Friday Box Office Estimates

On one of the weeks that’s a Hollywood dead zone, no new wide releases. The story, aside from the ongoing deterioration of Justice League, is the small pictures, most of which have awards ambitions. A24’s The Disaster Artist leads the pack with $26,000 per screen on 19 in its debut. That’s about what Lady Bird started with, but on 19 screens instead of four. Impressive, though on a quicker burn. Searchlight’s The Shape of Water also debuts at roughly the same per-screen, but on two. Wonder Wheel is looking at a per-screen in the 20s in a five-screen debut. Three Billboards more than doubles its screen count, leaping to 1,430 screens, while Lady Bird expands to 1,194, with the films neck-and-neck for the weekend.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Coco reminds Pixar why they don’t open movies in November. Some of their great titles (like The Incredibles) and their weakest (The Good Dinosaur) opened in November to contextually uninspiring numbers. And now, Coco does better than Dinosaur, but not a lot better. It will be interesting to see the ethnic demos. Meanwhile, Justice League falls further behind Wonder Woman, though it is running apace with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and $250m domestic seems likely. Wonder is the surprise hit of the season (especially relative to cost). And in the battle for awards, Call Me By Your Name sets the per-screen opening record for the year with Three Billboards expanding strongly, a solid launch for Darkest Hour, and a disappointment for Denzel J. Amazing Performance, Esq.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Justice League has a better Friday/Thursday Night than Wonder Woman, but is estimated by some to open to less than Wonder Woman over the 3-day. Is WB convincing box office writers to underestimate the weekend now so that a still-soft $105 million opening for the film will seem like a win tomorrow? Probably. Meanwhile, Lionsgate is looking at its best non-Power Rangers opening in over a year, opening Wonder to $9.6 million on Friday with a good chance of gaining strength over the weekend with an appeal to younger audiences and women. Lady Bird expands nicely, as does Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Friday Box-Office Estimates

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Friday Box Office Estimates

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Friday Box Office Estimates

There are a lot of reasons why the Saw franchise didn’t resurrect itself this weekend. For one, its fanbase is out of college now, it’s been seven years since the last film, and maybe not quite ready for nostalgia. For another, the potential audience that might have been drawn in now may not be clear on what the marketing was selling, aside from cool, fast-cut shots of mayhem. Meanwhile, the other two releases (Thank You For Your Service, Suburbicon) felt – much as the films last week did – like their distributors were slow-playing them. One can’t tell from Los Angeles how U was selling their film to military families and the red states, but it didn’t connect there either. Suburbicon got slaughtered in Toronto and served up this weekend.

Friday Box Office Estimates

The only movie with a shot at $20 million is Boo 2! A Madea Halloween while four other wide releases crash and burn. All kinds of excuses are flying, but the basics are: the marketing didn’t inspire. Another classic… titles that don’t mean anything. If you asked someone who doesn’t watch trailers what Geostorm, Only The Brave, and The Snowman were about based on those titles, no one would come close. People do know what to expect from Madea, though it doesn’t look like this Halloween comedy will come close to matching the first Boo.The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Wonderstruck, and Jane will all open with over $10k per screen in exclusives.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Happy Death Day marks another big Blumhouse opener, their third original of 2017 (no sequels from Blum this year) to open over $25 million with Universal. Also landing better than expected, Jackie Chan’s The Foreigner. Open Road cautiously released Marshall into a real-life distracted marketplace to soft results, around $3250 per screen on 821. Blade Runner 2049 didn’t sink like a stone, but was not particularly buoyant either. And Annapurna launched Professor Marston & The Wonder Women to indifference, likely under $600 per screen.

Friday Box Office Estimates

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Friday Estimates

American Made is a fine measure of where Tom Cruise is right now. He can still open movies, even though people love to talk about no one being able to open movies. But he can only do so much on his own. The weekend probably ends up around $17 million, which, given how soft the sell on the film was, shouldn’t disappoint. It will be headlined as though it is. Flatliners is a head-scratcher. The cast is good… but nostalgia for that movie has a lot to do with the stars of the original who were all on the cusp of exploding. Magnolia finds a nice audience for Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky on one screen while Searchlight can’t get the ball over the net with any velocity with Battle of the Sexes now that warm-ups are over.

Friday Estimates

Kingsman 2 lands, delivering another strong opener in, most likely, the best September ever. Content, content, content. Also arriving, The Lego Ninjago Movie, a rare miss for WB these last few months, a signal that the Lego Movie Universe has a more narrow scope than the studio had hoped. Tough drops for American Assassin and mother!. Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios has its first wide-release flop with Friend Request. And Stronger has a soft start on an odd screen count of 574 screens.

Friday Box Office Estimates

It remains the story. It’s starring Michael Keaton? No, that’s on second. Does it star Jennifer Lawrence? No, that’s on third. It is on third? No, that’s on first. Let me get this clear. Reese Witherspoon is up for an Emmy… Yes. And she’s home? She’s going to The Shrine. Not home? Right. It’s not home. It’s on first. You muther… Second base!

Friday Box Office Estimates

How ’bout It?

Friday Box Office Estimates

The lame remains the same: Hitman’s Bodyguard and Annabelle top the charts for a second Friday.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Feels just like the last week in August. But it’s even uglier than usual, as only three previously-opened August releases are still in the Top 10, and the highest-grossing won’t crack $10 million. No Suicide Squad or Straight Outta Compton playing strong through the month. Both newcomers feel like late August dumps. (Remember when Weinstein opened up late August with Inglourious Basterds?) Wind River continues a nice expansion. And Beach Rats finds a good-sized audience on three.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Jackson! Reynolds! Decent number! The Hitman’s Bodyguard hits a number that can’t be called a disappointment (given the date), but yet hardly expresses box office dynamite. Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky is likewise a mixed blessing. The film should do more than double the best Bleecker Street opening ever… but will still be under $8 million on 3,031 screens. And Patti Cake$, an audience-friendly, female-led Searchlight Sundance pick-up, starts softly on 14 screens, hoping to gather steam on word-of-mouth.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Annabelle 2/”Conjuring 4″ is right where it was expected to land, maybe slightly behind. But a happy day for creepy little-girls-in-peril films. Dunkirk keeps holding strong, slightly ahead of Interstellar, but without the generous Christmas holiday that Interstellar had ahead. (Expect them to be very close in the end.) The Nut Job 2 is about 40% off of the surprise hit of the original. Spidey hits $300m domestic. Detroit drops out of the Top 10 in its second weekend. And in exclusive runs, Good Time and Ingrid Goes West score.

Friday Box Office Estimates

The Dark Weekend.

Question 1. Why did Tom Rothman do The Dark Tower cheaply? Because it can do $50m domestic and $100m international and not hurt Sony.

Question 2. Why did Kidnap get a theatrical? Because it can do $25 million in theaters and make itself more valuable in post-theatrical and in international theatrical.

Question 3. What happened to Detroit? Publicized tracking numbers set the bar too high and the film didn’t have a long enough runway to overcome the bombs that were thrown that, with a little more time, might have been defused.