FRIDAY PM UPDATE: Street Fighter is currently coming in at the lower end of expectations with a $30M opening after a $12.5M Friday (including previews) at 3,575 theaters, which includes previews. Hopefully Saturday can keep it together with family traffic. Note, the only MLB playoff game this weekend is between Tampa Bay and the Cleveland Guardians, so don’t expect a slowdown at the box office.
Interesting to note that the opening here alone is close to what the original 1994 take on the Capcom game finaled at which was $33.4M (unadjusted for inflation). That pic starred Jean-Claude Van Damme and opened to $6.8M via Universal.
The first Legendary title under its new deal with Paramount had a big social media universe grab heading into the weekend with 920.6M from TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. That’s bigger than other videogame movies, Legendary’s Minecraft Movie (772.4M), Mortal Kombat 2 (452.6M) and Five Nights at Freddy‘s (488.5M). This is all according to RelishMix. One of the big early September pushes for Street Fighter was a novel playable “The Street Fighter Combo Trailer” which launched on YouTube Playables, which placed film footage inside a virtual arcade cabinet and utilized game-style mechanics.
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The Rotten Tomatoes audience score for Street Fighter is currently at 80%, not far from the 86% of Mortal Kombat 2, which was rated-R, but based on a similar martial arts video game born during the Gen X era.
A24’s You Can See Everything with a 99% RT audience score and an expected opening around $12M after a $5.3M Friday (including previews) at 885 theaters is bound to unseat Melania which debuted to $7.1M and was called the best opening for a documentary in ten years. The intel we have shows that You Can See Everything is the second best opening for a documentary in the past 17 years (not counting concert films), behind 2004’s Fahrenheit 9/11 ($23.9M) and ahead of Disney’s 2012 Chimpanzee at $10.6M. The Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim-directed trippy non-fiction film follows Theranos architect Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans in the run-up to the former’s stay in a federal prison.
Universal Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s Other Mommy at 3,370 theaters is posting a second Friday of $2.4M and second weekend of $7.4M in third, -73%, for a running cume of $43.9M. That drop after last weekend’s D+ CinemaScore is to be expected.
Getting beached is 20th Century Studio’s Whalefall with a $2.6M Friday (including previews) and $6M-$7M opening, far below the $11M that tracking was spotting. Many enjoy watching Austin Abrams getting swallowed by zombies, Zach Cregger style. No one wants to watch him go through a Pinocchio experience, meaning being eaten by a whale. The audience score is 82% on RT.
Focus Features’ Sense & Sensibility at 2,545 sites is seeing a Friday of $3M, and 3-day of $6M. That result is just $600K shy of the $6.6M that Focus’ Conclave opened to, but that was in fewer theaters, that being 1,753. No RT audience score yet. The previous 1995 Ang Lee-directed take of the Jane Austen classic was a platform release back in the day, but legged its way to a $43.4M domestic final.
UPDATE after exclusive: Paramount/Legendary/Capcom’s Street Fighter rang up exactly what we saw last night, $4 million in previews, while A24’s zany Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything filed $1.75M, but with awesome exits (e.g., 92% definite recommend, 100% positive score).
20th Century Studios’ Whalefall was at $900,000 from Thursday’s showtimes, while Focus Features’ Sense & Sensibility revival in all previews (not just last night) did $1.15M.
You Can See Everything drew 50-50 male-female while the Gen-Z’ers came out in bulk at 75% under 35 in Los Angeles and New York last night. Letterboxd is now up to 4.7 and ranking among the top 50 movies of all time.
Whalefall, which was shot in California for a net $60M, follows Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams), who after the death of his father (Josh Brolin) goes diving off the central coast in search of his remains and is swallowed by a massive sperm whale. While trapped inside its belly with only one hour of oxygen left, Jay comes to realize that the hard-earned lessons his father imparted may be the key to his escape.
The thriller is booked at 3,065 theatres including 500 Premium Large Format screens and 250 D-Box/Motion screens. Last night’s previews are far below the $2M made by the recent fall thriller Heart of the Beast, which went on to open to $20M (granted, that one starred Brad Pitt).
The Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t going to the World Series again this year as the Milwaukee Brewers swept them out of the National League Championship Series last night. Tampa Bay and Cleveland are still duking it out in the ALCS with games tonight and Saturday. Translation: This year’s World Series won’t have any impact on box office capitals New York City and L.A.
Below is this week’s top 5:
1.) Other Mommy (Uni) 3,365 theaters, Wk $36.5M/Wk 1
2.) Verity (AMZ) 3,572 theaters, Wk $17.5M (-59%), Total $59.9M/Wk 2
3.) Resident Evil (Sony) 3,085 theaters, Wk $12.8M (-28%), Total $142.9M/Wk 4
4.) Heart of the Beast (Par) 3,365 theaters, Wk $10.9M (-28%), Total $53.4M/Wk 3
5.) Forgotten Island (Uni) 2,898 theaters, Wk $7.09M (-24%), Total $32.8M/Wk 3
PREVIOUSLY, Thursday EXCLUSIVE: Paramount/Legendary’s PG-13 take of the Capcom video game Street Fighter is off to a solid start Thursday night with around $4 million after showtimes that began at 2 p.m. (further boosted by a 7 p.m. fan showtime). The expectation is for the fisticuffs feature to open north of $30M; the pic cost a net $82M co-financed by Legendary and Capcom.
Per sources, Street Figther‘s preview estimate is under the $5.2M Thursday made by New Line’s R-rated Mortal Kombat 2, based on the Midway video game and which bowed in mid-May. One of the main differences between the two martial arts video games is that Street Fighter debuted in 1987, while Mortal Kombat followed in pizza parlors and arcades in 1992.
Mortal Kombat 2 earlier this year had previews that began at 3 p.m. with a first Friday of $16.8M and 3-day of $38.5M. There’s a mid-fall break going on now, which will hopefully trigger traffic to Street Fighter; Rentrak reports 21% K-12 schools off and 7% colleges. Street Fighter‘s previews are also ahead of Paramount’s 2020 pre-Covid Sonic the Hedgehog at $3M, leading to a first Friday of $20.9M and 3-day of $58M. However, that pic played over the Presidents Day holiday frame and was rated PG. Critics bruised Street Fighter with 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Impressive for the anomaly that it is out of the gate, the three-hour documentary You Can See Everything from A24 is filing around $2M in previews that began at 3 p.m. By comparison, the last documentary to post the decade’s best start at the domestic box office, Amazon MGM Studios’ Melania, bowed to $7.1M sans previews.
Lance Oppenheim co-directed You Can See Everything with the doc’s host Nathan Fielder, who follows fallen Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes before her stint in federal prison. Oppenheim’s previous movie, also his first narrative feature, this fall’s Primetime, posted previews of $2.7M; those began at 4 p.m. and turned into an $18.8M opening. Conservative estimates heading into this weekend had You Can See Everything in the high single-digit range, but confidence is growing that this critically acclaimed (100% fresh RT and 98% RT audience score) movie can open to north of $10M, which would outstrip Melania‘s previous opening domestic record for a documentary. You Can See Everything was shot over four years and cost less than $10M, with a marketing budget that was also under $10M.
Focus Features’ Sense & Sensibilityand 20th Century Studios’ Whalefall also held previews today, both beginning at 2 p.m.; sources estimate they’re around $1M apiece. We will have official studio reported figures Friday AM.
Sense & Sensibility is expected to open around $8M, while Whalefall, based on the Daniel Kraus thriller novel, is eyeing a Friday-Sunday that’s north of $11M. Sense & Sensibility is 76% fresh with critics, while Whalefall stands at 70% fresh.
