Bulgaria: Box Office Thread | Joker 2 disappoints during dire BO state

[Simionski]

Another slow weekend and the first one where the total admissions fell below 30k since early May. Here is the top 10:

Spoiler

September 6th - September 8th
POS	LW	TITLE	WiR	WEEKEND			WEEK		TOTAL
				ADM	GROSS	CNG %	ADM	GROSS	ADM	GROSS
1	NEW	Beetlejuice Beetlejuice	1	5 151	70 514 BGN	-	-	-	5 151	70 514 BGN
2	1	10 Lives	2	5 146	58 462 BGN	-45%	15 103	164 422 BGN	20 249	222 885 BGN
3	2	Deadpool & Wolverine	7	2 196	34 392 BGN	-37%	6 194	92 278 BGN	157 625	2 324 116 BGN
4	3	Despicable Me 4	10	2 463	33 617 BGN	-34%	6 572	82 795 BGN	195 266	2 390 397 BGN
5	NEW	Panda Bear in Africa	1	2 478	26 876 BGN	-	-	-	2 478	26 876 BGN
6	4	Alien: Romulus	4	1 653	24 238 BGN	-45%	5 397	77 486 BGN	37 485	512 469 BGN
7	6	Blink Twice	3	1 569	22 841 BGN	-35%	4 542	59 618 BGN	12 340	160 316 BGN
8	5	It Ends With Us	5	1 511	20 767 BGN	-43%	5 324	65 946 BGN	48 905	593 943 BGN
9	7	Crow, The	3	1 235	16 412 BGN	-53%	4 864	61 372 BGN	15 754	201 050 BGN
10	8	Inside Out 2	13	1 309	15 938 BGN	-33%	3 377	39 648 BGN	202 415	2 465 656 BGN

 

The good news is that this upcoming weekend we'll have National Cinema Days for both Saturday and Sunday where all tickets will be 5 BGN which is great so we should see some nice increases for all holdovers. The bad news is that none of the holdovers are that big so let's see if the low prices can offset this.

 

The first new opener was Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which didn't get much traction and opened just above the 5k admissions mark. With the help of National Cinema Days it still has a chance to at least top the 30k admissions mark but that will still be quite an unremarkable performance.

 

The second opener of any interest to the forum was Kinds of Kindness which debuted in 11th place so just outside of the top 10. It barely squeezed above the 1k admissions mark so there is a lot less interest in it than the last 2 Yonthimos movies. After seeing the film this weekend (empty room with 5 people, 2 of which left after the middle) I really doubt this will get much more than 5k admissions. It's quite niche so it's only chance was to trick audiences with a bigger OW.

 

As for the holdovers, there weren't any amazing holds so let's comment on the final totals after the expected uptick next weekend. Otherwise, two movies passed major milestones - Inside Out 2 finally got over the 200k admissions mark and Bad Boys: Ride or Die got over the 100k admissions mark (third entry in a row in the franchise to achieve this). Next weekend we'll probably see two more movies pass their final major marks - Despicable Me 4 to top 200k admissions and It Ends With Us to top 50k admissions.

 

There will be 3 movies opening wide next weekend - 200% Wolf (low-budget animation) will probably land on top and given the discounts it should pass 10k admissions, Speak No Evil could also surprise and reach the mark and also there'a a local movie called Русалки (Mermaids) which looks utterly terrible but it's targetting the teen crowd and school starts on Monday so it could surprise since it has a great release date.

[Simionski]

Sooo, we just had the most attended weekend since the pandemic and I'd guess one of the best in the last 20 years but I'll need to do some deeper research on that point. The National Cinema Day(s) promotion is truly great for the market and it's getting bigger and bigger. This is the third year it's happening (see the chart below) and it'd be great if this can happen multiple times in the year instead of only in September since it seems to be working quite well in other markets.

Date	Movies	Admissions	Gross	ATP	Top Movie	Note
Sep 2, 2022 - Sep 4, 2022	33	41 254	309 951 BGN	7,51 BGN	After Ever Happy	National Cinema Day (September 3rd)
Sep 15, 2023 - Sep 17, 2023	45	97 839	760 685 BGN	7,77 BGN	Nun 2, The	National Cinema Day (September 16th)
Sep 13, 2024 - Sep 15, 2024	38	136 078	783 734 BGN	5,76 BGN	Русалки	National Cinema Days (September 14th-15th)

 

Here is the top 15 of the weekend:

Spoiler

September 13th - September 15th
POS	LW	TITLE	WiR	WEEKEND			WEEK		TOTAL
				ADM	GROSS	CNG %	ADM	GROSS	ADM	GROSS
1	NEW	Русалки	1	38 277	245 080 BGN	-	-	-	38 277	245 080 BGN
2	1	Beetlejuice Beetlejuice	2	14 148	78 786 BGN	12%	10 262	129 781 BGN	24 410	208 567 BGN
3	NEW	Speak No Evil	1	12 294	70 798 BGN	-	-	-	12 294	70 798 BGN
4	2	10 Lives	3	10 611	56 697 BGN	-3%	8 866	96 560 BGN	34 580	317 680 BGN
5	NEW	200% Wolf	1	9 626	54 224 BGN	-	-	-	9 626	54 224 BGN
6	3	Deadpool & Wolverine	8	9 868	51 967 BGN	52%	4 290	61 876 BGN	169 587	2 403 567 BGN
7	4	Despicable Me 4	11	9 143	48 553 BGN	45%	4 516	57 832 BGN	206 462	2 463 165 BGN
8	5	Panda Bear in Africa	2	5 684	31 214 BGN	17%	4 773	49 899 BGN	10 457	81 113 BGN
9	6	Alien: Romulus	5	5 591	30 624 BGN	27%	3 254	43 374 BGN	44 677	562 229 BGN
10	10	Inside Out 2	14	3 980	21 126 BGN	33%	2 233	25 674 BGN	207 319	2 496 519 BGN
11	7	Blink Twice	4	3 621	20 346 BGN	-10%	3 325	43 638 BGN	17 717	201 459 BGN
12	8	It Ends With Us	6	3 454	19 630 BGN	-5%	3 088	38 633 BGN	53 936	631 440 BGN
13	9	Crow, The	4	3 441	18 225 BGN	12%	2 617	32 219 BGN	20 577	235 081 BGN
14	11	Kinds of Kindness	2	1 931	11 266 BGN	-27%	2 224	27 847 BGN	4 155	39 113 BGN
15	12	Count of Monte-Cristo, The (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo)	11	1 864	10 864 BGN	-1%	1 387	17 558 BGN	36 637	464 950 BGN

 

Everything did great so I'll go through all of the wide releases to see where they can land now.

 

First off, the number one opener is a local movie based on a YouTube series or something that's targeting the teen crowd. To put things into perspective, this is the second larget OW in admissions for a local film in the new millenium (data before that time is little to none). It'll be interesting to see how frontloaded this ends up being but even with an atrocious multiplier it should get close to 100k admissions which is truly amazing.

 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice almost tripled it's OW's admissions and now has a show at 50k admissions. Even with terrible legs from now on, a total north of 40k should be a lock which is quite promising after the bad OW.

 

Speak No Evil had a great OW and should pass the 30k admissions mark with similar legs to A Haunting in Venice which opened last year during the National Cinema Day weekend.

 

The next two positions in the chart are takend by two low-budget animations - 10 Lives may reach 50k admissions while 200% Wolf should pass at least 20k admissions.

 

Deadpool & Wolverine had almost 5 times more admissions than last weekend - the biggest gain from all holdovers, and now should pass Spider-Man: No Way Home to become the second most attended comic-book movie behind Avengers: Endgame.

 

Despicable Me 4 and Inside Out 2 both gained 4 times more admssions than last weekend and have comfortably passed the 200k admissions mark. Based on their holds this upcoming weekend while facing the first competiton from an actual major Hollywood animation, we'll see how high they can go. Right now, I'd say 240k is the high end for the minions and 220k for the PIXAR smash hit.

 

Alien: Romulus, same as Deadpool & Wolverine, managed to gain the most from the promotional prices and now has a high chance to pass the 50k admissions mark. If this happens, Covenant will remain the only entry in the main series to end up below the mark (no data for the first 3 films).

 

Blink Twice is now over a 3x multiplier and should reach at least 20k admissions in the end - truly great for such a film.

 

It Ends With Us finally passed the 50k admissions mark and Anyone But You in the same weekend. If it can hold on to enough screens, 60k admissions aren't out of reach which is amazing.

 

The Crow proved me wrong and managed to pass the 20k admissions mark thanks to the low prices. In admissions, it should end up above Twisters, Furiosa and 3 times over Borderlands - the major underperformers from the summer blockbusters. All in all, a decent outing given the terrible reviews and low expectations.

 

Kinds of Kindness should end up above 5k admissions but not much more while The Count of Monte-Cristo is still chugging along and will get really close to 40k admissions.

 

This upcoming weekend will see two wide releases - Transformers: One and Cinderella's Curse (I assume this one is in the horror universe of Winnie the Pooh). The autobots should be around the 10k admissions mark while the horror movie should be a non-event. The local movie should remain on top, most likely until Joker 2 since the final weekend of September is quite dead.

 

[Simionski]

After the amazing attendance during the National Cinema Days we had 2 of the worst weeks for cinema going that I can remember so I didn't see any point in doing weekly updates. However, Joker: Folie à Deux just opened and it brought some life to the BO so here are the top 10s from the last 3 weeks:

Spoiler

September 20th - September 22nd
POS	LW	TITLE	WiR	WEEKEND			WEEK		TOTAL
				ADM	GROSS	CNG %	ADM	GROSS	ADM	GROSS
1	1	Русалки	2	7 097	79 290 BGN	-67%	47 437	344 275 BGN	54 534	423 566 BGN
2	NEW	Transformers: One	1	4 373	60 914 BGN	-	943	15 612 BGN	5 316	76 526 BGN
3	3	Speak No Evil	2	2 098	28 554 BGN	-59%	14 925	101 593 BGN	17 023	130 148 BGN
4	2	Beetlejuice Beetlejuice	3	1 629	25 072 BGN	-68%	16 152	104 901 BGN	28 043	259 754 BGN
5	7	Despicable Me 4	12	1 653	21 606 BGN	-55%	10 324	63 136 BGN	209 296	2 499 354 BGN
6	4	10 Lives	4	1 663	21 191 BGN	-62%	12 005	73 358 BGN	37 637	355 531 BGN
7	6	Deadpool & Wolverine	9	1 273	20 820 BGN	-59%	11 082	70 369 BGN	172 074	2 442 789 BGN
8	NEW	Cinderella's Curse	1	1 505	19 281 BGN	-	-	-	1 505	19 281 BGN
9	5	200% Wolf	2	1 454	17 116 BGN	-68%	11 276	72 224 BGN	12 730	89 340 BGN
10	9	Alien: Romulus	6	654	9 978 BGN	-67%	6 324	39 952 BGN	46 064	581 536 BGN
September 27th - September 29th
POS	LW	TITLE	WiR	WEEKEND			WEEK		TOTAL
				ADM	GROSS	CNG %	ADM	GROSS	ADM	GROSS
1	2	Transformers: One	2	3 542	49 758 BGN	-18%	6 986	94 038 BGN	11 471	159 407 BGN
2	1	Русалки	3	3 716	42 494 BGN	-46%	11 247	122 208 BGN	62 400	508 977 BGN
3	NEW	AfrAId	1	3 037	38 790 BGN	-	-	-	3 037	38 790 BGN
4	6	10 Lives	5	1 882	23 606 BGN	12%	2 624	32 376 BGN	40 480	390 322 BGN
5	5	Despicable Me 4	13	1 802	23 592 BGN	10%	2 756	34 358 BGN	212 201	2 535 698 BGN
6	4	Beetlejuice Beetlejuice	4	1 395	20 930 BGN	-16%	2 905	41 888 BGN	30 714	297 501 BGN
7	9	200% Wolf	3	1 372	16 530 BGN	-3%	2 373	26 896 BGN	15 021	115 651 BGN
8	3	Speak No Evil	3	1 143	16 314 BGN	-42%	3 540	45 769 BGN	19 608	163 676 BGN
9	7	Deadpool & Wolverine	10	908	14 481 BGN	-30%	2 154	33 404 BGN	173 863	2 469 854 BGN
10	11	Panda Bear in Africa	4	948	11 228 BGN	16%	1 379	15 674 BGN	13 623	117 180 BGN
October 4th - October 6th
POS	LW	TITLE	WiR	WEEKEND			WEEK		TOTAL
				ADM	GROSS	CNG %	ADM	GROSS	ADM	GROSS
1	NEW	Joker: Folie à Deux	1	14 144	205 350 BGN	-	3 296	55 976 BGN	17 440	261 326 BGN
2	1	Transformers: One	3	2 340	35 440 BGN	-28%	4 517	61 962 BGN	14 786	207 052 BGN
3	NEW	School of Magical Animals 2 (Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2)	1	2 967	34 831 BGN	-	-	-	2 967	34 831 BGN
4	PRE	Wild Robot, The	0	2 278	33 726 BGN	-	-	-	2 278	33 726 BGN
5	3	AfrAId	2	1 987	26 974 BGN	-30%	4 681	57 589 BGN	6 668	84 563 BGN
6	5	Despicable Me 4	14	1 861	25 805 BGN	10%	2 396	29 916 BGN	214 656	2 567 828 BGN
7	2	Русалки	4	1 886	23 360 BGN	-45%	5 228	57 858 BGN	65 798	547 701 BGN
8	4	10 Lives	6	1 546	19 826 BGN	-16%	2 316	28 611 BGN	42 460	415 154 BGN
9	6	Beetlejuice Beetlejuice	5	1 109	16 516 BGN	-21%	2 077	29 888 BGN	32 505	322 974 BGN
10	7	200% Wolf	4	957	11 798 BGN	-28%	1 702	20 234 BGN	16 308	131 152 BGN

As can be seen, after the National Cinema Days weekend everything collapsed which just goes to show how expensive the whole experience has become. People still want to go to the cinema but they'll do it only for bigger events with ticket prices this high and not many good promotions for regular moviegoers.

 

Anyway, Joker: Folie à Deux opened with 35% less admissions than the first one but with the same gross. Overall, it's not a total collapse like in the USA and it's actually doing better than what Deadpool 2 did when compared to the original - that one lost 40% of its audience in the OW and 30% overall. However, Deadpool didn't have amazing legs to begin with while Joker had a 5x multiplier so it remains to be seen how front-loaded the sequel will be. As a whole, I always saw this as sure 100k admissions so it's quite unfortunate that probably it won't even reach half of that.

 

The other major disappointment is Transfomers: One which still hasn't reached even 15k admissions after 3 weeks in play and should remain below the 30k admissions mark. The franchise as a whole is in a downward spiral here with each entry after Dark of the Moon having lesser attendance than the previous one. Here is the franchise's history:

Spoiler

Title	OW (Attendance)	OW (Gross)	Total (Attendance)	Total (Gross)	Multi
Transformers	10 191	74 265 BGN	44 799	264 635 BGN	4,40
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	21 185	149 187 BGN	51 948	346 756 BGN	2,45
Transformers: The Dark of the Moon	31 001	326 316 BGN	116 999	1 088 182 BGN	3,77
Transformers: Age of Extinction	24 444	249 264 BGN	113 660	1 097 037 BGN	4,65
Transformers: The Last Knight	13 546	151 642 BGN	52 397	547 652 BGN	3,87
Bumblebee	10 027	114 550 BGN	42 882	478 161 BGN	4,28
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts	10 483	148 582 BGN	38 480	520 016 BGN	3,67
Transformers: One	4 373	60 914 BGN	14 786	207 052 BGN	3,38

As for the remaining major releases still in play:

• Blink Twice passed the 20k admissions mark
• Speak No Evil passed the 20k admissions mark
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice passed the 30k admissions mark (unless it sees a Halloween bump it should end up below 40k admissions)
• Deadpool & Wolverine is on the verge of passing the 175k admissions mark as it's final milestone
• Inside Out 2 is on the verge of passing the 210k admissions mark as it's final milestone
• Despicable Me 2 is nearing the 220k admissions mark

This upcoming weekend sees 3 new wide releases:

• The Wild Robot - it already had previews this weekend which weren't too bad so I'm hopeful that it'll pass the 10k admissions mark in it's actual OW
• Terrifier 3 - this is the first installment of the franchise that will have an actual release here and for now I believe an OW around 2k admissions is the most it can do
• My Hero Academia: You're Next - this one will probably end up around the 1k admissions mark

For the remainder of October we have the possibilities of 2 movies that open to 20k admissions or more (a local movie and Venom: The Last Dance) and Smile 2 has a high chance to pass the 10k admissions mark which should give some much needed life to the BO.