SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU, after Saturday AM post: Well, it’s clear, the summer moviegoing pace is over at the box office with fall distractions setting in as the entire weekend at $83.4M (per Rentrak), -44% off from a year ago ($124.5M) when Warner Bros/New Line opened Conjuring Last Rights to a franchise high of $84M.
Warner Bros/Alcon’s Practical Magic 2 filed $30M domestic, at the lower end of forecasts, but still is within the mean of Sandra Bullock starts, i.e. Lost City ($30.4M), The Proposal ($33.6M) and The Blind Side ($34.1M). Yes, Warners has certainly fared substantially better in the post Labor Day frame with not only last year’s Conjuring but also Beetlejuice Beetlejuice two years ago and the It franchise pre-Covid.
The sequel to the 1990s romantic drama is a smaller core female play, not a massive one. Also, given the substantial older female audience here, they’ll head to this movie by appointment viewing. There’s an audience, just not as big as a Devil Wears Prada. Meanwhile, all the prestige adult titles, largely aimed at men, didn’t find a pulse.
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Working in Practical Magic 2‘s favor is that the under 25 female audience grew by 10 points between Thursday and yesterday to 23%. There’s enough bright diagnostics though to keep this female property (overall 78% turnout, 69% women over 25, 36% over 45) potentially humming in the fall with 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, 4.5 out of 5 stars on Postmark, and a very good 72% definite recommend. Those 35-49 at 31% gave the sequel an A- CinemaScore. Overall B+ CinemaScore is head of the 1998’s original of B-. The pic cost a net of $75M, financed 50/50 with Alcon.
Top 10 markets were 1.) Los Angeles, 2.) New York 3. Dallas 4. Phoenix 5. Houston 6. San Francisco 7. Seattle 8. Chicago 9. Denver 10. Salt Lake City.
The top 10 locations overall are: 1. AMC Burbank, 2. AMC Grove Los Angeles, 3. Harkins
Mountain Grove Los Angeles, 4. AMC Lincoln Square New York, 5. AMC Disney Springs
Orlando, 6. Harkins Estrella Falls Phoenix, 7. Cinemark Century 16 Corpus Christi, 8. AMC
Century City Los Angeles, 9. AMC Universal Citywalk Los Angeles, and 10. Cinemark
Rialto Los Angeles.
Practical Magic 2‘s social media reach across X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook stood at 573.6M before opening, higher than Freakier Friday (460.2M), Snow White (534.2M), and Cruella (424.7M). “Cast activation runs stronger as four of eight cast members are activated: Joey King brings 36.6M fans, followed by Nicole Kidman at 25.9M, Xolo Maridueña at 10.1M, Maisie Williams at 9.8M and Sandra Bullock at 5.5M,” reports RelishMix. Overall, word of mouth online is positive per RelishMix with 8.2 out of 10.
PLFs are accounting for 35% of the weekend so far with the best ares of play in South, South Central, Midwest and Mountain regions. AMC Burbank in LA has the highest gross so far for the sequel with $65K. Updated diversity demos are 67% Caucasian, 22% Latino and Hispanic, 6% Black, 2% Asian American and 3% Native American/other.
Here’s the top 10:
1.) Practical Magic 2 4,146 theaters (WB) Fri $13M Sat $10.1M Sun $6.8M 3-day $30M/Wk 1
2.) Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Sony) 3,303 (-217) theaters, Fri $2M (-48%) Sat $3.85M Sun $2.55M 3-day $8.4M (-54%) Total $935.1M/Wk 7
3.) The Odyssey (Uni) 1,983 (-329) theaters, Fri $2.08M (-34%) Sat $3.1M Sun $2.19M 3-day $7.4M (-43%), Total $600.5M/Wk 9
4.) Runner (Angel) 2,568 theaters, Fri $2.5M Sat $2.2M Sun $1.8M 3-day $6.67M/Wk 1
CinemaScore A-. Best areas of play are the Angel regions of South, Midwest and Mountain regions. Almost 26% of their gross came from the South vs a norm of 18.7% for all other titles. The AMC Thoroughbred 20 in Franklin, TN is the pic’s best location with close to $17K. Over 55 demo the biggest at 32%, 54% guys, and 51% Caucasian, 21% Latino and Hispanic, 11% Asian, and 10% Black.
5.) Coyote vs. Acme (Ketchup) 3,355 (-372) theaters, Fri $1.43M (-45%) Sat $2.66M Sun $2.1M 3-day $6.23M (-47%), Total $47.76M/Wk 3
6.) Buddy (RSA/Saban) 1,719 (-52) theaters, Fri $981K (-36%) Sat $1.45M Sun $1.089M 3-day $3.5M (-39%) Total $21.2M/Wk 3
By end of today, horror pic will have passed Roadside Attraction’s The Peanut Butter Falcon ($20.4M).
7.) Insidious Out of the Further (Sony) 2,353 theaters, Fri $960K Sat $1.5M Sun $875K, 3-day $3.35M (-48%), Total $60.5M/Wk 4
8.) Hope (NEON) 1,560 theaters, Fri $975K, Sat $1.3M Sun $1M 3-day $3.3M, Total $5M/Wk 1
The 25-34 set is the largest number of attendees at 40%. PLFs are repping 16% of the gross. West is the best with 35% of the gross vs. 25% norm of other titles. AMC Burbank is the Korean sci-fi pic’s biggest location at $29,4K so far. Sixty-two percent guys (there are adult prestige films this weekend aimed at guys). 30% Latino and Hispanic, 28% Caucasian, 24% Asian American, 13% Black, 5% Native American and other. The movie is 3 hours long.
9. The Uprising (Foc) 2,068 theaters, Fri $1.39M Sat $1.1M Sun $720K, 3-day $3.25M/Wk 1
B- CinemaScore. Not so good here. Any cash is in the West with the AMC Century City is now the top grossing location with $15,5K. As we told you, Focus paid around $11M for North America on the feature. By the way this Robin Hood movie is just a little bit higher than A24’s from the summer, Death of Robin Hood, at $2.8M (and a final of $5.3M). 58% guys, biggest quad is 25-34 at 40%.
10.) By Any Means (Par) 2,903 theaters, Fri $745K (-73%) Sat $1M Sun $670K 30-day $2.5M (-67%), Total $13.48M/Wk 2
11.) Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger (Dis) 1,225 theaters, Fri $806K Sat $335K Sun $284K 3-day $1.42M/Wk 1
FRIDAY PM: Warner Bros/Alcon’s Practical Magic 2 is looking at a $12.5M Friday on its way to a $30M weekend opening stateside at 4,146 theaters.
That opening isn’t that far from Bullock’s The Lost City ($30.4M opening, which wound up at $105.3M final in North America). It’s also slightly under the opening of her 2009 Ryan Reynolds rom-com, The Proposal ($33.6M start, $163.9M final domestic).
Hopefully, it’s not too front loaded, which is the tendency for female-driven features. There’s still hope: the movie received a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Further complicating the box office, is that it’s the first weekend of NFL, but that will largely impact holdovers. Read, it’s not 100% that Sony/Marvel Studio’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day beats Star Wars: Force Awakens by Sunday to become the highest grossing movie of all-time at the domestic box office with more than $936.6M. Weekend outlook has the seventh sesh of Spidey at $8.3M at 3,303 locations, -54%, for a running total of $935M by Sunday.
Universal’s The Odyssey will clear the six century point by Sunday after a ninth weekend of $8.1M, -38% at 1,983 sites. Today is $2.1M.
Ketchup Entertainment’s Coyote Vs. Acme refuses to die in fourth with a $1.3M third Friday and a third weekend of $5.8M, -52% for a running cume of $47.3M by EOD Sunday. The $50M Ketchup acquisition has amassed over $73M at the global box office to date.
Angel Studio’s Runner at 2,568 sites is looking at $2.1M today for a $5.4M opening in fifth. The Owen Wilson and Alan Ritchson action movie is 70% fresh with critics. Ok.
NEON’s Hope is seeing $1M Friday for a 3-day of $3.6M, and five-day of $5.3M at 1,560 sites. Pic is currently 79% certified fresh with critics and 79% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.
Focus Features’ $11M acquisition of Andrew Garfield Robin Hood movie The Uprising is looking at $1.3M today for a $3M opening. Critics are meh at 52% Rotten and audiences similar at 62%.
FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Practical Magic 2 came well ahead of where we were seeing it with $4.7 million in previews Thursday at 3,200 locations. Many millennial and Gen Z women adore this property, so the hope is that it, of course, it overperforms.
By the way, Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with a running cume of $926.7M, is now less than $10M away from becoming the highest-grossing movie ever at the domestic box office, overtaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936.6M). That record should happen this weekend. The Destin Daniel Cretton-directed movie ended its sixth week with $27M.
We’ll have more updates for you later.
PREVIOUSLY, THURSDAY PM: Warner Bros and Alcon’s Practical Magic 2 starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman is off to a solid start in previews with an estimated $3.5 million to $4 million after showtimes that began Thursday at 2 p.m.
Those figures are higher than the previews of Bullock’s 2022 romantic adventure pic The Lost City ($2.5M, $31M 3-day opening) and the 2022 George Clooney-Julia Roberts romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise ($1.1M previews, $16.5M opening). The preview cash is also a notch above Warner Bros/MRC’s Wuthering Heights $3M Thursday, which turned into a $32.8M 3-day opening. Even if this $70M net production files an opening between $30M-$35M domestic, it’s not cursed.
Practical Magic 2 will have the power of PLFs this weekend, notably Dolby Cinema. Alcon financed 50% of the Bullock and Kidman reteam.
Critics are harsh on the sequel at 36%, but they also tried to cast a bad spell on the original 1998 movie at 29% Rotten. That pic opened to No. 1 at $13.1M back on October 16-18, 1998 and finaled at $46.7M domestic, $94.4M worldwide with a B- CinemaScore (sometimes moviegoers in their CinemaScores can be harder on features based on novels). The international outlook for part 2 in 77 territories sans China is between $18M-$23M.
Neon
Neon’s sci-fi alien invasion movie Hope written and directed by Na Hong-jin opened yesterday to $1.1M at 1,506 theaters. That included $305,000 in previews. The pic is expected to do the mid-single digits in its 5-day debut. The pic was a smash in its home country of South Korea, grossing over $36M and ranking No. 1 two weekends in a row. Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander play aliens in the pic.
Also opening this weekend is Disney’s documentary Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger and Angel Studios’ Runner.
Tonight’s previews are estimates from sources. We’ll have the actual reported figure from Warner Bros on Friday morning.
