saidi’s take – 4/2/2024

Hello everyone,

BOX OFFICE: “”Godzilla Vs Kong The New Empire” blew past all predictions and ALMOST was the biggest opening weekend of 2024 so far making $80 million.  If the movie had played on the same number of screens – “Godzilla Vs Kong” opened on about 3860 while “Dune Part 2” played on about 4070 – it might have beat the “Dune Part 2” opening weekend which was just $2.5 million more.  Thanks mostly to “Godzilla vs Kong” and a little bit to “Ghostbusters Frozen Empire” (down 65% with $15.5 million). “Dune Part 2” ($11.3 million), and “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($10.3 million) the total box office of this past weekend was the biggest domestic weekend of 2024 so far with almost $137 million total which is 32% over the previous weekend and almost 40% higher than the same weekend in 2023 (although “The Super Mario Bros Movie” opened the following week in 2023).

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: In other countries, “Godzilla Vs Kong The New Empire” also did very well making a worldwide total of $194 million after an international total of $114 million.  The worldwide total is the highest opening weekend of any movie in 2024 so far (“Dune Part 2” made $182 million worldwide).  “Kung Fu Panda 4” is still doing fairly well internationally with a worldwide total of almost $350 million and “Dune Part 2” is still doing well with a worldwide total just over $625 million.  Also, “Oppenheimer” finally was released in Japan this past weekend “with a mix of praise and discomfort” (according to reports) making approx. $2.5 million (it’s worldwide total is $965 million although people keep saying it’s a “BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE”).

UNION NEWS: Nearly half of IATSEs west coast studio locals have now struck tentative deals with the studios.  Last week the Motion Picture Studio Grips (Local 80), Make Up Artists and Hairstylists (Local 706) and Local 695 (production sound, video assist, video engineering, and studio projection) made deals.  However, there are still 6 out of the 13 left to make a tentative deal.  The Editors Guild (Local 700) extended their talks to continue this week.

OTHER NEWS: Unfortunately, I won’t be going to CinemaCon 2024 which starts 1 week from today in Las Vegas.  It looks like it’ll be another big convention including screenings of “The Fall Guy” from Universal and “Babes” from Neon.

According to reports, the Alamo Drafthouse chain of movie theaters which has 41 locations in 13 states is up for sale despite coming out of bankruptcy in June 2021 and opening new locations in 2021 and 2022.

LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:

If the movie is UNDER 90 MINUTES I might consider this (depending on how noisy the treadmills are).  However, after 90 minutes I’d need a bed to lay on for the rest of the movie.