Chaos Isn’t Reigning At Summer Box Office With $3.35B+, Despite Exhibition’s Woes: Season Wrap-Up

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s “See How They Run” occupied the top spot for the second weekend in a row at the U.K. and Ireland box office, with £984,779 ($1.1 million), per numbers released by Comscore. The film now has a total of £2.8 million. In its seventh weekend, Sony’s “Bullet Train,” starring Brad Pitt, collected £325,252 in second place for a total of £10.3 million. In third position with £321,746 was Universal’s “Minions: The Rise Of Gru,” which now has a total of £45.1 million after 12 weekends. Paramount’s Tom Cruise vehicle “Top Gun: Maverick” stormed back into the top five with £320,963 in fourth place. With a total of £82.6 million after 17 weekends, the film is the top grossing film of 2022 in the territory and eighth on the all time chart behind “Avengers: Endgame” (£88.7 million).

Clayton Davis As the filmmaking team for “The Woman King” travels to Brazil to promote the historical epic, Viola Davis and her husband and producing partner Julius Tennon are celebrating the success of the film’s no. 1 debut at the box office, grossing $19 million domestically. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 10, followed by opening in theaters one week later. It’s one of the rare films where critics and general audiences given it a similarly positive reception, with a 95% critics score and 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It even pulled off an “A+” Cinema Score. Davis emphasizes that the story of “The Woman King” can connect to all audiences, not only Black women.

https://t.co/0hr3hUTMhgWhen asked by a Twitter user why the movie wasn’t happening, Flanagan responded, “Because of DOCTOR SLEEP’s box office performance, Warner Bros opted not to proceed with it. They control the rights, so that was that.”Because of DOCTOR SLEEP’s box office performance, Warner Bros opted not to proceed with it.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s been proven time and time again that Academy Award attention has little to do with box office glory. Just look at recent winners like “Moonlight,” “The Hurt Locker,” or “CODA,” the first streaming movie to land the Oscar’s top prize, all of which were more beloved than seen, at least by the general public. But during a year in which several commercial movies, including “Top Gun: Maverick” ($1.44 billion globally and counting), “Elvis” ($284 million globally) “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (scheduled for Nov. 11) and “Avatar: The Way of Water” (scheduled for Dec. 16), look to find themselves in the awards race, film industry analysts believe the box office may play a part in keeping movies from major studios in the conversation.

Zack Sharf “Doctor Sleep” director Mike Flanagan confirmed on Twitter that a planned sequel to his 2019 “The Shining” prequel is officially dead. The filmmaker cited the dismal box office performance of “Doctor Sleep” as the main reason why Warner Bros. isn’t moving forward with a second “The Shining” prequel film, this one focused on the character of Dick Hallorann (played in Stanley Kubrick’s film by Scatman Crothers and in “Doctor Sleep” by Carl Lumbly.” “We were so close,” Flanagan wrote on Twitter about getting the Dick Hallorann movie made. “I’ll always regret this didn’t happen.” Flanagan also shared a fan-made poster for his scrapped second “The Shining” prequel. When asked by one user why his “Doctor Sleep” follow-up wasn’t going to be made, Flanagan responded, “Because of ‘Doctor Sleep’s’ box office performance, Warner Bros. opted not to proceed with it. They control the rights, so that was that.”

Julia Roberts and George Clooney landed at the top of the international box office chart this weekend as Universal/Working Title’s Ticket to Paradise expanded its offshore rollout. Adding 39 markets for a $12.1M session in 46 lifted the overseas cume to $14.8M with several majors still to come; domestic begins on October 21. Collectively, the new markets this session performed above Last Christmas and Yesterday, and in line with The Lost City and Bridget Jones’s Baby. 

Brett Morgen’s kaleidoscopic ode to David Bowie landed at no 10 in North America this weekend, singing up $1.225 million on 170 screens – exclusively Imax (159 U.S. locations, 11 in Canada).

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Woman King,” a historical action epic starring Viola Davis, ruled over domestic box office charts in its opening weekend. Bolstered by stellar reviews and positive word-of-mouth, the movie collected $19 million from 3,765 North American cinemas over the weekend, arriving at the higher end of expectations. Independent tracking services projected “The Woman King” would kick off with $15 million to $18 million, while Sony estimated a debut closer to $12 million. Sony is lucky the film exceeded its ultra-conservative forecasts. “The Woman King” cost $50 million to produce, not including the tens of millions in marketing expenses, including a stop at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The next three weekends are favorable for “The Woman King,” with upcoming releases including Warner Bros’ “Don’t Worry Darling,” which has received mixed reviews, Universal’s LGBT comedy “Bros,” and the Sony family film “Lyle Lyle Crocodile.” There won’t be a theatrical release with the sort of action and intensity that “Woman King” offers until “Halloween Ends” on October 14, so it will have plenty of time to build word-of-mouth both as a female-fronted historical film among Black and female audiences and potentially as an exciting action film among crossover demographics. It will need to do so as the film still has to turn a profit against its $50 million production budget, which was co-financed by TriStar and eOne.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.Produced by and starring Viola Davis, The Washington Post called the film the actress’ “ultimate flex.” The drama, which cost $50 million to make, is projected to take in anywhere from $13.5 million to $22.5 million during its domestic debut, according to Forbes.Clubbing its way to second place was “Barbarian” which earned over $1.96 million. The horror-thriller, which Vogue said is one of “the best reasons to go to the movies right now,” tells the story of a young woman, played by Georgina Campbell, who discovers the remote home she booked on Airbnb was double-booked by a man, portrayed by Bill Skarsgård.

The Viola Davis femme African warrior epic The Woman King —a flashback to the types of historical epics Columbia Pictures has had a long history of notching Oscars with– is looking at a $12M opening per Sony this weekend, while rivals have it in the $13M-$16M range.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Fresh off its enthusiastic world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, the Viola Davis-led historical epic “The Woman King” will touch down in 3,700 North American movie theaters over the weekend. The domestic box office desperately needs a boost, but will U.S. audiences be as receptive as festival-goers in Canada? Touted as the real-life “Black Panther,” Sony’s “The Woman King” is aiming to collect at least $15 million in its domestic debut. Independent box office observers are optimistic that opening weekend returns could reach $17 million to $20 million. Yet Sony, who co-financed the movie with eOne, is projecting $12 million, in line with 2018’s “Widows,” which also starred Davis. Replicating those ticket sales, even with tempered pandemic-expectations, would be tepid-at-best since “The Woman King” carries a $50 million price tag.

Naman Ramachandran Ayan Mukerji’s Bollywood action fantasy “Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva” was one of the leading films at the global box office over the weekend, grossing $28.2 million, according to its producers, Disney’s Star Studios India and Dharma Productions. The film released in India across 5,019 screens and debuted at No. 1 with a three-day weekend of $18.9 million. The film’s overseas screen count was 3,894. In the U.S., where the film is distributed by Disney, it released in 810 theaters and debuted at No. 2 with $4.4 million. However, the film needs to sustain its momentum to break even, with its budget approximately $51 million.

Broadway gave Billy Crystal a fine send-off last week, with the star’s Mr. Saturday Night musical grossing more than $1 million during its final week of performances. That number – $1,014,614, to be precise – is a big jump over the show’s weekly box office takes in recent months. About 98% of seats at the Nederlander Theatre were filled for Crystal’s goodbye week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Art-house title “Return to Dust” was a surprise weekend winner, topping the mainland China box office in its ninth weekend of release. The astonishing feat occurred on an otherwise depressed weekend in which China’s cinema box office dipped to a three-month low. This reflected the summer season winding to an end and anti-COVID measures once again forcing major Chinese cities into retreat. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed “Return” grossing $5.3 million (RMB36.2 million) between Friday and Sunday. Those three days accounted for nearly half of the $12.7 million (RMB87.4 million) cumulative total it has earned since release on July 8, 2022.

This was yet another soft weekend at the international box office with no major fresh titles and as summer fully closes out in Europe and beyond.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Movie theaters and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad end-of-summer continues at the box office. Without any major releases on the calendar, Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — yes, a movie that debuted in December of 2021 — managed to return to the No. 1 spot in North America. Sony re-released the film with 11 minutes of extra footage that proved to be tantalizing to comic book fans, bringing in $6 million from 3,935 theaters over the weekend. “No Way Home” is expected to finish the Labor Day holiday weekend on Monday with $7.6 million. Another holdover, Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” is trailing ever-so-slightly with $5.5 million between Friday and Sunday and an estimated $7 million through Monday. Since ticket sales are close, the final order could change on Monday. In any case, the triumph of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Top Gun: Maverick” highlights the bleakness at the box office considering both of those films are widely available on home entertainment.

Current industry estimates have overall figures for the 4-day weekend finishing at just $63-65 million. In 2021, “Shang-Chi” boosted that total to $140 million, and prior to the pandemic, only one Labor Day weekend in the 2010s saw a 4-day total below $100 million ($97 million in 2017.)The National Association of Theater Owners stemmed the tide somewhat with National Cinema Day, a campaign that offered $3 movie tickets at cinemas nationwide on Saturday with major chains like Cinemark and AMC also offering discounts on popcorn and soda.

J. Kim Murphy Hey, North America, today is supposed to be National Cinema Day — didn’t you get the memo? The domestic box office is looking so slow this Labor Day weekend that a re-release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — a superhero film that first hit theaters almost nine months ago — may make a return to the top of the charts. Though the third Tom Holland-led Spidey film debuted in theaters in December 2021, Sony is releasing the “More Fun Stuff Version” in 3,935 theaters over the holiday weekend, hoping to lure devoted fans back to the big screen with its promise of 11 minutes of unseen footage.