Weekend Numbers [05.24 - 05.27, 2024] | 4-day actuals | 32.3M FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA | 31.3M THE GARFIELD MOVIE | 22.3M IF | 17.6M KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

[emoviefan]

3 minutes ago, YM! said:

Is this a bad weekend? Yes without any denial. Am I disappointed that Furiosa didn’t do better? Yes. Do I think theatrical might be in trouble this year? Somewhat. However, I realized yesterday that through my doom and gloom it won’t help me feel any better. I’m grateful that theaters are still here and that Furiosa still exists. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in numbers and what makes a film a flop or hit, we don’t really appreciate the film themselves sometimes. I’m aiming to see I Saw the TV Glow next week and likely Apes with the family. Also I can’t really say theaters are 100% doomed when June looks far more promising than this May did.
 

This month just didn’t hit because there wasn’t anything the GA really gravitated too but theaters and studios tried their damndest. This weakness this month was due to strikes due to the studios’ own greed and refusing to play ball - they made their beds and now they must lay in them. It might happen again with the animation/VFX strike looming. This March was pretty damn strong and so long as we rebound in the Fall, 2024 exhibition will be okay. Not to mention 2025 and 2026 look far stronger on paper so theaters will still continue and could return just as strong. However, if theaters become the next drive-ins, I’ll be sad but also grateful they’re still here. 

Could not agree with this more.

[Mad Max007]

22 minutes ago, Squire said:

So, with Furiosa flopping, how is it that Dune Part 2 succeeded where Furiosa failed? 
 

Perhaps Dune delivered a unique theatrical experience whereas Furiosa was just giving more of the same (in terms of action set pieces), but not as good as Fury Road? 
 

Mad Max more niche? More weird? 
 

Better Dune marketing campaign? 

Sequel to a well received movie after only 3 years compared to a prequel releasing after 9 years, the entirety of young Hollywood being the cast is another factor.

Edited May 25 by Mad Max007

[Maggie]

Next weekend no major release. Bad Boys 4 after that. I hope it does at least 50M

[MysteryMovieMogul]

12 hours ago, ChipDerby said:

 

Agree to disagree. I think people clearly will wait 45 days to see a movie, but you movie that to twice that time, then you tempt them to see it in theaters.

Three month waits are easier than ever in this culture. If you can last the couple of weeks it takes for people to stop actively talking about the film, then there's an overabundance of television shows on streaming, video game backlogs, and things that come up in real life to make the wait easy in the meantime.

[filmlover]

I think June looks pretty good thanks to the heavy hitters (Bad Boys, Inside Out, A Quiet Place).

 

It's whether the other titles (The Watchers, The Bikeriders, Horizon: Chapter 1) gain traction that's the question mark. Personally I definitely wouldn't bet on the latter two.

[emoviefan]

1 minute ago, Maggie said:

Next weekend no major release. Bad Boys 4 after that. I hope it does at least 50M

The only way it does not do 50 at least is if there is a massive boycott  due to Mr. Smith. There is no indication that is going to happen though. Even if the presales and tracking do not look awesome this will have great walkups. For Life was only tracking to do about 40-45 on MLK weekend in 20 and did 73. 

[ZeroHour]

2 minutes ago, emoviefan said:

The only way it does not do 50 at least is if there is a massive boycott  due to Mr. Smith. There is no indication that is going to happen though. Even if the presales and tracking do not look awesome this will have great walkups. For Life was only tracking to do about 40-45 on MLK weekend in 20 and did 73. 

Only the academy cared about the slap. Certainly not a significant portion of the GA. Plus that was a million media cycles ago. 

[Cmasterclay]

I think Bad Boys is going to do very good tbh, it's short and funny and the kind of thing people want to see communally. I'm way more excited for Furiosa as a piece of art but Bad Boys I know I can go with friends and watch in a full laughing theater so frankly much more urgency to watch that one. 

[filmscholar]

7.5 Million True-Friday on a Holiday Weekend.   Garfield did even worst.    Yeah this was  big miss this weekend.  Audiences are clearly open to going to the movies on Holiday Weekends.   But these two films did not seem to move the needle for GA.  "Furiosa" was popular in "Fury Road" but mostly because Charlize played the character.  I've heard Anna still did a good job but sadly GA's probably know the character more with Charlize.   

 

A direct "Fury Road" Sequel would have definitely done better this weekend.   Clearly this was a passion project for Miller to tell this backstory prequel and expand the Mad Max Mythology.  Also I always loved "Garfield" growing up.   But sorry Chris, this wasn't a Mario situation.  People were waiting for a proper "Mario" film for decades.  We had Two Garfield movies a decade ago.    It seems families have made their choice and will wait for Pixar and Illumination.   

Edited May 25 by filmscholar

[grim22]

2 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

I think Bad Boys is going to do very good tbh, it's short and funny and the kind of thing people want to see communally. I'm way more excited for Furiosa as a piece of art but Bad Boys I know I can go with friends and watch in a full laughing theater so frankly much more urgency to watch that one. 

So you are saying Bad Boys will slap away the competition in 2 weeks?

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, grim22 said:

So you are saying Bad Boys will slap away the competition in 2 weeks?

[Kon]

7 minutes ago, MysteryMovieMogul said:

Three month waits are easier than ever in this culture. If you can last the couple of weeks it takes for people to stop actively talking about the film, then there's an overabundance of television shows on streaming, video game backlogs, and things that come up in real life to make the wait easy in the meantime.

Exactly. Most people willing to wait 45 days to watch a "free" movie will be willing to wait 90 or 120 days. There are many things to do while waiting.

 

The first few weeks are where the hype for a movie is at its highest. If a person weren't interested at the time because they would rather wait to see the movie on streaming, it's unlikely waiting 90 days (instead of 45 days) will make a big difference.

[emoviefan]

7 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

I think Bad Boys is going to do very good tbh, it's short and funny and the kind of thing people want to see communally. I'm way more excited for Furiosa as a piece of art but Bad Boys I know I can go with friends and watch in a full laughing theater so frankly much more urgency to watch that one. 

Seeing Furiosa today and will  see Bad Boys in 2 weeks. 

[emoviefan]

4 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Poor Lupita . LOL

[Maggie]

This discussion about extending theatrical windows to more than 45 days is useless. Never gonna happen. Say thank you if a movie is granted 45 days, most are online even before that

Edited May 25 by Maggie

[filmscholar]

10 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

I think Bad Boys is going to do very good tbh, it's short and funny and the kind of thing people want to see communally. I'm way more excited for Furiosa as a piece of art but Bad Boys I know I can go with friends and watch in a full laughing theater so frankly much more urgency to watch that one. 

 

Not to mention it's rumored Will and Martin both took Back-End points to keep the Budget in check under 100 Million (Like they did for Bad Boys for Life).   They also got the run-time just under 2 hours. It's the shortest "Bad Boys" film in the franchise.  Look, Will has had some drama the last two years since winning the Oscar.  At the end of the day the Man has a long history of putting butts in seats.   Martin is also someone that makes people laugh.   It's going to be a good "Date" movie too for couples.   I hope it does better than "For Life" but we'll see.  

[Joyous Legion]

Yeah, it’s important to take a step back and look at that bigger picture. There just wasn’t anything that audiences were especially interested in in May

 

Spoiler

Or april

 

Spoiler

Or March

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Or February

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Or January

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Or December

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Or November

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Or October

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Or september

Spoiler

Or august

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harrisonisdead]

It's funny to see the contrast between the overall landscape of the box office vs the success of my nearest (small regional chain) theater, which appears to be absolutely thriving. Lately I've consistently seen it way more packed than I'd ever seen it before the pandemic. I think it's in part that the theater still does $7 matinees and $5 Tuesdays, whereas the next closest theater is a good few dollars more expensive. It's a very economically (and culturally, for that matter) diverse area, and I see a lot of families still having outings at the theater. 

 

The other thing is that semi-specialty releases like religious, Indian, Fathom Events, anime, etc have really filled in the gaps where major releases have left some slack. The theater never used to participate in these things, sticking with the major releases since they have relatively few screens, but in the last couple years they've pivoted and starting getting a lot of them. Now they are actually buying out an adjacent building and adding new screens to keep up with demand, and I've heard from people working there that the new screens will be dedicated specifically to those kinds of niche-ish releases.

[John Marston]

the "people are waiting for streaming" thing doesn't really hold water because most of these movies don't' become huge streaming hits either. These are simply movies people are not interested in, 

[emoviefan]

3 minutes ago, filmscholar said:

 

Not to mention it's rumored Will and Martin both took Back-End points to keep the Budget in check under 100 Million (Like they did for Bad Boys for Life).   They also got the run-time just under 2 hours. It's the shortest "Bad Boys" film in the franchise.  Look, Will has had some drama the last two years since winning the Oscar.  At the end of the day the Man has a long history of putting butts in seats.   Martin is also someone that makes people laugh.   It's going to be a good "Date" movie too for couples.   I hope it does better than "For Life" but we'll see.  

It could do better than For Life. That opened in the dog days of January. This will have summer weekdays and no real competition for it's audience like at all. The light release schedule will really benefit it.