Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: Surprising a lot of people, this past weekend the new movie “Civil War” was #1 making $25.7 million. That’s the best opening weekend for any A24 movie release. “Godzilla Vs Kong The New Empire” sunk approx. 50% to make $15 million. Those were the only 2 movies to make over $10 million this past weekend. Overall, the total domestic weekend box office dropped about 13% making a total of approx. $75 million which is half what the total domestic box office was just two weeks ago on Easter weekend.
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: The new movie “Civil War” didn’t open in foreign countries so “Godzilla Vs Kong The New Empire” continued to have the best box office in foreign countries making approx. $33 million for a worldwide total of just under $440 million. In China, it just became the first Hollywood movie to pass $1 million total since “Meg 2 The Trench” (which was a co-production with China). Meanwhile, “Kung Fu Panda 4” debut in Korea was the second biggest opening day ever for an animated title, best opening day of 2024 so far, and best April opening for an animated movie (it even beat last years “The Super Mario Bros Movie”). That worldwide total is now just over $450 million.
Thanks to “Wonka” (which made some of its box office in 2024), “Dune Part 2” and “Godzilla Vs Kong The New Empire”, Warner Bros is the first movie to make over $1 BILLION WORLDWIDE this year.
UNION NEWS: There are 3 locals still finalizing their local-specific details with the studios before the entire guild starts their general contract talks at the end of this month. They’re hoping the locals will finish up their negotiations quickly.
AWARD NEWS: The final awards show of this year’s season – the postponed WGA awards – were this past weekend. “The Holdovers” won best original screenplay and “American Fiction” won best adapted screenplay. Some of the movies that won other awards weren’t nominated for the WGA because they didn’t have a union contract (or something like that for other countries). Needless to say, there was A LOT of talk about last year’s strike at the awards show.
LAYOFF NEWS: There is a little bit of layoff news this week. Marvel just announced they’re laying off approx. 15 people in Burbank, Ca or New York City. It’s probably due to the scaled back release schedule this year – they currently only have 1 movie scheduled for release (“Deadpool and Wolverine”) and only a few TV series.
OTHER NEWS: I didn’t hear of any major news coming out of CinemaCon last week except that the total domestic box office for 2024 is expected to be approx. 5% less than the 2023 total due to all the movies that were postponed due to last year’s strikes.
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
It’s not satisfying at all if someone else in the movie theater yells it out….or if the person you’re with DOESN’T understand after the movie reveals it.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 