The Box Office Buzz, Tracking, and Pre-Sale Thread

[abracadabra1998]

23 hours ago, abracadabra1998 said:

 

Minneapolis-St. Paul Area Previews:

 

Five Nights at Freddy's (T-3):

Day: T-3	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 18 theaters	69	313	1961	10552	18.58

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		349	80	17.8
MTC1:		883	124	45.03
Marcus:		357	81	18.2
Alamo:		84	2	4.28
Other chains:		637	106	32.48

 

Comps:

1.28x Mission Impossible 7 (Just Tuesday): $8.97 Million

0.38x Barbie (Just Thursday): $8.11 Million

1.35x Indiana Jones 5: $9.73 Million

 

Average: $8.94 million

 

I blame it on capacity at this point, since so many primetime showings are near sold out at this point, so I imagine many people are buying tickets for Friday and the weekend instead on account of that. If they're giving this the blockbuster treatment in Orlando, like @TheFlatLannister said, here they're completely shunning it. 69 shows is exactly what Blue Beetle had at T-3, ffs. Between T-3 and T-2 is when a lot of theaters expand their sets here, I have noticed (BB had 98 at T-2, for example), so I am holding out hope for it. This is in addition to it obviously under-indexing here 

 

After Death (T-3):

Day: T-3	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 12 theaters	25	19	189	1886	10.02

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		0	0	0
MTC1:		58	10	30.69
Marcus:		6	0	3.17
Alamo:		0	0	0
Other chains:		125	9	66.14

 

Comps:

0.24x Killers of the Flower Moon: $639k

1.14x Haunting in Venice (Just Thursday): $1.26 Million

2.36x Big Fat Greek Wedding 3: $1.3 Million

0.75x Asteroid City: $826k

 

Average: $1 million

 

Minneapolis-St. Paul Area Previews:

 

Five Nights at Freddy's (T-2):

Day: T-2	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 18 theaters	104	323	2284	14085	16.22

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		446	97	19.53
MTC1:		961	78	42.08
Marcus:		455	98	19.92
Alamo:		111	27	4.86
Other chains:		757	120	33.14

 

Comps:

1.27x Mission Impossible 7 (Just Tuesday): $8.9 Million

0.37x Barbie (Just Thursday): $7.84 Million

1.32x Indiana Jones 5: $9.5 Million

 

Average: $8.75 Million

 

Shows, shows, shows, shows, shows, shows, EVERYBODY! Finallyyyyyyy. Still dropping against comps, but some room to grow now in the last two days.

 

After Death (T-2):

Day: T-2	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 12 theaters	27	43	232	2001	11.59

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		0	0	0
MTC1:		66	8	28.45
Marcus:		18	12	7.76
Alamo:		0	0	0
Other chains:		148	23	63.79

 

Comps:

0.26x Killers of the Flower Moon: $675k

1.14x Haunting in Venice (Just Thursday): $1.26 Million

1.89x Big Fat Greek Wedding 3: $1.04 Million

0.63x Asteroid City: $690k

 

Average: $0.92 million

 

Re: Tracking. Fully echo what @Porthos said. Bit off more than I could chew last year and was just trying to do way too much. For me, I had to figure out what works for me in terms of my schedule and work-life (twice a week, and then daily on the week of release). And sometimes I miss a beat, and that's ok! Just do it for fun and to be part of this great community  

[TheFlatLannister]

On 10/23/2023 at 6:50 PM, TheFlatLannister said:

Orlando-Daytona-Gainesville 

 

WISH

 

Tuesday Previews 

 

T-29

SHOWINGS	SEATS SOLD	TOTAL SEATS	PERCENT SOLD
162	547	29762	1.8%

^{*numbers taken as of 6:00PM EST}

SEATS SOLD SINCE YESTERDAY

4

 

SHOWINGS ADDED SINCE YESTERDAY

9

 

SELLOUTS

0

 

COMPS

T-29

 

(1.581x) of Elemental $3.79M Previews

 

@Relevation I started tracking Haunted Mansion at T-24

 

Anyways, if the Elemental comps is accurate this is a pretty decent start I would say

Orlando-Daytona-Gainesville 

 

WISH

 

Tuesday Previews 

 

T-28

SHOWINGS	SEATS SOLD	TOTAL SEATS	PERCENT SOLD
162	488	29762	1.6%

^{*numbers taken as of 6:00PM EST}

SEATS SOLD SINCE YESTERDAY

N/A

 

SHOWINGS ADDED SINCE YESTERDAY

N/A

 

SELLOUTS

0

 

COMPS

T-28

 

(1.423x) of Elemental $3.41M Previews

 

*Something with Fandango is not working. Ran the scraper 3 times but either showings are missing or blocked seats*

 

407 seats sold over 6 showings at MTC1 Disney 

[Bob Train]

Crazy how FNAF is pulling these numbers with no cast promotion, social media reactions, reviews, and not a ton of promotion (at least from what I'm seeing).

 

The only horror movie that's ever gotten this high before are the It movies, which had extensive promotional campaigns from WB (and had marketing budgets of $155m and $95m respectively).

 

The hype is entirely self-sustaining at this point, a true blockbuster.

[M37]

37 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

@M37 secret identity profession being put in jeopardy here?!? 

Listen, if I worked for one of the MTCs in such a capacity, I wouldn’t be complaining about their … inadequacies in reading the market, particularly when presales are showing something vastly different 

 

(PS - I am available to listen to offers however …)

[TheFlatLannister]

On 10/23/2023 at 6:53 PM, TheFlatLannister said:

Orlando-Daytona-Gainesville 

Trolls: Band Together 

 

Thursday Previews 

 

T-24

SHOWINGS	SEATS SOLD	TOTAL SEATS	PERCENT SOLD
171	278	31233	0.89%

^{*numbers taken as of 6:00PM EST}

SEATS SOLD SINCE YESTERDAY

48

 

SHOWINGS ADDED SINCE YESTERDAY

0

 

SELLOUTS

1

 

COMPS

T-24

 

EA on Saturday = 154 seats sold 

*EA is separated from Thursday gross 

 

(0.720x) of Elemental $1.73M Previews

 

Fandango might be trolling with the "movie time is sold out" which could be inflating sales. I'll have to wait and see. 

Orlando-Daytona-Gainesville 

Trolls: Band Together 

 

Thursday Previews 

 

T-23

SHOWINGS	SEATS SOLD	TOTAL SEATS	PERCENT SOLD
171	276	31233	0.89%

^{*numbers taken as of 6:00PM EST}

SEATS SOLD SINCE YESTERDAY

-2

 

SHOWINGS ADDED SINCE YESTERDAY

0

 

SELLOUTS

1

 

COMPS

T-23

 

EA on Saturday = 172 seats sold 

*EA is separated from Thursday gross 

 

(0.717x) of Elemental $1.72M Previews

 

Could be a Fandango issue but "2 refunds today" no sales it seems 

[misterpepp]

.

Edited October 25, 2023 by misterpepp
Oops, forgot I mentioned this in another post

[Porthos]

3 minutes ago, M37 said:

Listen, if I worked for one of the MTCs in such a capacity, I wouldn’t be complaining about their … inadequacies in reading the market, particularly when presales are showing something vastly different 

 

(PS - I am available to listen to offers however …)

 

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT SOMEONE WORKING FOR A MTC* WOULD SAY TO KEEP THEIR COVER FROM BEING BLOWN!!!

* M could equal mini/minor here. 

 

                                        I'm on to you...

[Tinalera]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

@Austin

 

The single biggest/most important piece of advice I can give you?

 

Well, besides soaking in all of the other advice?

 

DO NOT, and I can not stress this enough, ***DO NOT*** USE SMALL/MEDIUM RELEASES AS A GAUGE OF WHAT YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH WHEN IT COMES TO SAMPLING!

 

Why?

 

Because you'll think you can reach an equilibrium and then a Huge Release Monster will come around and just blow that sense of equilibrium out of the fucking water.

 

Or worse, two or three or four or five releases out at the same time will come along and just swamp you.

 

More trackers than I can count have flamed out to burnout because they misgauged or just got sick and tired of what they would be comfortable with when it came to tracking.  Including long time heavy hitters like our own @Eric Mouse (though in the case of Eric, they also had shifting work patterns but that Mar-May period this year was hellish).

 

Varying ways of automation, starting with semi-automation (key word searches via HTML code/Inspect Elements) and going all the way up to full blown scrapers can help.  But at a certain point, it can get overwhelming no matter how many tools/shortcuts one has at their disposal.

 

Hell, only reason I track the entire Greater Sacto region was because when I started out previews typically started at 7pm and about 1/3rd of the market was still non-reserved seating.  Over the years, as previews have dramatically expanded and practically everyone has reserved seating? Let's just say that I personally would have quit years ago if I hadn't found several ways to mitigate the time to do things.

 

(and even here I've been considering revising my informal 7/70 rule due to IMs getting kneecapped with 2pm/3pm previews becoming standard)

 

So, yeah, listen to the technical advice and find out what works for you as well as what interest you in the area?  But, as a more general matter?  Whatever you think you'd like to look at?  Ask yourself if you'd really want to look at all those theaters with an Endgame like monster going on. 

Endgame....

 

That.....that was an experience alright, one i wont forget anytime soon. 

 

It is very easy to fall into the trap as @Porthos said. You start feeling good with one film, you start tracking 2, 3 at the same time, different release sizes...then BOOM an endgame type film comes along and it gets crazy real quick and aforementioned burnout happens. Stick with what youre comfortable with, even if its just 1 movie title at a time-it all counts. 

 

Thinking about Endgame, think I might go lie down for awhile now lol

[Jsmitty]

I’ll try and get a count in the next day or so for FNAF. It had 13 shows between Thursday/Friday at the 3 theatres in my area as of yesterday. 
 

After today’s evening update. 21 additional shows added. 
 

(With one theatre dropping freelance entirely to make room for more shows)

 

 

[vafrow]

23 hours ago, vafrow said:

 

Five Nights at Freddy's, T-3, western GTA (southern Ontario)

 

Tickets sold: 1544

New sales: 278

Growth: 22.0%

Theatres: 10

Showtimes: 32

Tickets per showtime: 48.3

Chains tracked: MTC4, via manual count from chain app

 

COMPS

9.22x Saw X for $18.4M 

25.3x Nun 2 for $78.5M

 

Local Single Theatre Comps

1.24x ATSV for $21.4M

0.95x Barbie for $21.1M

 

 

Same story as others in Canada. This is just resonating differently up here. I'm short on theories on why.

 

Potentially, with Peacock not available up here, maybe it's driving more demand. Although, in the area I'm tracking, use of illegal streaming boxes is pretty prevalent due to the demographics, and people using that as their primary viewing option to access different cultural programming. This will be available through those boxes almost immediately. And I doubt most people track or realize that it will be available.

 

 

Five Nights at Freddy's, T-2, western GTA (southern Ontario)

 

Tickets sold: 1912

New sales: 368

Growth: 23.8%

Theatres: 10

Showtimes: 32

Tickets per showtime: 59.8

Chains tracked: MTC4, via manual count from chain app

 

COMPS

9.28x Saw X for $18.6M 

16.92x Nun 2 for $52.4M

 

Local Single Theatre Comps

1.31x ATSV for $22.8M

0.96x Barbie for $21.4M

 

Good growth again. One thing that's been really noticeable is how much it maintained pace with Saw X. It's obviously at a different scale, but both are films that seemed to have outperformed here in Canada. 

 

Also, a lot of the weekend sets went up, and it looks like FNAF is getting more screens. Makes me have faith that they've been paying attention. Sales have already been brisk for weeke shows. I think people have been waiting for these to go online.

 

[vafrow]

11 minutes ago, Jsmitty said:

I’ll try and get a count in the next day or so for FNAF. It had 13 shows between Thursday/Friday at the 3 theatres in my area as of yesterday. 
 

After today’s evening update. 21 additional shows added. 
 

(With one theatre dropping freelance entirely to make room for more shows)

 

 

 

That's a first. To drop something that you're playing in previews is pretty hilarious. I wonder how they got out of the obligation. 

[Austin]

I appreciate all the tips and advice! I would love to contribute more to this awesome community so all these responses are very encouraging.

 

I think to start I would manually track newer releases at my two local Marcus theaters just to get a feel for what works for me. Then I might get some help from a friend or family member who knows code who can help me script a program to scrape data from a larger region.

 

That makes me curious. What regions are not tracked here? I hear of Canada, Sacramento, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, and some other areas being reported. But what are the MTC's that encompass a massive (at least from what I can see) amount of showings cover in terms of regions? I suppose what I am trying to say is I'm not sure what regions aren't covered by someone here so if I theoretically ever decided to go much larger with tracking, which regions would/could/should I pull pre-sales from?

Edited October 25, 2023 by Austin

[Jsmitty]

FNAF

 

Theatre 1: 12 shows 382/1260 seats

 

Theatre 2: 14 shows 551/1622 seats

 

Theatre 3: 8 shows 138/984 seats

 

 1071/3866 seats total Thursday/Friday

=27.7% (manual count)

 

[Relevation]

1 hour ago, Austin said:

I appreciate all the tips and advice! I would love to contribute more to this awesome community so all these responses are very encouraging.

 

I think to start I would manually track newer releases at my two local Marcus theaters just to get a feel for what works for me. Then I might get some help from a friend or family member who knows code who can help me script a program to scrape data from a larger region.

 

That makes me curious. What regions are not tracked here? I hear of Canada, Sacromento, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Sacromento and some other areas being reported. But what are the MTC's that encompass a massive (at least from what I can see) amount of showings cover in terms of regions? I suppose what I am trying to say is I'm not sure what regions aren't covered by someone here so if I theoretically ever decided to go much larger with tracking, which regions would/could/should I pull pre-sales from?

Huh

Just realized no one here tracks the New York City area

Interesting

[Porthos]

16 minutes ago, Relevation said:

Huh

Just realized no one here tracks the New York City area

Interesting

 

That's coz a city area of tens of millions would be bananas.  Hell, I'm still surprised we get Houston coverage!

 

Can't even imagine how many theaters there are in the NYC area. Even if we restricted it to the more popular theaters, Empire 25 alone would make it... challenging.

 

Now a sub area of the NYC region might be interesting and doable.  Say one of the boroughs. But even then, logistics could get ugly, fast.

 

(we do in fact have occasional coverage of part of New York State thanks to local reporting from @TalismanRing, but not quite the same thing)

((and she's far too sane to even think about expanding her coverage map beyond her local theater 👍 ))

Edited October 25, 2023 by Porthos

[jeffthehat]

1 hour ago, Austin said:

I appreciate all the tips and advice! I would love to contribute more to this awesome community so all these responses are very encouraging.

 

I think to start I would manually track newer releases at my two local Marcus theaters just to get a feel for what works for me. Then I might get some help from a friend or family member who knows code who can help me script a program to scrape data from a larger region.

 

That makes me curious. What regions are not tracked here? I hear of Canada, Sacromento, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Sacromento and some other areas being reported. But what are the MTC's that encompass a massive (at least from what I can see) amount of showings cover in terms of regions? I suppose what I am trying to say is I'm not sure what regions aren't covered by someone here so if I theoretically ever decided to go much larger with tracking, which regions would/could/should I pull pre-sales from?

seems like we lack tracking from the northeast

[keysersoze123]

The Marvels Previews - 45171/694616 901502.85 3541 shows

 

Sold about 1000 tickets over past day or so. 

[keysersoze123]

40 minutes ago, Relevation said:

Huh

Just realized no one here tracks the New York City area

Interesting

Technical that is not correct :-)

[Porthos]

40 minutes ago, jeffthehat said:

seems like we lack tracking from the northeast

 

We had great coverage of the Philly area before Eric peace'd out/had work conflicts. 

 

Aside from that, we've had reporting from the Maine area from our very own HBIC @Cap and as I mentioned TalismanRing (not tagging her here since I just tagged her and it's probs rude to tag again so quickly 😉) will report from her area when she has the time/interest. 

 

Did have a couple of others for a while but not much recently, no.

 

ETA:
 

Should also add that @TwoMisfits will report screen reports from her neck of the woods.  Not seat reports, no.  But still of interest and value! 👍

Edited October 25, 2023 by Porthos

[keysersoze123]

3 hours ago, TheFlatLannister said:

Orlando-Daytona-Gainesville 

 

The Marvels 

 

Thursday Previews 

 

T-16

SHOWINGS	SEATS SOLD	TOTAL SEATS	PERCENT SOLD
259	2228	52152	4.3%

^{*numbers taken as of 6:00PM EST}

SEATS SOLD SINCE YESTERDAY

20

 

SHOWINGS ADDED SINCE YESTERDAY

0

 

SELLOUTS

0

 

COMPS

T-16

 

 

(0.439x) of GOTG3~$7.68M Previews

Comps AVG: $7.68M

By my math Disney Springs has sold 1228/5199 across 17 shows. So the other 242 shows sold like 1000 tickets across just under 47K seats. So just under 2.2% of seats sold !!! WOW.