LonePirate

That Monday drop for AWIT is atrocious, especially for Spring Break week.

It underperformed to such a massive degree that it could be considered to a bomb. If a movie only featuring Wonder Woman can clear $410M just a few months before JL and JL adds Superman and Batman (plus others) to the mix and it barely grosses half of WW, then it sure looks like a bomb.

A sub- $1M Monday suggests the film is playing like a kids film as those are usually the only films to drop more than 65% on their first Monday. Do other YA films follow this same pattern? There is undoubtedly a very passionate audience for the film. However that audience may be limited in size.

It is still 2+ hours until today’s first showing of ICOI at the same theater I was partially tracking yesterday and the film has already sold 24 of 64 seats. It is just a very short matter of time before it surpasses TR in the dailies.

The girl in San Diego who's only seen the movie 6 times is almost an amateur compared to this guy. Seriously, is there some sort of competition going on here?

I was not aware there was a challenge to see LS as many times as possible but clearly this girl is throwing down the gauntlet and is going for the win.

http://www.justjared.com/2018/03/19/angelina-jolie-took-her-kids-to-see-love-simon-in-theaters/ This is certainly interesting. Angelina Jolie took some of her kids to the cineplex this weekend to see Love, Simon and not Tomb Raider.

There is another showing in 30 minutes of ICOI on this same screen and 42 of the 64 seats have been sold. They are reanimating the dead to see this film. It's only playing on one screen at this particular cineplex but there is another one about 15 minutes away where it is playing on two screens. Other theaters in my metro area are playing it as well. It's not like everybody is flocking to this one cinema to see it. I never would have predicted how well this film is performing.

The mystery at the heart of the film might have someone there thinking it is an adventure film. Then again, with the death of the rom com genre, maybe they removed that category from their web template so they just chose the first option in the list.

Some additional positive reviews have been added to RT which have pushed the Tomatometer up to 92%. Reviews from Australia and the U.K. are still forthcoming so we could see movement up or down in the coming weeks.

Let me toss out a some recent examples for discussion. Tomb Raider surely played to audiences who were familiar with the source material (either the game of the Jolie film). Its B grade surely didn’t come entirely from those viewers as those seeking an action flick or a movie with a hot woman in it probably also lined up to see it. That movie will be lucky to escape a 60% drop this coming weekend. Granted, it is not a good movie but OD audience anticipation is not an indicator of success. Then you have a film like The Greatest Showman. It played to people on OW who had no idea if it was a comedy or drama or musical. Granted the Wednesday opening before Christmas Monday skews its legs. Still, it has almost a 9x multiplier for its 6 day opening, which is insane even for a film with just an A score. Maybe it barely missed that A+ grade, though.

I am starting to believe that there might be some self-sorting at play with these Cinemascores. Except for possibly Wonder, each of the other four films played heavily to the target audiences for the film. The audiences who rushed out to see those films on opening night were predisposed to like those films no matter what, although the good reviews for Coco, BP and LS certainly helped. People not likely to enjoy those films probably stayed away on opening night thus not impacting the grade. It is going to be very interesting to see what sort of legs sprout for both ICOI and LS. Will other audiences show up once the supply of the core audience has been exhausted?

It is Spring Break week in my area and one of the AMCs playing ICOI has a showing starting in 15 minutes that has sold 54 of the 64 seats for that screen.

Is ICOI receiving any repeat business? I didn't see much on Twitter to indicate such unlike with LS where a noticeable sample has seen it at least twice.

I'm not sure if I am more surprised by Peter Rabbit hopping across the $100M threshold or A Wrinkle in Time likely falling short of that same milestone. That being said, the Alt-Right/MRA crowd must be fuming over the Top 5 this weekend which features a massive hit with a predominantly black cast, two films with women headlining them and another film about a gay teenager.

Where do I begin with this? While topical, Philadelphia starred one of the very biggest and well-liked box office stars at the time in what would be an Oscar winning performance and it also starred a recent Oscar winner alongside him. The film's star power was exceptional. Plus, the film helped people empathize with the serious health and discrimination issues confronting gay people in society. Hanks' character was just living his life and confronting death in the movie which is as normal as it gets. It moved the ball down the field in helping more of society understand and accept LGBT+ people. As for The Birdcage, despite it being a remake, it probably impacted society's views of gay people more beneficially than Philadelphia did simply because it lampooned the absurdity of living a false life. People want to spend time around people and characters who make them laugh and The Birdcage brought the laughs. It featured two male characters living a very happy and normal life together who go to extremes to help their son achieve some happiness in his life. If the film featured a stereotype, it was one of loving parents doing anything for their kids. That stereotype and all the laughs associated with it pushed the film well over $100M domestically. What other films have featured an essentially married gay couple as the leads and the film still crossed the century mark? The Birdcage did that in 1996 and 22 years later we're still waiting for it to happen a second time. Love, Simon and its gay characters leading normal lives would not exist were it not for films like Philadelphia and The Birdcage and many others that preceded it.

Game Night has had a nice run so far. It's a fun film that deserves more business than it's receiving.

It will outgross both Call Me By Your Name and Moonlight within the next week or two. That is a notable feat given the awards PR that propelled those two films. Sure, it's no Brokeback; but it doesn't have Brokeback's cast, either. Money aside, the people seeing the film are loving its emotional and heartwarming impact. That's far more important to some moviegoers than experiencing the latest visual spectacle.

I caught an early showing of LS today and I would say the crowd was maybe 60/40 under 25/over 25, perhaps even 55/45. The movie is attracting some adults, probably more than people expected with that RT score helping with that. My showing was heavily female and I think a few of them had seen it before based on chatter and reactions. A final gross north of $35M should be a given and I would not rule out $50M if female teens flock to it over spring break and adults show up like they did at my showing.

RPO and LS are appealing to two different segments of the teen audience, males and females, respectively, with some crossover, of course. RPO will also draw in the action going crowd and maybe more depending on its reviews. LS has the comedic market locked up plus it has that high RT score working in its favor to attract adults. As for ICOI, I think we’ll get a better sense of where it is headed after Saturday’s numbers. I have no idea where it is headed. After scanning Twitter reactions for both ICOI and LS, their respective audiences love their films. It will be fun to see which film has the better WOM.

I wonder which of ICOI and LS will be the leggier movie. The former is from a genre with an exceptionally loyal fanbase and its limited screen count should help it in the weeks to come. The latter caters to a demo that will go see a movie numerous times and has a strong enough critical reception to attract general, adult audiences. I honestly do not know which one will win the battle of the multipliers. A+ Cinemascore movies are a rare breed (all things considered) but to have two of them released during the same weekend is surely unprecedented.

The most interesting aspect of the box office this weekend, apart from BP likely securing an amazing fifth weekend at #1, is the race for top PTA among the wide releases. ICOI seems like it will claim the wide release PTA crown this weekend given its paltry theater count but BP and maybe even LS will make things interesting.

This movie seems mildly depressing to me. How in the world are Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel playing the parents of a high schooler? Seems like only yesterday when they were both TV stars not far from high school age themselves. Time sure does fly.