SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU: Universal’s The Odyssey remained muscular after a near $26M Friday and $34.6M Saturday, posting Christopher Nolan’s best second weekend ever at the domestic box office with $87M.
That’s also as we told you before the weekend got underway, the best second weekend for a R-rated movie after Deadpool & Wolverine ($96.8M) and ahead of It‘s second frame ($60.1M). The Odyssey is already Universal’s second highest grossing R-rated movie after Nolan’s Oppenheimer ($330M) and ahead of Ted ($218.8M).
With a running a domestic total of $286.3M, The Odyssey became the highest grossing R-Rated movie of the year, ahead of Curry Barker’s Obsession ($259.8M).
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Global for the Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, John Leguziamo, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron ensemble stands at $639.6M after a massive second global frame of $215.3M. Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 crossed $1 billion, becoming the highest grossing movie of the year with $1.022B ahead of Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($1.011B) and Michael ($1.01B).
All enhanced formats — Imax, PLFs and 70MM — drove 57% of Odyssey‘s second weekend. That’s a greater percentile share than last weekend’s 53%.
Broken out we have Imax at 27% (5% from Imax 70MM and 22% digital), with PLFs at 19% (Dolby reps 4% of that figure). Of the 34 Imax 70MM screens this weekend, the top six so far are the TCL Chinese Theatre (with a massive $254K through EOD Saturday), Regal LA Live ($159K), Regal Irvine Spectrum ($146K) in Orange County, then Regal Opry Mills ($135K) in Nashville, AMC Lincoln Square NYC ($127K) and Regal UA Colorado Center in Denver ($121,6K). Top grossing pure 70MM theatre is the Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA ($83K) with the top grossing 35MM theater for the Nolan pic coming from Nitehawk Cinema in Prospect Park in NYC.
Speaking of the TCL Chinese Theatre, we hear that when it comes to actual sales plus pre-sales (through week 5), The Odyssey has become the all-time best grossing movie at the historic venue with $2.48M, topping Oppenheimer‘s run which counted $2.38M.
The takeaway here for the industry (specifically filmmakers and reps who prod studios to boost their theater counts), is that a minority of screens are driving the majority of a tentpole’s gross. A movie doesn’t need a massive 4,000-plus footprint to rake in a ton.
This weekend, The Odyssey is over indexing in the Northeast, West and most of Canada. Top markets were LA, NYC, San Fran, Dallas, Toronto, DC, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, and Seattle. AMC rang up 26% of the weekend ($15.2M so far), Regal close to 20% ($11.6M), and Cinemark 12.7% ($7.4M).
Guys are still dominant at 52% in weekend 2 according to Screen Engine/Rentrak’s PostTrak, but a little less so versus pic’s opening weekend where dudes repped 59%. The over-25 crowd remains consistent at 76% with half of the audience being 18-34. Definite recommend scores are still high with men at 84% and women at 82%.
Among the new stuff that’s counter programming, Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk and LD release of Broadway capture Hadestown is the best with $9.69M opening at 1,949 sites, which is the second biggest ever Broadway live capture pic opening after Disney’s Hamilton last September ($10.1M). That’s without any PLF screens. The pic played best in East, South, Midwest and Mountain with the AMC Dine-In Disney Springs in Florida the top grossing theater with $25K+. Hadestown originally was set to play a five-night only event, but now Bleecker is adding additional bookings and showtimes. This past week it was announced that Crosswalk and LD are doing George Michael: The Faith Tour which is debuting later this year in Imax.
IFC’s noir Motor City pulled in an estimated $850K on Friday (including previews) and went to $471K on Saturday resulting in a $1.625M opening at 1,600 for the distrib’s TIFF acquisition. Rotten Tomatoes audience score on the avant garde film is 64%, not far from its 66% fresh critics score. This is a really clever innovative noir. Hopefully more audiences can find it.
Neon’s Nicolas Winding Refn movie, Her Private Hell, did $270K on Friday (including Thursday previews) and then $105K on Saturday, for a $530K opening outside the top 10 at 670 locales. That start is just under Refn’s last film, 2016’s Neon Demon, starring Elle Fanning which debuted to $589K at 783 theaters and ended its run at $1.3M, that Amazon theatrical release distributed by the late Broad Green Pictures (this was back in the day when Amazon didn’t have a theatrical distribution arm). Refn has been working it, tub thumping his first movie in ten years. How’s that? “I fell down a rabbit hole with streaming,” he says in the IG post below, while emphasizing “polarization is success.”
In addition, the Her Private Hell cast Sophie Thatcher, 2x Emmy Beef nominee Charles Melton and Havana Rose Liu has been out there doing interviews since Cannes. One of the mega takeaways from the movie is its classical score from 85-year old Italian composer Pino Donaggio who worked on several Brain De Palma films. No RT audience score.
No CinemaScores or PostTrak audience exits for Hadestown, Her Private Hell and Motor City.
The overall three-day marketplace in North America sans a major studio wide entry stands around $140.6M, -25% off from a year ago, when Disney/Marvel Studio’s opened Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Chart as of Sunday AM:
- The Odyssey (Uni) 3,924 (+23) theaters, Fri $25.9M (-49% from last Friday), 3-day $87M (-30%), Total $286.3M/Wk 2
- Moana (Dis) 4,015 (-185) theaters, Fri $3.1M (-45%), Sat $4.1M, Sun $3.3M 3-day $10.5M (-41%), Total $102.4M/Wk 3
- Toy Story 5 (Dis) 3,375 (-25) theaters, Fri $2.9M (-32%) Sat $4M Sun $3.1M 3-day $10M (-27%), Total $448.5M/Wk 6
- Minions & Monsters (Uni) 3,386 (-124) theaters, Fri $2.89M (-34%), Sat $3.8M Sun $2.88M 3-day $9.6M (-30%), total $155.3M/Wk 4
- Hadestown (BST) 1,949 theaters Fri $4M, Sat $3.1M, Sun $2.5M 3-day $9.69M/Wk 1
- Evil Dead Burn (New Line) 2,385 (-619) theaters, Fri $800K (-46%) Sat $1.1M Sun $710K , 3-day $2.6M (-45%), Total $29.2M/Wk 3
- The Invite (A24) 2,032 (-78) theaters, Fri $768K (-32%) Sat $1M Sun $800K 3-day $2.6M (-26%), Total $19.8M/Wk 5
- Young Washington (Angel) 2,029 (-246) theaters, Fri $567K Sat $800K Sun $624K 3-day $1.99M (-51%), Total $44.9M/Wk 4
- Motor City (IFC) 1,600 theaters, Fri $850K Sat $471K Sun $304K 3-day $1.625M/Wk 1
- Obsession (Foc) 1,203 (-321) theaters, Fri $480K (-41%) Sat $620K Sun $400K 3-day $1.5M (-37%) Total $261.3M/Wk 11
11. Jana Nayagan (PMP) 415 theaters, Fri $260K Sat $280K Sun $200K 3-day $740K/Total $1.35M/Wk 1
The movie in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu is posting big numbers in Toronto, Seattle, Vancouver, Dallas, NYC and Austin. The H. Vinoth directed and written action movie stars Joseph Vijay and follows ideological enemies –one a populist, another an authoritarian–who meet again after a child’s fear awakens old conflicts, and pulls an ex-cop into a struggle beyond vengeance.
Notables:
Her Private Hell (NEON) 675 theaters, Fri $275K, Sat $150K, Sun $105K, 3-day $530K/Wk
UPDATED, FRIDAY PM: Well, it is clear the weekdays showed how much of a driving force Universal’s The Odyssey would be, and the feature take of Homer’s epic poem is headed for a second frame of $84.5 million, the best a Christopher Nolan film has ever seen. If that estimate holds, it will top his previous second-weekend high, for 2008’s The Dark Knight ($75.1M). Some rivals today believe the movie can even hit $90M.
Among R-rated movies, The Odyssey is currently bound for the second-best second weekend ever behind Deadpool & Wolverine‘s $96.8M in 2024.
The theater count for The Odyssey moves to 3,942, up by 23, with a second-frame dip of 32%. Pic’s second Friday is $26M.
In second place this weekend will be Disney’s Moana with a third Friday of $3M, a third weekend around $10M, -44%, at 4,015 sites. That will get the Dwayne Johnson live-action take of the 2016 animated pic across the century mark by end of Sunday.
Third is Disney/Pixar’s sixth weekend of Toy Story 5 with around $9.4M at 3,375, -31%, and a running cume of $447.9M by Sunday. Today is looking like $2.8M.
Fourth goes to Minions & Monsters from Illumination/Universal at 3,386 theaters. It is looking at a Friday of $2.7M, a fourth frame of $9M, -34%, and a running total of $154.7M.
Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk and LD Entertainment’s Hadestown is in fifth with about $3.5M and an opening between $7.5M-$9M at 1,949 locations. These event movies are known to be front-loaded.
We’ll have more updates for you tomorrow.
Everett Collection
PREVIOUSLY, FRIDAY AM: It’s been double-digit millions every day for Universal’s Christopher Nolan movie The Odyssey, which after a $17.6 million Thursday — a remarkably slim 3% dip from Wednesday’s $18M — ends its first week at the North American box office with $199.3M at 3,919 theaters.
Among Nolan movies in their first week, The Odyssey (similar to its $123.5M weekend opening) is third behind The Dark Knight ($238.6M) and The Dark Knight Rises ($225M) and ahead of Oppenheimer ($127.8M) and Inception ($100.1M). The second-weekend outlook for Odyssey is between $61M-$74M, but it’s clear from the weekday grosses that this Matt Damon movie has momentum. Nolan’s biggest second weekend at the domestic box office to date belongs to Dark Knight ($75.1M).
Specialty titles are serving as counterprogramming this weekend, with the Broadway live feature capture of Hadestown from Bleecker Street’s event cinema division Crosswalk and LD Entertainment making $1.5M in previews Thursday. Very good. Opening range for the event pic is $8M-$10M, and critics are currently 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with audiences at 99%.
The movie is on track to have the second-highest opening weekend for a Broadway capture behind only Disney’s Hamilton ($10.1M), which was released following its Disney+ debut during Covid on September 5 last year.
IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
IFC’s Potsy Ponciroli’s gritty, R-rated dialogue-less crime noir Motor City revved up with $475,000 in overall previews that include Thursday night screenings and Monday mystery screenings. That’s a great number for IFC, right there in between the previews for Late Night With the Devil ($317K previews, $2.8M opening) and Clown in a Cornfield ($600K previews, $3.6M opening). The hope is for walk-up business on this pic starring Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley and Ben Foster, which was great last night at 65%. Critics are at 65% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Neon’s Nicolas Winding Refn-directed fashionista genre kung-fu noir Her Private Hell starring Sophie Thatcher and Beef Emmy nominee Charles Melton grossed $125K in previews. Refn is in L.A. all weekend doing Q&As for the film, as well as following a 10 p.m. show tonight at the American Cinematheque for the 15th anniversary of Drive; there was an L.A. premiere on Tuesday night with Thatcher, Melton and Havana Rose Liu.
Following the movie’s out-of-competition premiere in Cannes, Refn took the movie on the road for advance screenings in L.A., NYC and Chicago. It’s the third time he’s teamed with Neon’s Tom Quinn, who handled Refn’s Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling at Radius as well as the Pusher movies at Magnolia. Critical score on Her Private Hell is 45% rotten. Mubi has a majority of overseas on the pic which cost in the mid-single-digits before P&A.
