Industry News
by saidiontheside

saidi’s take – 5/14/2024

Hello everyone,

BOX OFFICE:  The new “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” came out slightly higher than predictions with $58.4 million.  That makes it the 3rd best opening weekend for the “Planet of the Apes” modern reboots.  “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is the highest with $72 million in 2014 and the Tim Burton directed “Planet of the Apes” is second with $68 million in 2001.  Unfortunately, it was the only hit of the weekend.  Last weeks opening of “The Fall Guy” dropped a little over 50% to 30 million.  No other movie on this weekends top 10 made over $5 million.

Overall the weekend is was $95.7 million which is up almost 30% from the previous weekend but down from the same weekend last year when the total was a little over $100 million.  So far this year the 3-day domestic weekend box office was over $100 million only 4 times out of 19 weekends compared to last year when it was over $100 million 9 times and over $200 million once.

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” also did fairly well internationally with a worldwide total of $129 million with a international total of $72 million.  That zoomed past last weeks “The Fall Guy” which has a worldwide total of $103 million.  Also, the upcoming domestic release “IF” opening in a few international countries and made a decent $3.6 million.  It ended up lower than “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” in some countries.

UNION NEWS: After 2 weeks of negotiations between IATSE and the studios there is no news which is somewhat odd since they previously said that the negotiations would conclude on May 16 – this Thursday.  Some union members are asking for more details about what’s happening.

OTHER NEWS: Although no news has been announced for Paramounts sale to Sony Pictures or Skydance, some news sites mentioned that if a deal with made with Sony Pictures, they may be selling off a lot of Paramount’s assets including its television channels (because foreign countries can’t own broadcast channels), Paramount+, and even the historical Hollywood studio lot.

If you’re a huge fan of Billie Eilish, there will be LISTENING PARTIES for her new music at several AMC theaters on May 16-17.  They noted that “THIS IS NOT A CONCERT FILM’.  The music will play with “visuals” on screen (not sure if that would be better than just listening to the new music at home).  AMC hopes to do more things with musical artists after the success of the Taylor Swift and Beyonce concert films in movie theaters last year.

LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:

Someone is complaining about popcorn???  Who doesn’t love popcorn????