Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: “Smile 2” was a little higher than predictions and a little bit higher than the opening weekend of the first movie making $23 million. “The Wild Robot” retained the #2 spot with $10 million – although some people are guessing that teenagers may be buying tickets for that movie and then sneaking into “Smile 2” or Terrifier 3”. Since there’s another horror movie in theaters, “Terrifier 3” dropped approx. 50% to $9.3 million for #3. The biggest per screen average this past weekend – with a whopping $91750 per screen – was the comedy/drama/romance “Anora” which is only playing on 6 screens right now. That’s the highest per screen average of 2024 and the highest per screen average since Wes Andersons “Asteroid City” during the summer of 2023.
The domestic box office total was $68.6 million which is down just 6% from last weekend but about 20% below the same weekend last year when the Taylor Swift movie was still doing well and the total domestic box office was $84 million.
In other domestic box office news, there are now 2 movies that are higher than ANY movie that came out in 2023. “Inside Out 2” is at $652 million for #11 on the all-time domestic box office and “Deadpool and Wolverine” just slipped ahead of “Barbie” to be the #12 on the all-time domestic box office. “Deadpool and Wolverine” is now at $636.269 million (still $12 million behind “Inside Out 2”), and “Barbie” is #13 $636.238 million.
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: “Smile 2” made approx. the same domestically as internationally for a worldwide total of $46 million. Internationally, the sequel did 41% better than the first movie did. “The Wild Robot” is also doing well internationally approaching a worldwide gross of $200 million.
OTHER NEWS: Some people are wondering how the unrated “Terrifier 2” played in so many movie theaters – including the biggest movie theater chains – since most movie theaters won’t play an unrated movie. Movie theaters say it was too good to pass up since it’s released so close to Halloween. People are also wondering how they handle the unrated movie – like an R rating or an NC-17 rating (according to the AMC website I just checked – if you’re 17 or under you need to be accompanied by AN ADULT 21 years or older to see the movie). As I’ve mentioned before, it shows how useless movie ratings have become especially since children can buy movie tickets online and hardly see any actual people going into the theater. However, all the studios and streamers are part of the MPAA so they’re obligated to get a rating. “Terrifier 3” was released by a small independent distributor.
Despite the Landmark Theater chain saying they’re committed to staying open, the judge in the bankruptcy case once again said that ALL the owners assets will need to be auctioned off or liquidated in order to pay off a $187 million personal loan guarantee. The auction will be held in 2 weeks.
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
I understand “day for night” shooting – it’s sometimes easier and cheaper to shoot in the daytime but make it look like nighttime (especially on an overcast day). “Night for day”???? You must light everything up a lot. Seems way too expensive. They couldn’t film during the daytime????
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 