The Weekend Report

Show Me the Honey!

Mission: Impossible – Fallout proved its mettle and continued to lead weekend movie going with an estimated $35.3 million. Three new national releases entered the fray with the family friendly Christopher Robin slotting second with $25 million and the comic mash-up The Spy Who Dumped Me one spot back with $12.2 million. However, there was no yeah for the YA The Darkest Minds that bowed with $5.7 million.

In limited wide release the political tract Death of a Nation displayed a faint pulse with a $2.3 million debut. New Indian imports also largely failed to connect apart from the Telugu Goodachari that opened with $514,000 from 148 venues. Other niche newcomers saw a strong start for the Korean sequel Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days that grossed $311,000 from 48 screens and a bland $45,700  for the Filipino comedy Kusina Kings.

The sole exclusive entry to display signs of life was the Sundance winner The Miseducation of Cameron Post that opened with $53,200 from two engagements.

Revenues for the session topped $140 million and slid back 11% from the prior weekend. It was still a 15% improvement from 2017 when the debut of The Dark Tower led with $19.1 million and the third weekend of Dunkirk added $17.1 million.

An aggressive marketing campaign helped to put across the fanciful Christopher Robin even if it failed to reach high end predictions of a $30 million launch. The literary protagonist viewed in adulthood re-connects with Winnie-the-Pooh and you can guess the rest. It didn’t help that last year’s Goodbye Christopher Robin _ a more traditional telling of the creation of the beloved characters _ also debuted in cable rotation this week.

Exit demos identified the audience as 56% female with half of viewers aged 25-years and older. Roughly 60% of respondents identified as families.

The picture also dipped its toe into 18 international markets and generated almost $5 million. A studio exec said the picture poses hurdles outside English territories and Asian markets where the characters are well known. Nonetheless the initial top grossing nations were Mexico with $1.4 million and Russia that opened to $1.2 million. The UK opens in two weeks.

Critics generally characterized The Spy Who Dumped Me as the “dumb” action-comedy audiences have been anxiously awaiting. While verging on hyperbole, it nonetheless debuted with a commercial punch that was on target as far as tracking was concerned. Its domestic audience was 62% female with 70% aged 25-years and older.

With echoes of the likes of the The Maze Runner and X-Men franchises the bestselling youth novel The Darkest Minds appeared primed to become a potent movie trilogy. However signs of audience fatigue for the genre were evident from the on-set of previews and industry honchos felt it was likely to spiral downward with a dire $5 million or $6 million start. The studio clearly wants to press on and opted not to send out exit demos.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•