The real clown of the month made its way to theaters, killing anything on his path.
Terrifier 3 over-performed projections, topping the box office. The rest of the newcomers were not impressive; Piece by Piece had a soft start, while Saturday Night and The Apprentice bombed. In some good news, A24's We Live in Time got off to a very strong start in 5 theaters.
The big story of the weekend, however, was Joker: Folie à Deux, which broke so many records in all the wrong ways, by collapsing over 80% on its second weekend.
The Top 10 earned a combined $63.6 million this weekend. That's off a massive 50% from last year, when Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour opened with over $90 million.
Debuting in 2,514 theaters, Terrifier earned $18.8 million this weekend. That's a fantastic start, already passing the lifetime grosses of the previous two films combined. It's also impressive considering it was unrated.
While the previous films were considered niche in the horror genre, with the second barely hitting 1,550 theaters on its widest weekend, it's clear that the franchise's popularity has massively increased. Horror icons have been lacking compared to the 80s slasher era, but it looks like Art the Clown has finally achieved his time at the spotlight. And the amount of promotion on how brutal and gory the film can be also builds buzz, which in turn raises awareness for the film.
According to Cineverse, 61% of the audience was male and 37% was in the 18-24 demographic. They gave it a solid "B" on CinemaScore, which is quite good considering the brutal nature of the film. Of course, the film has to face Smile 2 this weekend, but perhaps it has enough good will to hold well through the month. Unsurprisingly, a fourth film is already in development.
Universal/DreamWorks' The Wild Robot eased just 26% and added $14 million this weekend. The film has amassed $84.2 million and it should continue to hold well.
In third place, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice dipped just 28% and added $7.32 million. That takes its domestic total to $275.8 million.
After its disastrous start last weekend, it was clear Joker: Folie à Deux was going to face a steep drop. The signs were already there during its opening weekend; Friday accounted for 53.7% of its weekend gross, indicating it was going to be front-loaded. The weekday grosses confirmed it would make huge competition to claim a record. And boy, did it get it.
Joker: Folie à Deux fell all the way to the fourth spot, earning just $7 million this weekend. That represents a colossal 81.4% drop, which is completely catastrophic. This drop is worse than The Marvels (78.1%), passing it as the second worst second weekend drop for a comic book film. What's the worst? A film called Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (87.4%), although Joker now holds the record for any film playing at 1,000+ theaters.
The drop is also roughly on par with Gigli (81.9%), a film that vanished from theaters after just 3 weeks. And that's despite the film keeping PLF screens and without much competition.
Through ten days, the film has grossed an abysmal $51.5 million. The opening weekend was already 61% behind the original Joker, and the film is now a colossal 73% behind through the same point. The 2-week theater contracts end this Thursday, and the film will lose so many theaters. With more competition on the way, it will continue falling apart. The film has lost whatever chance it had of hitting $65 million, and there's a strong chance it will miss $60 million as well. Talk about complete rejection.
Focus Features' Piece by Piece debuted with just $3.8 million in 1,865 theaters. Even though the film is a LEGO film, there's no point comparing it to other titles like WB's films.
Pharrell Williams is clearly a beloved and popular figure in music circles. And the fact that the film would be told through LEGO lens gives it a unique look compared to other biopics. But that in turn raised some weird questions over the film; was it for kids or adults? And despite being considered a biopic, the film is actually a documentary, a medium that has a ceilling at the box office. So despite the good reviews, it's a film that clearly aims for a niche audience. No wonder it cost just $16 million.
According to Focus, 58% of the audience was male and 40% was in the 18-24 demographic. They gave it a great "A" on CinemaScore, which bodes well for its legs. Documentaries often leg out, and this probably won't be any different. At the end of the day, Focus kept the budget low, so it's not gonna be a big loss here.
In sixth place, Paramount's Transformers One eased just 30% and added $3.7 million this weekend. That takes its domestic total to $52.9 million, and it's fighting to get over the $60 million milestone.
After two weeks in limited release, Sony launched Jason Reitman's Saturday Night into 2,309 theaters. But the film flopped with just $3.4 million, finishing in seventh place. Those numbers are way off from what Reitman got with the wide expansions of June and Up in the Air.
While the film got a strong PTA on its first weekend, the film saw a very poor increase the previous weekend during an expansion, indicating that it would struggle outside New York and Los Angeles. And that's what happened; Deadline reported that sales across the country were very flat, with the East Coast doing the most heavy-lifting.
The trailers showed promise, and the familiarity to Saturday Night Live would've made for an entertaining film. But as the weeks closed in, it was clear the film would not be anything more than "eh, it's good." It premiered at TIFF, where it disappointed by failling to place in the Top 3. The film has fine reviews, but it had very little passion outside festivals. Reitman himself has failed to replicat the success of his previous awards darlings; while Juno and Up in the Air were sleeper hits at the box office and Oscars, his films have been lacking for the past decade. Just look at stuff like Labor Day, Men, Women & Children and The Front Runner, all of which got weak reviews and got zero awards.
There's also the problem with trying to find an audience for the film. The film depicts the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975, but it's difficult to get people excited over it. If a person was 20-something when the first episode premiered, they'd be in their 70s now. Young audiences may watch the show, but that doesn't mean they'll be interested in seeing a BTS on the very first episode on theaters. And while the film has an ensemble cast, none of them move the needle at the box office. The cast includes Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O'Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and J. K. Simmons. While people may know them, that doesn't mean they'll watch anything with them.
According to Sony, 54% of the audience was male. 55% was in the 18-34 demographic, while 44% was 35 and over. They gave it a middling "B+" on CinemaScore, which is not bad, but not great either. With a slate of adult dramas on the way, it's very likely Saturday Night will get lost in the shuffle. If its home country is disinterested, why would the rest of the world (where the show is even less popular or non-existent) save it? Despite keeping the budget at $30 million, the film is gonna be a box office bomb, as the foreign markets will ignore the title.
My Hero Academia: You're Next debuted with $3 million in 1,845 theaters. As always, these kinds of films are always front-loaded, so expect it to fade away very quickly.
Disney re-released The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1,700 theaters, earning $2.4 million. That takes its lifetime gross to $90 million.
Rounding up the Top 10 was the week's other newcomer, Briarcliff's The Apprentice. It debuted in 1,740 theaters, but it flopped with just $1.6 million. That's a poor, but sadly predictable outcome.
Since its premiere in Cannes, the film struggled to find a distributor. And the premise didn't help matters; a film focused on a young Donald Trump is a very hard sell. Trump's supporters will obviously not watch it, but his haters will also hesitate in paying to see a movie with him. Even if the premise is to show his worst aspects, that's still not something his haters would be interested in watching. It's just very difficult to sell it.
According to Briarcliff, 55% of the audience was male. It skewed old; 63% of the audience was 35, and 28% was 55 or over. They gave it a weak "B–" on CinemaScore, which suggests it will continue to struggle in finding an audience. Perhaps that recent comment where Trump condemned the film should be posted on the marketing. No such as bad press.
The Substance continues its crazy run. While it continues losing theaters, the film dipped an insane 19% and adding $1.1 million this weekend. The word-of-mouth hit has now earned $11.7 million.
In limited release, A24's We Live in Time earned $225,911 in 5 theaters. That translates to a strong $45,182 per-theater average, ranking as the fourth best of the year. Of course, a strong performance in limited release does not equal to a similar performance when it goes wide (just look at Saturday Night). A24 will expand it in the coming weeks, and we'll keep an eye on this one.
OVERSEAS
DreamWorks' The Wild Robot topped the overseas box office, adding $24.1 million and taking its worldwide total to $149.3 million. It had very solid debuts in France ($3M), Spain ($2.3M), Italy ($1.9M), and Brazil ($1.4M). Its best markets are Mexico ($10.8M), Australia ($9.4M), China ($7M), Germany ($3.3M), France and Korea ($3M each). It still has so many markets, including the UK this week, and it won't hit its final country, Japan, until February.
Joker: Folie à Deux continued finding more ways to embarrass itself. Adding to its terrible domestic fall, it collapsed by 70% at the overseas markets, earning $22.7 million and taking its worldwide total to just $164.9 million. The only new market was Japan, where it debuted with $2.4 million. The best markets are the UK ($11.8M), Germany ($7.9M), Italy ($7.6M), Mexico ($7.4M) and France ($7.1M). It will open in China this week, but don't expect it to go crazy here. Looks like $200 million worldwide is gonna be a tough battle.
Transformers One added $6.2 million this weekend, taking the worldwide total to $111.4 million. While it had a good debut in the UK ($2.4M), it bombed in Germany with just $555K. Very few major markets left.
In a major milestone, Deadpool & Wolverine's worldwide total is now $1.334 billion, passing Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi as the 20th biggest film ever.
FILMS THAT ENDED THEIR RUN THIS WEEK
| Movie | Release Date | Studio | Domestic Opening | Domestic Total | Worldwide Total | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inside Out 2 | Jun/14 | Disney | $154,201,673 | $652,980,194 | $1,692,431,245 | $200M |
| Despicable Me 4 | Jul/2 | Universal | $75,009,210 | $361,004,205 | $960,008,741 | $100M |
| Twisters | Jul/19 | Universal/Warner Bros. | $81,251,415 | $267,762,265 | $369,908,014 | $155M |
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Disney/Pixar's Inside Out 2 has closed with a colossal $1.692 billion worldwide. The film surpassed every single expectation by becoming the biggest animated film of all time, and holding insanely well for weeks. This was a much needed win for Pixar after a few years of struggling. Of course, we have to see if they can get people for their original titles, and that will be Elio's big test next year.
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Illumination's Despicable Me 4 has closed with $960 million worldwide. Despite having some its thunder stolen by Inside Out 2, the film saw very minimal drops compared to the third film worldwide. 14 years later and people are not done with the Minion Mania.
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Universal/Warner Bros. Twisters has closed its run with $369 million worldwide. What's crazy about this number is how big it is domestically and how poor it was overseas. A colossal 72.4% of its gross came from the domestic market, which is pure insanity. You'd expect that kind of split from a comedy as humor gets lost in translation, but not from a high-budget blockbuster. While the film performed very well in the UK ($18.5M), Mexico ($11M) and Australia ($8.5M), it couldn't hit $5 million in any other market. If there's a sequel, we have to see what can Universal and WB to try to win the overseas audience.
THIS WEEKEND
Paramount is releasing Smile 2, the sequel to the 2022 sleeper hit. The film was a colossal success, posting insane legs and earning over $200 million worldwide. To help differentiate it, the setting was moved to a tour, with a pop singer (played by Naomi Scott) experiencing the events. Positioned as the main Halloween attraction, perhaps Terrifier 3 stole its thunder, and it hasn't been able to replicate the original's killer marketing. Can it still surprise?
Neon is releasing Sean Baker's Anora in limited release. The film, which stars Mikey Madison as an exotic dancer and follows her beleaguered romance with the son of a Russian oligarch, has received some of the best reviews of the year. It already won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and it's positioned to become a big Oscar player. At the very least, it should post one of the best per-theater averages of the year, while Neon expands it in the following weeks.
by SanderSo47