Industry News
by saidiontheside

saidi’s take – 3/27/2024

Hello everyone,

BOX OFFICE: “Ghostbusters Frozen Empire” met its box office estimates with $45 million and came in at #1 this past weekend.  “Dune Part 2” stayed at #2 with $17 million.  “Kung Fu Panda 4” which was #1 the last two weeks dropped to #3.  Another new movie “Immaculate” opened at #4 with just $5.3 million and a third new release – “Late Night With the Devil” came in at #6 with just $2.8 million,  The box office continues to be fairly slow with only 2 or 3 movies making over $10 million.  The overall domestic box office was $103 million which is about 17% higher than the previous weekend but about $9 million lower than the same weekend last year when “John Wick Chapter 4” opened with almost $74 million.

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: In other countries, “Kung Fu Panda 4” was still the leader making $55 million in foreign countries – almost $26 million of that from China where the movie just opened – and approaching $270 worldwide total.  “Dune Part 2” made approx. $31 million in foreign countries for a worldwide of approx. $575 million.  The movie is still doing well but it will probably lose a bunch of movie theater screens because of next weekends “Godzilla Vs Kong” which is also released by Warner Bros.  The new “Ghostbusters Frozen Empire” made about $16 million in the 25 foreign countries it opened in (not opened in China yet) for a worldwide total of approx. $62 million.

UNION NEWS: It’s looking like another big strike may not be happening this summer.  Right now, the Art Directors Guild and the Cinematographers Guild have a tentative agreement with the studios on the “specific issues for each union”.  However, there are other union branches still negotiating.

OTHER NEWS: Speaking of the unions,it looks like the AMC Universal Citywalk  next to Universal Studios (and the Universal Studios Hollywood amusement park) is now the 2nd movie theater where the staff is union (the first was the AMC in Redondo Beach, Ca).

LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:

The original “Ghostbusters” and the previous “Dune” (directed by David Lynch) came out in 1984.  Then the “Ghostbusters” reboot and “Dune Part 1” was in 2021.  What’s next?  Maybe another version of “The Watchmen” (this joke is parodying a page from “The Watchmen” comic book).