The Weekend Report

It was Zootopia by several furlongs as it animated weekend viewing with an estimated $72.9 million launch. There was also good news for the debut of London Has Fallen that grossed $21.6 million in its opening while Whiskey Tango Foxtrot sputtered to $7.4 million.

The session also saw the bow of the Brit chiller The Other Side of the Door in limited wide with a shuttered $1.2 million.

Exclusive bows were generally disccouraging save for the ruminative inner journey, Knight of Cups with a $57,200 tally from four venues. In the niches both the Hindi Jai Gangaajal and Telugu Kalyana Vaibhogame were off to tepid starts with respective openings of $121,000 and $128,000. Also soft was Filipino romcom Always Be My Maybe at $108,000.

Revenues for the frame climbed to better than $155 million for a 41% boost from the immediate prior session. It was a considerably sturdier 81% improvement from 2015 when the launch of Chappie led with $13.3 million and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opened to $8.5 million.

While Zootopia’s title might evoke thoughts of Madagascar redux it toes closer to big city buddy cop yarns with a mix of stunts and wicked humor. Tracking suggested a strong start in the $65 million to $70 million arena. The film had already been launched three weeks earlier internationally and grossed about $90 million from 22 territories.

The domestic crowd tilted slightly female at 53% and very family with 73% of the audience per studio exit demos. Roughly 56% of viewers were aged 25-years and older and in light of strong reviews there’s a push to attract a hipper crowd in the coming weeks.

Back and possibly bigger Olympus Has Fallen’s Mike Banning shifts location but not the threat of global terror in London Has Fallen. Tracking indicated a potent $20 million plus debut and fans obviously turned out. To no great surprise 60% were male with 76% aged 25-years and older.

Despite a massive promotional campaign the public remained skeptical that there was a humorous side to an imbedded female war correspondent’s experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It didn’t matter that Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’s basis was a factual memoir. There was still hope going into the weekend that it could gross $10 million or $11 million but that faded as it slipped lower than viewer’s third place option. Those that did opt WTF were 56% female with 89% aged 25-years and older.

With the dust settled from Oscar’s OSW “big” winner Spotlight virtually doubled its exposure but fell short of windfall returns. The same proved true for foreign-language winner Son of Saul with the rest of the awarded crowd playing out their respective theatrical runs.

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