, it looks like keeping “Oppenheimer” on more screens hurt “Strays” box office a little bit. Although, “Oppenheimer” per screen average was much higher than both.
As I said predicted week, “Barbie” didn’t quite make it to the #1 movie of 2023 YET but it should make it sometime this week. Its domestic total is now $566 million which is only $8 million below the #1 “Super Mario Bros Movie”. Last week it made about $19 million on Mon thru Thurs. Even if it makes half that this week it will make over $8 million by this Friday. “Barbie” did break a record becoming the #1 Warner Bros movie EVER at the domestic box office. Also, “Oppenheimer” became the highest domestic box office for movie that was never #1 on a weekend – passing “Sing” (I bet it took a lot of searching to find that record).
Worldwide, it’ll be a little tougher for “Barbie” to be the #1 movie of 2023 worldwide because foreign box office totals still put it approx. $55 million behind the #1 movie internationally. There’s still a possibility it will make it to #1 worldwide but I think it will take at least another couple weeks to catch up. “Oppenheimer” has better news because it rose to #4 on the 2023 worldwide box office charts with approx. $718 million. “Oppenheimer” actually made MORE than “Barbie” in foreign countries this weekend. It made $32 million internationally while “Barbie” made approx. $26.5 million.
However, there is good news for “Barbie” because it is now #15 on the ALL-TIME DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE LIST (right underneath “The Super Mario Bros Movie”) and it will soon be the #20 on the ALL-TIME WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE LIST with approx. $1.285 billion. Right now, it’s just $4 million behind “Frozen” on the all-time worldwide list (“The Super Mario Bros Movie” is currently #15 on the all-time worldwide list).
Meanwhile, “The Super Mario Bros Movie’ is still breaking records in Japan. It just passed $100 million in that country and is Universals biggest release ever in that country and the #6 biggest release for ANY Hollywood movie in that country.
It looks like Sony is doing another slow rollout for its upcoming movie “Dumb Money”. Similar to the slow release of “Gran Turismo (which will finally open wide this weekend). Instead of opening “Dumb Money” wide on Sept 22 it will have a slow rollout with exclusive NY and LA openings on Sept 15, opening a little bit wider on Sept 22, and then opening wide on Oct 6. Oct 6 was the day that Sony was going to release “Kraken the Hunter” until they postponed it until 2024.
After the big success last year, “National Cinema Day” returns this Sunday (Aug 27) with several theaters selling tickets for $4 each and discounted concession items at some theaters. Not a lot of advance notice this time because they just announced it TODAY (6 DAYS before).
In strike news, the WGA talked to the studios 3 times last week on Tues, Thurs, and Fri. On Friday the heads of all the major studios had a discussion before they studio representatives talked to the writers. Nothing official has been said, but according to some sources, last Tuesday the writers responded to the studios proposal from the previous week. Then they spoke more on Thursday with some east coast representatives of the WGA joining them.
Then, after the studio head meeting on Friday, the studios gave the writers their REVISED proposal. Also, according to sources, they’re getting closer to an agreement on SOME of the writers demands, but it doesn’t look like the writers strike will be resolved soon. The writers (and actors) cancelled any strikes they were going to have today (Monday Aug 20) because the weather report said there will still be lingering storms (there weren’t any in my neighborhood) but tomorrow (Tuesday Aug 22) the writers AND the actors will have a big “National Day of Solidarity” rally next to the Disney Studios.
Little bit of humor….
If I didn’t know better, I would say the apartment WAS in a Wes Anderson movie. At least it looks like it.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 