Hello everyone,
- The final holiday weekend of the summer – some people call it the final weekend of the summer – did very well for “Equalizer 3”. It beat expectations with approx. $34 million (3-day) and approx. $42 million (4-day). It’s the second-best Labor Day holiday weekend opening ever. “Barbie” was #2 with approx. $10 million (3-day) and approx. $13 million (4-day). “Barbie” has now passed $600 million in the domestic box office. Except for “Equalizer 3” and “Barbie”, no movie made more than $10 million at the domestic box office – even over 4 days.
- Worldwide, there were a lot of records broken. “Equalizer 3” is the best opening of the franchise with approx $60 million worldwide total (not including Labor Day Monday in the US). “Barbie” is now the #1 movie of 2023 WORLDWIDE (so far) thanks to the $600+ domestic box office. The international box office total is still approx $13-14 million below “The Super Mario Bros Movie” (it should pass that in a week or two). Also, “Oppenheimer” is now the #3 movie of 2023 WORLDWIDE (so far) thanks to opening in China last week. It’s now at approx $850 million worldwide which makes it Christopher Nolans 3rd biggest movie worldwide. Oddly, “Oppenheimer is #3 of 2023 worldwide but it’s currently #5 on the domestic 2023 charts and #4 on the international 2023 charts.
- People are getting so excited about “Taylor Swift: The New Eras Tour”. Some people are predicting it could make over $100 million opening weekend. It has now made $37+ million in pre-sale tickets with only 1 or 2 screens available for pre-sale. Some theaters announced they are adding additional pre-sale tickets this week although the movie is currently only scheduled to play on October 13-15, 19-22, 26-29 and 31 and November 2-5.
The movie is predicted to be so big that THREE MOVIES have changed their release dates. 1) The Lionsgate drama “Ordinary Angles” will no longer open on that date – the new date is TBD. 2) Universals “The Exorcist: The Believer” has pushed up its release date 1 week to Oct 6 to get away from the other movies release date. 3) The Meg Ryan directed “What Happens Later” moved from Oct to Nov 3 to get away from the movie.
- There has been no devlopments regarding the Writers or Actors strikes but one of the heads of the WGA negoitating committee co-chair released a video today (Labor Day) saying that the studios are “..in the process of wrestling amongst themselves, ramping up their public relations..”. It seems like they’re trying to spin the publics opinion of the strikes instead of trying to negotiate with the writers and/or actors.
- The Venice Film Festival happened over this past weekend. So far, the comments are….
Woody Allen’s “Coup De Chance” – 5-minute ovation
Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” – 7-minute ovation
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist” – almost 8-minute ovation
David Fincher’s “The Killer” – 6-minute ovation
Roman Polanski’s “The Palace – 3-minute ovation (supposedly not enthusiastic)
Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” – nearly 10-minute ovation (although director and star Bradley Cooper wasn’t there – Leonard Bernstein’s family attended
Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” – Over 7-minute ovation
Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” – Over 10-minute ovation
It looks like they’re all getting good reviews except for Roman Polanski’s “The Palace”.
Little bit of humor….
Count me in!!!!!
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 