Industry News
by saidiontheside

saidi’s take – 1/28/2025

Hello everyone,

BOX OFFICE: The box office slump of January continues.  Only 1 movie made over $10 million this past weekend.  The new movie “Flight Risk” was #1 with approx. $11.6 million.  This is the 2nd #1 movie of 2025 for Lionsgate which is a big improvement over 2024 when they had no #1 releases.  #2 was last weeks #1 movie “Mufasa: The Lion King” with approx. $8.6 million. 

Overall domestic box office was only $64.7 million.  During peak movie seasons, ONE MOVIE can make that in a weekend.  It’s down approx. 17% from the 3-day previous weekend but it was apporx 15.7% MORE than the same weekend last year which made approx. $54.5 million.

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: “Mufasa: The Lion King” is still in the lead worldwide.  It’s foreign box office this weekend was $15.4 million and its worldwide total is now $625 million.  “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” is also in 2nd internationally and its worldwide total is now approaching $450 million.  Also, “Paddington in Peru” is now open in several foreign countries (it opens domestically next month) and its worldwide total is currently $83 million.  “Moana 2” now has a worldwide total of $1.025 billion which makes it the #3 Walt Disney Animated Studios release and it is approaching the top 10 best animated movies ever (it’s just slightly behind Pixars “Finding Dory” which is $1.029 billion which is currently #10).

OTHER NEWS:

“HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA – CHAPTER 2” will open domestically in just a couple weeks, but it will only have one showing at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.  There’s still no date for a theatrical or streaming release for the “chapter 2” movie. 

Another company has recently made a bid for Paramount Pictures.  However, the special committee working on the merger between Paramount and Skydance said the window for other bidders expired several months ago.  Not sure why the new company decided to make a bid so late but the committee said it won’t even be considered.

LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:

A lot of people live through that when they’re sick.  You’re feeling better at night but you feel worse in the morning.  However, some people guess that Bill Murrays character repeated the “Groundhogs Day” over and over FOR YEARS.  The director once said it “was probably around 10 years.  That would make the movie a horror movie.