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

[Caption Action 3]

This weekend saw eleven Cinemark theaters in California quietly launch regular open caption screenings. (A quiet launch means Cinemark did not promote the open captions beyond posting a notice on the theaters' websites.  Open caption advocates had to do all the promotion.) Thus, that's what was followed this past weekend. Every open caption screening sold at least one ticket, even Borderlands (sympathy for those who bought tickets for THAT). Didi outsold Borderlands and Didi had fewer open caption screenings. Didi had only 4 open caption screenings at these 11 theaters while Borderlands had 6. But Didi sold 58 tickets combined, while Borderlands sold only 40 tickets combined, even with two more screenings than Didi had. Did not plan on tracking Coraline, but after seeing the numbers for it decided to include it. There were only 2 open caption screenings for Trap so we didn't include it in the summary tables.

 

Summary Tables

Alien
# of Tickets/# of Markets	127	10	12.70
# of tickets/#of theaters	127	10	12.70
#of tickets/#of screen times	127	10	12.70
# of zero sold/#of screen times	0	10	0.00
It Ends with Us
# of Tickets/# of Markets	116	8	14.50
# of tickets/#of theaters	116	8	14.50
#of tickets/#of screen times	116	8	14.50
# of zero sold/#of screen times	0	8	0.00
Deadpool
# of Tickets/# of Markets	260	8	32.50
# of tickets/#of theaters	260	8	32.50
#of tickets/#of screen times	260	8	32.50
# of zero sold/#of screen times	0	8	0.00
Twisters
# of Tickets/# of Markets	96	6	16.00
# of tickets/#of theaters	229	6	38.17
#of tickets/#of screen times	229	6	38.17
# of zero sold/#of screen times	0	6	0.00
Coraline
# of Tickets/# of Markets	108	6	18.00
# of tickets/#of theaters	108	6	18.00
#of tickets/#of screen times	108	6	18.00
# of zero sold/#of screen times	0	6	0.00
DM 4
# of Tickets/# of Markets	71	4	17.75
# of tickets/#of theaters	71	4	17.75
#of tickets/#of screen times	71	4	17.75
# of zero sold/#of screen times	0	4	0.00
Didi
# of Tickets/# of Markets	58	4	14.50
# of tickets/#of theaters	58	4	14.50
#of tickets/#of screen times	71	4	17.75
# of zero sold/#of screen times	0	4	0.00

 

Actual Data

Movie	Market	Theater	Time	# of OC seats sold	# of non-OC screenings
Alien	Folsom	Cinemark Century Folsom	8/18, 2:00 pm	14	8
D&W			8/18, 4:45 pm	11	8
It Ends with Us			8/18, 4:25 pm	15	3
Alien	Fremont	Cinemark Century Pacific Commons	8/18, 4:45 pm	11	11
D&W			8/18, 4:50 pm	35	9
It Ends with Us			8/18, 12:50 pm	14	5
Coraline			8/18, 12:45 pm	15	4
Twisters			8/18, 4:30 pm	7	4
DM 4			8/18, 5:35 pm	1	5
Borderlands			8/18, 4:35 pm	4	5
Didi			8/18, 5:55 pm	9	6
Alien	Los Angeles	Cinemark Howard Hughes	8/17, 4:00 pm	10	15
D&W	Mountain View	Cinemark Mountain View	8/18, 4:45 pm	54	9
It Ends with Us			8/18, 4:50 pm	15	9
Twisters			8/18, 4:15 pm	24	4
DM 4			8/18, 4:45 pm	33	5
Borderlands			8/18, 2:40 pm	3	5
Inside Out 2			8/18, 2:20 pm	27	5
Didi			8/18, 2:05 pm	22	5
D&W	Napa	Cinemark Century Napa Valley	8/18, 4:05 pm	45	6
It Ends with Us			8/18, 5:05 pm	18	8
Twisters			8/18, 4:20 pm	11	4
Alien	Oxnard	Cinemark Century Riverpark	8/18, 3:20 pm	25	13
D&W			8/18, 3:25 pm	57	12
It Ends with Us			8/18, 5:25 pm	10	12
Coraline			8/18, 2:55 pm	33	7
Twisters			8/18, 3:55 pm	15	4
DM 4			8/18, 4:45 pm	10	5
Borderlands			8/18, 5:10 pm	6	5
Didi			8/18, 5:20 pm	7	5
Alien	Rancho Mirage	Cinemark Century at the River	8/17, 3:05 pm	22	16
D&W			8/17, 4:10 pm	27	9
It Ends with Us			8/17, 3:35 pm	25	10
Coraline			8/17, 1:30 pm	23	4
Twisters			8/17, 3:10 pm	32	4
Trap			8/17, 2:45 pm	22	5
Borderlands			8/17, 5:10 pm	10	5
Alien	Redding	Cinemark Redding	8/18, 6:20 pm	7	14
Coraline			8/18, 1:05 pm	16	4
Alien	Rocklin	Cinemark Century Blue Oaks	8/17, 5:30 pm	14	16
Coraline			8/18, 5:30 pm	14	7
Alien			8/18, 7:55 pm	2	16
Alien	San Bruno	Cinemark Century Tanforan	8/17, 3:45 pm	11	15
D&W			8/17, 5:30 pm	22	13
It Ends with Us			8/17, 5:35 pm	9	7
Twisters			8/17, 3:50 pm	7	4
DM 4			8/17, 5:10 pm	27	5
Trap			8/17, 5:40 pm	20	4
Borderlands			8/17, 5:30 pm	6	5
Didi			8/17, 4:55 pm	20	5
Alien	Yuba City	Cinemark Yuba City	8/17, 3:45 pm	11	9
D&W			8/17, 2:30 pm	9	9
It Ends with Us			8/17, 2:50 pm	10	9
Coraline			8/17, 1:45 pm	7	4
Borderlands			8/17, 5:05 pm	11	5

[Flip]

On 8/14/2024 at 11:16 PM, Flip said:

Beetlejuice 2 Previews (T-22) 4 days of sales

 

21 showtimes/143 tix sold (+20)

 

1.25x AQP Day One (T-22) [8.50m]
4.77x Alien: Romulus (T-22) [???]

Beetlejuice 2 Previews (T-18) 4 days of sales

 

21 showtimes/169 tix sold (+26)

 

1.23x AQP Day One (T-18) [8.36m]
3.84x Alien: Romulus (T-18) [24.96m]
 

Alien is only really useful to see how the pace is. Pace is fine.

[abracadabra1998]

On 8/15/2024 at 10:27 PM, abracadabra1998 said:

Minnesota Previews:

 

The Crow (T-7):

Day: T-7	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 22 theaters	46	37	37	6009	0.62

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		12	12	32.43
MTC1:		28	28	75.68
Other chains:		9	9	24.32

 

Comps: 

0.74x Abigail: $740k

0.52x Thanksgiving: $525k

0.22x Exorcist Believer: $615k

 

Yeah, doesn't look pretty  

 

Minnesota Previews:

 

The Crow (T-4):

Day: T-4	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 22 theaters	46	24	61	6009	1.02

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		18	6	29.51
MTC1:		46	18	75.41
Other chains:		15	6	24.59

 

Comps: 

0.92x Strangers Chapter 1: $1.11 Million

0.77x Abigail: $770k

1.53x First Omen: $1.11 Million

0.57x Thanksgiving: $575k

0.28x Exorcist Believer: $790k

 

Slightly under a million sound right but we'll see how the final week shapes out. I'll start updating Blink Again and The Forge tomorrow

 

[filmlover]

Would anyone be surprised if The Crow did sub-$5M this weekend? It really does feel like absolutely no one cares.

[Eric the Marxist]

Quorum Updates

Killer's Game T-25: 20.98% Awareness, 44.69% Interest

Speak No Evil T-25: 29.51% Awareness, 50.37% Interest

White Bird T-46: 15.62% Awareness, 37.78% Interest

 

Blink Twice T-4: 34.38% Awareness, 46.73% Interest

Final Awareness: 41% chance of 10M

Low Awareness: 29% chance of 10M

Final Interest: 48% chance of 10M

Low Interest: 34% chance of 10M

 

The Crow T-4: 44.22% Awareness, 49.77% Interest

Final Awareness: 78% chance of 10M

Low Awareness: 60% chance of 10M

Final Interest: 48% chance of 10M

Low Interest: 34% chance of 10M

 

The Forge T-4: 20.08% Awareness, 40.08% Interest

Final Awareness: 19% chance of 10M

Low Awareness: 14% chance of 10M

Final Interest: 48% chance of 10M

Low Interest: 34% chance of 10M

 

1992 T-11: 21.48% Awareness, 44.31% Interest

Final Awareness: 19% chance of 10M

Low Awareness: 14% chance of 10M

Final Interest: 48% chance of 10M

Low Interest: 34% chance of 10M

 

Afraid T-11: 23.01% Awareness, 47.28% Interest

Final Awareness: 19% chance of 10M

Horror Awareness: 33% chance of 10M

Final Interest: 48% chance of 10M

Horror Interest: 43% chance of 10M

 

Never Let Go T-32: 25.18% Awareness, 47.96% Interest

T-30 Awareness: 54% chance of 10M

Horror Awareness: 63% chance of 10M

T-30 Interest: 59% chance of 10M

Horror Interest: 68% chance of 10M

 

Flight Risk T-60: 28% Awareness, 48.36% Interest

T-60 Awareness: 60% chance of 10M

Low Awareness: 38% chance of 10M

T-60 Interest: 61% chance of 10M

Low Interest: 32% chance of 10M

[Boxofficerules]

I'm surprised Speak No Evil isn't at 100% awareness since the trailer won't go away.

[justnumbers]

We're about to go through a 2 week vacation. Going to be interesting to see how holdovers hold until Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

[Krissykins]

11 hours ago, filmlover said:

Would anyone be surprised if The Crow did sub-$5M this weekend? It really does feel like absolutely no one cares.

I’m guessing The Crow $4-5m and Blink Twice $3-4m. 

[Mojoguy]

Is The Crow still getting IMAX or have they been cancelled? I predict a lot of IMAX Crow showings with just 1-3 people them. lol

 

Better to let Alien keep IMAX, or Deadpool in its 5th weekend have them.

Edited August 19 by Mojoguy

[el sid]

The Crow, counted today for Thursday, had 163 sold tickets (with shows in 7 theaters). Best sales in the AMC in LA (72 sold tickets) followed by the AMC in NY (41). 

 

Comps (all three movies counted on Monday of the release week for Thursday): The Strangers: Chapter One (1.2M from previews) had 215 sold tickets = 900k. 

The Expendables (750k) had 130 = 950k. 

And The Strangers (1M) had 73 = 2.25M.

 

(The Bikeriders (9.7M OW) had 208 sold tickets on Wednesday = 2 days left for The Crow).

 

Not too bad presales in my theaters but also far from really good. IMO close to 1M seems realistic. 

 

[abracadabra1998]

23 hours ago, abracadabra1998 said:

 

Minnesota Previews:

 

The Crow (T-4):

Day: T-4	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 22 theaters	46	24	61	6009	1.02

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		18	6	29.51
MTC1:		46	18	75.41
Other chains:		15	6	24.59

 

Comps: 

0.92x Strangers Chapter 1: $1.11 Million

0.77x Abigail: $770k

1.53x First Omen: $1.11 Million

0.57x Thanksgiving: $575k

0.28x Exorcist Believer: $790k

 

Slightly under a million sound right but we'll see how the final week shapes out. I'll start updating Blink Again and The Forge tomorrow

 

Minnesota Previews:

 

The Crow (T-3):

Day: T-3	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 22 theaters	48	12	73	6182	1.18

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		25	7	34.25
MTC1:		55	9	75.34
Other chains:		18	3	24.66

 

Comps: 

1.04x Strangers Chapter 1: $1.25 Million

0.71x Abigail: $710k

1.74x First Omen: $1.26 Million

0.63x Thanksgiving: $630k

Exorcist Believer: Missed

[abracadabra1998]

Minnesota Previews:

 

Blink Twice (T-3):

Day: T-3	Shows	New Seats	Sold	Seats	% Sold
Totals: 22 theaters	65	53	53	7100	0.75

 

Type of tix:		Total:	New:	Percentage:
PLFs:		3	3	5.66
MTC1:		40	40	75.47
Other chains:		13	13	24.53

 

Comps: 

0.19x Trap: $425k

0.52x Cuckoo: $230k

0.16x Maxxxine: $495k

0.53x The Watchers: $530k

 

Think this should skew pretty cinephile. Sub-500k previews if I had to guess right now

[Ryan C]

Blink Twice

 

T-3

 

Thursday: 685 Seats Sold

 

Taken as of 11:40PM Eastern Time

 

IMPORTANT NOTES: Not really expecting to see a massive breakout with this one, but for a completely original movie that I don't think has gotten the best marketing push this are signs that this will at least not do below $5M. 

 

Also, while most PLFs are going to both Alien: Romulus and The Crow this weekend, I've seen a few showtimes for this one in Dolby and they are selling quite a lot of seats. It's still impossible to know where this movie will end up at, but I would not be shocked if this and some potential under-the-radar buzz (reviews are good) can boost this one's prospects. 

 

I know Alien: Romulus will probably be the last "big" hit of the summer, but if we could get at least one more, that would be great and unlike The Crow, I'd put my money on this one to (relatively speaking) be that. 

[Flip]

On 8/18/2024 at 10:59 PM, Flip said:

Beetlejuice 2 Previews (T-18) 4 days of sales

 

21 showtimes/169 tix sold (+26)

 

1.23x AQP Day One (T-18) [8.36m]
3.84x Alien: Romulus (T-18) [24.96m]
 

Alien is only really useful to see how the pace is. Pace is fine.

Beetlejuice 2 Previews (T-17) 

 

21 showtimes/174 tix sold (+5)

 

1.22x AQP Day One (T-17) [8.30m]
2.56x Alien: Romulus (T-17) [16.64m]

[Ryan C]

The Crow

 

T-3

 

Thursday: 372 Seats Sold

 

Taken as of 11:50PM Eastern Time

 

IMPORTANT NOTES: Yeah, PLFs is the only thing this has going for it. Even then, the fact that it has barely sold more than Blink Twice at the same point is not a good sign. 

 

Also, despite having a PLF boost, Borderlands ended up missing $10M in its opening. I'm expecting the same thing to happen with this movie. Maybe the buzz isn't as bad as it was with Borderlands, but it's still buzz that you don't want to have a remake that nobody even asked for in the first place. 

 

Regardless of how much of a financial stake Lionsgate has in this film, it'll most likely be another miss. 

[crazymoviekid]

Blink Twice: 

 

Thursday Comps:

 

Theater 1: 2 Tickets

Theater 2: 4 Tickets 

 

Trap: $.31M

Bikeriders: $.97M

Challengers: $.43M

Lisa Frankenstein: $.47M

 

Yeah, not great. Around $.4M-$.5M.

[crazymoviekid]

The Crow:

 

Thursday Comps: 

 

Theater 1: 0 Tickets

Theater 2: 8 Tickets

 

Borderlands: $1.58M

The Watchers: $1.14M

The Strangers: $1.20M

Thanksgiving: $1.00M

 

Better than expected, but doubt it's going much further than $1.25M. 

[Rorschach]

Blink Twice (Monday Night Outlook)

Cinemark Davenport 18 + IMAX

3 Thursday showings: 5/201 (2.5% sold)

 

5 Friday showings: 10/335 (3% sold)

 

Thurs + Fri: 15/536 (2.8% sold)

 

Comps:

Watchers: $1.74M

Bikeriders: $1.03M

Trap: $2.2M

Cuckoo: $1.19M

Avg: $1.54M

[Rorschach]

The Crow (Monday Night Outlook)

Cinemark Davenport 18 + IMAX

Thursday: 10/846 (1.2% sold)

1 IMAX showing: 0/388

4 2D showings: 10/458

 

Friday: 11/1,184 (0.9% sold)

1 IMAX showing: 0/388

8 2D showings: 11/796 

 

Thurs + Fri: 21/2,030 (1% sold)

 

Comps:

Strangers: $3.45M

Borderlands: $1.29M

Avg: $2.37M

[todos]

Screens look bad for new movies. I think Disney is giving IO2 an expansion this weekend or planning to. Sudden increase in weekend show allocations (4 to 6) in some theatres where it’s had 1 or 2 shows the last two to three weeks. 

Weird decision when they dropped it on digital the same week. 

Edited August 20 by todos