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Tag: box office

  • Korea Box Office: ‘12.12: The Day’ Brings Crowds Back to Cinemas

    Korea Box Office: ‘12.12: The Day’ Brings Crowds Back to Cinemas

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    Korean drama “12.12: The Day” brought life back to South Korean cinemas with a powerful $11 million opening weekend.

    Directed by Kim Sung-soo and starring the reliable Hwang Jung-min and Jung Woo-sung, the film recounts a nine-hour period in 1979 in which a military coup was attempted. It is understood to be based on real events, but with a fictional telling.

    It earned $11.2 million between Friday and Sunday accounting for four out of every five tickets sold in the country. Over its five-day opening run it earned $14.1 million.

    That is the second highest opening by any film this year, behind only summer hit “The Roundup: No Way Out” and it is expected to achieve two million ticket sales on Monday.

    The strong performance lifted the overall box office for the weekend back above $10 million for the first time since the Chuseok holiday in late September and only the second time since the summer. Nationwide box office was $14.2 million.

    “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which had topped the chart a week earlier, was relegated to a distant second place. It earned $1.21 million for a 12-day cumulative of $4.20 million.

    “The Boy and the Heron added $257,000 over the weekend to build a cumulative of $14.6 million. The Miyazaki Hayao-directed title was released five weeks ago and enjoyed two weekends at the top of the chart.

    U.S. animation “Arctic Justice” was the second highest new release title of the latest weekend. It opened in fourth place with $236,000 over the weekend and $298,000 over five days.

    “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” slipped down to sixth place in its second weekend of release in Korea earning $132,000. It has a tiny $1.28 million cumulative total.

    Released two weeks ago, “The Marvels” earned $130,000 for a cumulative of $5.37 million since Nov. 8.

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    Patrick Frater

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  • Box Office: ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel and ‘Napoleon’ Conquer Thanksgiving as ‘Wish’ Wobbles

    Box Office: ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel and ‘Napoleon’ Conquer Thanksgiving as ‘Wish’ Wobbles

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    There’s high drama at the Thanksgiving box office.

    Heading into the long holiday corridor, Disney Animation’s music-infused original event pic Wish was expected to win the crowded holiday race. Instead, it came in third behind The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Napoleon in another blow for Disney.

    Overall, the 2023 Thanksgiving box office was up a hefty 40 percent or more from last year but still trailed pre-pandemic times (revenue was down 34 percent from 2019).

    The Hunger Games prequel easily topped the domestic chart with an estimated $42 million for the Wednesday to Sunday corridor, including $28.8 million for the weekend. The movie, which opened the weekend before Thanksgiving, finished Sunday with a domestic total of nearly $100 million and $197.3 million globally after earning another $26.2 million overseas.

    In a surprise twist, Ridley Scott’s new historical epic Napoleon edged out Wish to come in No. 2 thanks in large part to older males. The historical epic, starring Joaquin Phoenix, opened to an estimated $32.5 million for the five days, including $20.4 million for the weekend. Napoleon — a win for Apple’s theatrical ambitions — came in well ahead of expectations for an adult drama. Its performance is also impressive considering it received so-so reviews and a B- CinemaScore from moviegoers.

    Scott’s epic also prevailed on the battlefield overseas, where it opened No. 1 with $46.3 million for a global launch of $78.8 million.

    Napoleon is the second big theatrical swing from Apple Original Films after Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which is currently in theaters via Paramount. Apple Original Films fully financed the two tentpoles, which both have Oscar ambitions. Sony is Apple’s global distribution and marketing partner on Napoleon.

    Heading into the Thanksgiving frame, Napoleon was looking at a five-day holiday cume of $22 million to $25 million.

    Wish, an original story with no affiliated IP, earned an estimated $19.7 million for the three days and $31.7 million for the five days to place No. 3. Heading into the holiday, the movie had been tracking to open to $45 million to $50 million. Overseas, the animated pic started off with $17.5 million (its initial footprint only includes four major markets).

    Disney has suffered a rocky year at the box office, capped by recent bust The Marvels. Wish, which earned $8.3 million on Wednesday, could still overcome a soft opening if it enjoys a long run as Encanto and Elemental did. Going in Wish‘s favor as the Christmas season approaches is an A- CinemaScore and strong PostTrak exits.

    Universal and Illumination’s Trolls Band Together, which opened the weekend before Thanksgiving opposite Napoleon, came in No. 4 with a five-day gross of $25.3 million for a domestic tally of $64.5 million. (The performance of both Trolls and Wish fuels concern that the family box office still hasn’t recovered from the pandemic.)

    TriStar and Spyglass Media’s slasher pic Thanksgiving rounded out the top five in its second weekend with an estimated five-day cume of $11.2 million for a 10-day domestic tally north of $24 million.

    Speaking of horror, Five Nights at Freddy’s achieved a major milestone over the holiday in becoming the top-grossing Blumhouse pic of all time at the global box office after passing up Split ($278.7 million). Five Nights, from Blumhouse and Universal, finished Sunday with an estimated worldwide haul of $283.1 million.

    At the awards box office, Focus Features’ The Holdovers looks to come in No. 7 with five-day holiday earnings in the $4 million range.

    MGM/Amazon’s Saltburn followed with a domestic opening of $3.1 million. The movie has also earned $3.1 million at the international box office for an early global tally of $6.2 million (Warner Bros. International is handling the pic overseas).

    This story was originally published Nov. 25 at 8:32 am.

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    Pamela McClintock

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  • Austin Butler, Jodie Comer’s ‘The Bikeriders’ Lands New Home at Focus Features

    Austin Butler, Jodie Comer’s ‘The Bikeriders’ Lands New Home at Focus Features

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    The Bikeriders has found a new home.

    Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to the New Regency movie, which was previously set up at Disney’s 20th Century.

    Directed by Jeff Nichols, the movie about a motorcycle club in the 1950s stars Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy. It had been been scheduled to open in theaters on Dec. 1 after making several stops on the fall festival circuit, including opening the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend.

    However, Disney and New Regency subsequently announced that The Bikeriders was being taken off the release calendar. Behind the scenes, insiders say New Regency had been given the go-ahead to take the film elsewhere.

    Plans are for Focus to release the film theatrically in 2024. Focus will handle the pic domestically, while Universal Pictures International will have overseas duties.

    “We are delighted to add such a riveting project to next year’s strong slate of films. We look forward to once again working alongside New Regency and reuniting with the multi-talented Jeff Nichols on another one of his visionary projects,” Focus Features Chairman said Peter Kujawski in a statement.

    Added New Regency chair-CEO Yariv Milchan, “We are excited to team up again with our Focus Features partners and look forward to another successful collaboration. And we couldn’t be prouder of The Bikeriders, Jeff Nichols and all the talent he has brought together to create this truly exceptional film.”

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    Pamela McClintock

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  • Italian Box Office Hit ‘There’s Still Tomorrow’ Sells Worldwide (Exclusive)

    Italian Box Office Hit ‘There’s Still Tomorrow’ Sells Worldwide (Exclusive)

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    There’s Still Tomorrow (C’è Ancora Domani), the surprise box office hit that has taken Italian cinemas by storm, has become a global sales hit as well, with international distributors snatching up the historic dramedy from actress-turned-director Paola Cortellesi.

    The black-and-white feature is set in Rome in 1946, a few days before the referendum to determine whether women will get the vote. Cortellesi stars as Delia, a woman suffering from domestic abuse who longs for emancipation — both for herself and her daughter. Valerio Mastandrea, Emanuela Fanelli, Vinicio Marchioni, Giorgio Colangeli and Romana Maggiora Vergano co-star.

    Vision Distribution, which is handling international sales for There’s Still Tomorrow, tells THR Roma they have closed deals for the movie for 18 countries across three continents, including with Limelight for Australia and New Zealand, Providence Filmes — Pandora for Brazil — Swallow Wings Films in Taiwan and Lev Cinema in Israel. The film has nearly sold out in Europe, with Universal Pictures taking it in France, BTeam Pictures in Spain and Art Film for the Netherlands. Buyers in Denmark (Future Film), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Belgium (Arti Film), Greece (Weird Wave), Hungary (Mozinet), Switzerland (Morandini Film Distribution) and Finland and Norway (Future Film ) all jumped on the historic feature, whose combination of comedy and romance against the grim post-WW2 setting has Cortellesi dubbing it “pink neorealism.”

    “We knew we had a strong story on our hands, with an original cinematic style and vision,” says Catia Rossi, head of international sales at Vision Distribution. “[It’s] a universal story that finds resonance with non-Italians as well.”

    Israeli buyer Lev Cinema picked up There’s Still Tomorrow following its screening at the Haifa festival when, Rossi says, “his 90-year-old mother, who was in the audience at the end of the screening, and with people still applauding, called her son and told him he had to buy it at all costs.”

    There’s Still Tomorrow, which opened this year’s Rome Film Festival, is already the most successful Italian title of the year, with a box office of 18.9 million euros ($20.6 million) and counting. Vision produced together with Fremantle-owned Italian company Wildside, in collaboration with Netflix and Sky Italia. Vision is fielding interest from several U.S. distributors for the title.

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    Scott Roxborough

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  • Box Office Results: Hunger Games Prequel Rises to the Top as Marvels Sinks

    Box Office Results: Hunger Games Prequel Rises to the Top as Marvels Sinks

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    There are plenty of pros and cons at the box office this week. We’ll start with the good news. The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, opened with a decent but not spectacular $44 million, enough to propel the Francis Lawrence-directed pic to No. 1 domestically, per Deadline.

    Internationally, Songbirds collected $54.5M, bringing in $98.5M globally—not exactly a home run for a potential franchise re-starter, but also not terrible for a pic that cost $100M to produce. Deadline believes the writer’s strike played a significant factor in the lower-than-expected opening and notes the franchise’s hopes hinge on foreign sales. There’s also hope that the holidays (and meager competition) will afford this flick solid legs, so we’ll have to wait and see how the final numbers look.

    Trolls Band Together also hit theaters and earned $30.6M, less than the $46.6M earned by the original Trolls in 2016, but considering Trolls: World Tour opened on PVOD during the pandemic, this is a solid start for Universal’s franchise.

    More significantly, the trade notes that Trolls opened less than a week before Disney’s Wish, which seems foolhardy. “No,” says one rival studio exec, “If this was seven years ago, you’d have to worry about Disney. But with their brand rusting, you don’t need to worry about them anymore.” Yikes.

    Speaking of which, The Marvels fell hard in its second weekend, dipping -78% (the second biggest drop for the studio) and earning $10.2M. The superhero feature has collected a meager $65M domestically and $161M worldwide.

    Elsewhere, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving hauled in $10.2M thanks to positive reviews, while Searchlight’s Next Goal Wins (from Taika Waititi) claimed sixth place with $2.5M.

    DOMESTIC TOP 1

    1.) Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (LG) 3,776 theaters Fri $19.1M Sat $15M Sun $9.9M 3-day $44M/Wk 1

    2.) Trolls Band Together (Uni/DWA) 3,870 theaters Fri $9.35M Sat $12.2M Sun $8.97M 3-day $30.6M/Total $31.7M

    3.) The Marvels (Dis) 4,030 theaters Fri $2.8M Sat $4.4M Sun $3M 3-day $10.2M (-78%) Total $65M/Wk 2

    4.) Thanksgiving (Sony) 3,204 theaters, Fri $3.8M Sat $3.86M Sun $2.5M 3-day $10.2M/Wk 1

    5.) Five Nights at Freddy’s (Uni) 2,829 (-865) theaters, Fri $940K Sat $1.57M Sun $990K 3-day $3.5M (-61%), Total $132.6M/Wk 4

    6.) The Holdovers (Foc) 1478 (+700) theaters Fri $800K Sat $1.1M Sun $780K/3-day $2.7M (-16%), Total $8.35M/Wk 4

    7.) Next Goal Wins (Sea) 2,240 theaters Fri $1.1M Sat $822K Sun $578K 3-day $2.5M/Wk 1

    8.) Taylor Swift: Eras Tour (AMC) 1,573 (-1275) theaters, Fri $655K Sat $1M Sun $745K 3-day $2.4M (-61%)/Total $175.3M/ Wk 6

    9.) Priscilla (A24) 1,802 (-559) theaters, Fri $731K Sat $922K Sun $673K 3-day$2.32M (-50%), Total $16.98M/Wk 4

    10.) Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple/Par) 1,714 (-1,643) theaters Fri $530K Sat $840K Sun $550K 3-day $1.92M (-58%)/Total $63.5M/Wk 5

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    Jeff Ames

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  • Box Office: ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Opens to Subdued $44M, ‘The Marvels’ Suffers Historic Drop

    Box Office: ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Opens to Subdued $44M, ‘The Marvels’ Suffers Historic Drop

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    Lionsgate’s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opened to $44 million at the domestic box office, easily enough to win the weekend but coming in behind expectations. The event pic has plenty of time to make up ground over Thanksgiving week, one of the most lucrative corridors of the year at the box office.

    Heading into the frame, tracking suggested the movie would devour at least $50 million in ticket sales as Lionsgate goes about the difficult task of trying to create a spinoff franchise. The studio remained hopeful on Saturday morning that the pic would come in on the higher end of the $45 million to $50 million range, but traffic slipped more than expected on Saturday.

    Overseas, the fifth title in the Hunger Games series started off with $54.5 million from 87 markets for a global opening of $98.5 million (foreign distributors financed much of the film when snapping up rights to their particular territories).

    The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opens eight years after the last Hunger Games played in theaters and 12 years after the first film hit the big screen. The new movie earned a B+ CinemaScore, the lowest of the franchise. Female moviegoers made up the majority of Friday’s audience — or 64 percent.

    The four Hunger Games films, based on Suzanne Collins’ dystopian YA novels, starred Jennifer Lawrence and all opened north of $100 million domestically on their way to raking in $2.9 billion at the global box office.

    The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is based on Collins’ book of the same name. Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth lead the cast of the prequel, which also stars Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman and Viola Davis. Francis Lawrence, who helmed three previous Hunger Games movies, returns in the director’s chair.

    The dystopian action adventure kicked off the Thanksgiving box office alongside Universal and DreamWorks’ Trolls Band Together and TriStar and Spyglass Media Group’s slasher pic Thanksgiving, directed by Eli Roth.

    Trolls Band Together came in second with $30.6 million, in line with expectations and more than enough for a second-place finish. The family pic may have put off critics, but audiences bestowed it with an A CinemaScore. Trolls Band Together has already opened in a number of markets overseas, where it is expected to finish Sunday with a foreign tally of $76.3 million and $108.1 million globally.

    The threequel returns Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake to the roles of Poppy and Branch, who are now officially a couple. The movie was shepherded by returning director Walt Dohrn and producer Gina Shay. Similar to the Hunger Games prequel, the film is skewing female (69 percent of the audience for the movie in theaters).

    The outlook remained bleak for superhero pic The Marvels, which fell 78 percent in its second outing to rank as Marvel Studios’ worst second-weekend drop of all time, as well as the worst for any Hollywood superhero pic in modern history. Among Marvel Cinematic Universe titles, threequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania previously sported the worst drop of 69 percent.

    The Marvels earned an estimated $10.2 million for the weekend to tie with Thanksgiving. The final order will be determined Monday morning.

    Overseas, the superhero tentpole took in another $19.5 million from 52 markets for a tepid foreign tally of $96.3 million and $161.3 million globally.

    Roth’s latest horror offering earned a B- CinemaScore and skewed male (56 percent). Overseas, Thanksgiving earned $2.4 million from its first 11 markets for a global start of $12.6 million.

    At the specialty box office, Oscar hopeful Saltburn opened in seven locations. The MGM and Amazon film scored a promising per-theater average of $45,100. Overseas, where Warner Bros. International is handling the British black comedy, Saltburn opened to $1.6 million from handful of markets, including $1.3 million in the U.K., where it is set.

    And back in the top 10, awards contender The Holdovers (Focus Features) moved up the chart to No. 6 as it expanded nationwide, earning $2.7 million from 1,478 cinemas for an early domestic total of $8.4 million.

    Searchlight’s specialty film Next Goal Wins (Searchlight) came in No. 7 with an opening of $2.5 million from 2,240 theaters.

    On Nov. 22, a Wednesday, Apple Original Films and Sony’s Napoleon and Disney Animation’s Wish take a seat at the Thanksgiving holiday table, among other offerings.

    This story was originally published at Nov. 18 at 8:14 am.

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    Pamela McClintock

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  • Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ Secures China Release Date

    Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ Secures China Release Date

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    Ridley Scott‘s Napoleon has charted a course for China. The big-budget historical epic has locked down a potentially lucrative release date in the country on Dec. 1, according to multiple mainstream Chinese media sources.

    Napoleon is from Apple Original Films and Sony Pictures. The film will be released in North American theaters on Nov. 22 by Sony Pictures and will stream on Apple TV+ at a later date.

    Written by David Scarpa, the lavish period film, which clocks in at a meaty two hours and 38 minutes, stars Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix as the French military commander and later despot Napoleon Bonaparte, with Vanessa Kirby as his consort, Empress Joséphine. The movie charts Bonaparte’s meteoric rise from lowly artillery commander to Napoleon I, emperor of France, and takes in notable military engagements such as the battles of Austerlitz and Waterloo

    Universal’s Oppenheimer proved earlier this year that lengthy runtimes and weighty historical subjects are by no means a dealbreaker for Chinese moviegoers, with the period drama earning $61 million, the second-best China total of Christopher Nolan’s career behind 2014’s Interstellar ($139 million).

    Napoleon will get a wide release on Imax in China, as did Oppenheimer.

    With much of his classic filmography released long before China was a box-office force, Scott’s career-best showings in the country are The Martian (2015), with $94.9 million, and Alien: Covenant (2017) at $45.4 million.

    Napoleon cost an estimated $200 million to make, before marketing, making a strong international showing a must for the epic.

    The early reaction from critics to Napoleon has been largely positive. It has been most consistently praised for its epic scale — always a bonus in the China market — particularly the set-piece battle scenes that make the movie a worthy theatrical experience. Phoenix and Kirby’s performances have also won early admiration.

    ‘Napoleon’ poster for China.

    Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures Entertainment

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    Patrick Brzeski

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  • China Box Office: ‘The Marvels’ Bombs as Superhero Fatigue Deepens

    China Box Office: ‘The Marvels’ Bombs as Superhero Fatigue Deepens

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    The Marvels‘ disappointing start at the North American box office over the weekend — $47 million, a record low for a Marvel Studios release — is adding to analysts’ concerns that superhero fatigue is an urgent and growing problem for the major studios. But in China, filmgoers have been snubbing America’s caped crusaders for far longer — and The Marvels only marks a fresh low.

    The Marvels opened to just $11.5 million in China, losing the three-day weekend to holdover local crime thriller Who’s the Suspect, which earned $11.7 million. Including Thursday night previews, The Marvels‘ four-day total creeps up to $11.8 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

    MCU releases have been underperforming in China since the pandemic, but The Marvels‘ face plant is particularly striking. Back in 2019, Brie Larson’s franchise starter Captain Marvel opened to $89.3 million on its way to a strong $154 million China total. According to current projections, The Marvels will be lucky to top $20 million.

    Marvel’s other 2023 releases have also failed to find much traction with mainland Chinese moviegoers. Even James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — which was a success in North America with a $359 million haul — earned just $27.8 million in China, compared to $48.5 million for Guardians 2 (2017) and $86 million for Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania brought in $39.4 million in China this February, a 67 percent drop from Ant-Man and the Wasp‘s $121 million total in 2018. MCU releases from 2020 to 2022 were significantly affected by pandemic-related delays and cinema closures in China, but social scores on the country’s top ticketing apps throughout this period also began to decline.

    U.S. studio franchises across the board have been on the wane in China, but other action genres have held up somewhat better than superhero films. Universal’s Fast X holds the crown for Hollywood’s biggest film of 2023 in the country with a $51.1 million opening and $140 million total. And Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opened to $40 million and topped out at $92 million. Early installments in both film series earned vastly more in China, though, indicating broad franchise erosion for the studios.

    As elsewhere, the standouts in the China market this year have been the Barbenheimer originals. Oppenheimer earned $62 million, Christopher Nolan’s second-best China performance to date behind Interstellar ($122 million) — and a phenomenal showing for a lengthy English-language historical drama in the country. Warner Bros.’ Barbie, meanwhile, opened soft with $8.1 million amid a widespread lack of awareness in the market, but word of mouth among cosmopolitan Chinese women lifted it to a healthy $35.2 million total — despite the fact that Barbie dolls have almost no history or nostalgia in the country.

    Who’s The Suspect (aka Last Suspect), China’s weekend winner, opened a week ago with $23.4 million, including previews. The film is directed by Zhang Mo, daughter of Chinese film legend Zhang Yimou. Produced by Beijing Dino Films, the thriller stars actress Zhang Xiaofei as a lawyer who is forced to defend a death-row suspect after her own daughter is kidnapped. Chinese ticketing app Maoyan currently projects the film to finish its run with about $71 million (RMB 515 million).

    The next U.S. film to hit Chinese screens will be Lionsgate’s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which opens day-and-date with North America on Friday.

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    Patrick Brzeski

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  • ‘The Marvels’ Has Worst Opening Weekend in MCU History

    ‘The Marvels’ Has Worst Opening Weekend in MCU History

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    Captain Marvel isn’t going higher, further, and faster at the box office.

    The Marvels, the joint sequel to Captain Marvel, WandaVision, and Ms. Marvel, featuring heroes from all three films and shows, struggled to find a large audience in theaters over the weekend. The film grossed an estimated $47 million from Friday to Sunday — and that is bad enough to make it the single worst opening weekend in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The previous franchise worst for the MCU was 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which grossed $55 million in its first three days in theaters — and certainly cost far less to produce than The Marvels.

    Worldwide, it is estimated that The Marvels grossed roughly $110 million over the weekend, which is also amongst the very worst (worldwide) opening weekends in all of Marvel. From a financial perspective, the news is simply not good.

    READ MORE: All the Plot Holes and Unanswered Questions in The Marvels

    From a creative perspective, the news isn’t that much better. The Marvels got a “B” from CinemaScore, which is also not a strong showing. (For point of comparison, Eternals got a B. The Incredible Hulk got an A-.) On Rotten Tomatoes, The Marvels has a 62 percent — good enough to qualify as “fresh” (and not to qualify as the worst MCU movie) but not by much. In our own review of the movie here at ScreenCrush we wrote:

    I would not call The Marvels the worst film Marvel has made. But it is definitely the messiest and the sweatiest. It hardly lets up for 100 frenzied yet weirdly unexciting minutes, as if everyone onscreen is worried if they pause for even a moment’s rest everything around them will unravel into nothingness like the Sacred Timeline on Loki.

    So what went wrong? Well, the just-ended writers’ strike, and the inability for the movie’s many stars to promote the film until the very last minute, surely did not help. Ditto the mixed and lukewarm reviews. But the larger issue could be Marvel itself, which has cranked out a lot of product on both film and television in the last few years, and more and more of it not up to what had been a fairly high and consistent standard. I’ve spoken to people who liked The Marvels, but I haven’t really met a ton of people who feel particularly passionate about it — their positive reviews, at best, are that it is a pleasant 100 minutes at the cinema. Compare that with the intensity of the reaciton to something like Avengers: Endgame, or even the first Captain Marvel, which grossed $1.1 billion worldwide.

    Sure, Marvel’s last movie (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was great) but before that was the so-so Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, along with the very disappointing Secret Invasion TV show. Fans had become so loyal to Marvel that they would show up to anything with their name on it. It seems like they have now been burned by that strategy so many times that they are becoming a bit more selective. Nevertheless, The Marvels is still in theaters now.

    Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

    It started with Iron Man and it’s continued and expanded ever since. It’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 33 movies and counting. But what’s the best and the worst? We ranked them all.

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    Matt Singer

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  • Bob Iger on Disney’s Movie Woes: “We Lost Some Focus”

    Bob Iger on Disney’s Movie Woes: “We Lost Some Focus”

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    For years, Disney ruled the roost at the global box office, shattering one industry record after another. Now the company’s film empire is under pressure to rebound from a rough streak.

    Disney chief Bob Iger didn’t mince words when asked about the losing streak during Wednesday’s earnings call, although he did first have to remind investors that it hasn’t been all bad news, noting that four of the top 10 films in the past year came from the company, including Avatar: The Way of Water.

    “That said, as I looked at our overall output, meaning the studio, it’s clear that the pandemic created a lot of challenges creatively for everybody, including for us,” the media mogul said. “In addition, at the time the pandemic hit, we were leaning into a huge increase in how much we were making and I’ve always felt that quantity can be actually a negative when it comes to quality. And I think that’s exactly what happened. We lost some focus.”

    Iger was seemingly taking a swipe at his short-lived predecessor, Bob Chapek, for ramping up content production across TV and film. Historically, including for most of the time Iger was CEO the first go-around, the company’s film operation released far fewer titles than its rivals.

    Meanwhile, Disney’s performance at the box office is sure to be in the spotlight once again this weekend as The Marvels hits the big screen. If tracking is correct, the superhero pic could mark one of the worst openings ever for Marvel Studios.

    Iger — who didn’t mention The Marvels — said the task now is to focus on quality, and not quantity.

    “We’re all rolling up our sleeves, including myself, to do just that. We have obviously great assets, great stories to tell from the assets that we either have or that we purchased. And I feel really optimistic about the slate going forward, which is going to be a balance between some really strong sequels to some very, very popular titles, as well as some good original content, starting with Wish, which comes out Thanksgiving weekend,” he continued. “So I feel good about the direction we’re headed. But I’m mindful of the fact that our performance from a quality perspective wasn’t really up to the standards that we set for ourselves.”

    Recent high-profile misses for Disney include Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Haunted Mansion. And its animation studios hit troubled times in the pandemic era when several Pixar titles were sent straight to streaming in a move that critics say conditioned families to stay home, versus making a trip to the cinema.

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  • Box Office: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Leads Slow Frame With $19.4M, ‘Priscilla’ Opens Nationwide

    Box Office: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Leads Slow Frame With $19.4M, ‘Priscilla’ Opens Nationwide

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    Universal and Blumhouse’s horror hit Five Nights at Freddy’s led a frightfully slow frame at the domestic box office amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

    Originally, Denis Villeneuve’s high-profile tentpole Dune: Part Two was set to open this weekend, but the movie fled to 2024 because of the prohibition on stars doing any promotion. Legendary Pictures, home of the Dune franchise, believes the sequel’s cast — including Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet — is integral to the movie’s success.

    Domestic ticket sales for all films are expected to come in at around $64 million for the weekend, one of the lowest showings of the year so far.

    Five Nights at Freddy’s remains a star in its own right. The pic earned $19.4 million from 3,789 theaters in its sophomore outing as it jumped the $100 million mark domestically in less than 10 days. It’s no surprise that the pic tumbled a steep 76 percent, considering it’s also available on Peacock.

    Overseas — where it is only available in theaters — Freddy’s pulled in an impressive $35.6 million for foreign tally of $103.5 million and global haul of $217.1 million against a modest $20 million budget (it is only the second horror title of 2023 to cross $200 million after New Line’s The Nun II, which has dazzled with $265.9 million).

    Taylor Swift‘s and AMC Theatres’ Taylor Swift: Eras Tour continued to impress, grossing another $12 million to $13 million from 3,604 cinemas to hold at No. 2. The record-breaking concert pic has now cleared the $165 million domestically, according to rival estimates.

    Martin Scorsese’s Oscar contender Killers of the Flower Moon, from Apple Original Films, came in third with an estimated $7 million from 3,706 locations for a domestic total of $52.3 million through its third weekend. Paramount is distributing Killers on behalf of Apple, which fully financed and marketed the $200 million epic starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro.

    Sofia Coppola‘s awards contender Priscilla also made a major play this weekend as A24 expanded the movie nationwide after a promising start at the specialty box office. The movie, starring Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley, chronicles the years Presley spent with Elvis Presley, who is played by Jacob Elordi.

    Thanks in large part to younger females, Priscilla came in ahead of industry expectations with an estimated $5.1 million from 1,344 theaters, good enough to come in No. 4. Female moviegoers made up 65 percent of the audience, while 75 percent of all ticket buyers were under 35.

    Mexican comedy-drama Radical, starring and produced by Eugenio Derbez, rounded out the top five in North America with an estimated opening of $2.4 million from only 419 theaters. The new film features Derbez in his first dramatic starring role, and is from Pantelion Films, Participant and production outfit 3Pas Studios.

    Radical is already a box office hit in Mexico, where it is one of the most successful films of the post-pandemic era.

    More to come.

    Nov. 5, 7:30 a.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates.

    This story was originally published Nov. 4 at 9:57 a.m.

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  • Box Office: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Terrifies With Monstrous $78M Opening

    Box Office: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Terrifies With Monstrous $78M Opening

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    Universal and Blumhouse‘s Five Nights at Freddy’s is off to a historic start at the domestic box office, helping drive overall revenue

    The latest horror offering from Universal and Blumhouse opened to a record-smashing $78 million, despite debuting simultaneously on sister streaming service Peacock. It started off with a monstrous Friday haul of $39.5 million, including $10.3 million in Thursday previews.

    The pic — which came in notably ahead of industry expectations — scared up the third-biggest horror opening of all time behind New Line’s two It movies, as well as the best showing ever for Halloween weekend. It’s also the biggest horror opening of 2023 to date, besting Scream VI ($44.4 million), and the second-biggest opening of all time for a video-game adaptation behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146.3 million), not adjusted for inflation.

    The news is just as good overseas, where Five Nights at Freddy’s opened to an estimated $52.6 million from 60 markets for a global start of $130.6 million against a modest $25 million production budget. It supplants New Line’s The Nun II ($88.1 million) to boast the year’s biggest worldwide start for a horror film.

    Freddy’s passed up Halloween, which started off with $76.2 million in 2018, to mark the biggest domestic opening ever for Blumhouse, not adjusted for inflation. It is also Blumhouse’s top global launch. Other honorable mentions: Freddy’s supplants The Mummy Returns ($68.1 million) to rank as the top opening ever for a horror pic rated PG-13, not adjusted for inflation.

    While most critics bashed Freddy’s, the audience graced the movie with an A- CinemaScore (it is rare for a horror pic to receive an A or any variation thereof).

    Universal insiders say the decision to do a day-and-date release is a win-win for the overall ecosystem (only paid-tier Peacock subscribers have access). Those who want the communal experience of watching a horror movie in a theater can do so, while Peacock can woo much-needed subscribers. Streamers see notable growth in October because of Halloween-themed offerings.

    Before the pandemic, most theaters would have outright refused to book a title already available in the home. The COVID-19 crisis changed everything, however, with the traditional 72- to 90-day theatrical window shrinking dramatically to as little as three weeks for films that open to less than $50 million. Day-and-date releases aren’t the norm, but no cinema operator was going to refuse to play Five Nights at Freddy’s.

    Directed by Emma Tammi, Freddy‘s stars Josh Hutcherson as a washed-up security guard who has no choice but to take a crappy job safeguarding a long-shuttered family-themed pizza restaurant. The only problem — the pizzeria’s giant animatronic animal characters spring to life and go on murderous rampages. He’s also trying to maintain sole custody of his 10-year-old sister (Piper Rubio) and prevent her from falling into the clutches of their Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson).

    Things go from bad to worse when a group of local toughs hired by Jane break into Freddy’s while Mike is off-duty to trash the joint so he’ll lose his job. Needless to say, the giant animatronic animals don’t like the intrusion and try to exact their revenge.

    Kat Conner Sterling and Matthew Lillard also star. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop created the animatronic characters.

    Elsewhere, Taylor Swift and AMC Theatres’ Eras Tour achieved another huge milestone in singing past the $200 million mark at the worldwide box office, a first for a concert film. It earned another $14.7 million domestically to finish its third weekend with a North American cume of $149.3 million and $203 million globally (the pic only plays Thursday-Sunday).

    Martin Scorsese‘s adult-skewing Killers of the Flower Moon came in third behind Freddy’s and Eras Tour with an estimated $9 million, a sharp decline of 61 percent. Apple Original Films produced and financed the $200 million film, with Paramount handling distribution duties. The movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, is counting on being a slow burn as Oscar season unfolds, but the producers had hoped for a smaller drop in the film’s second weekend.

    Killers of the Flower Moon earned another $14.1 million from 64 markets oversea for a foreign tally of $44 million and $88.6 million globally.

    Angel Studios opened its first release since its indie film Sound of Freedom took the summer box office by storm. Its new faith-based movie, After Death, took in $5 million to come in No. 4.

    Blumhouse and Universal’s The Exorcist: The Believer, which is now available on Premium VOD after a disappointing showing at the box office, rounded out the top five in its fourth weekend. The movie grossed $3.1 million for a domestic total of $61 million and $120.4 million globally.

    The specialty box office saw two high-profile Oscar hopefuls enter the fray, Focus Features’ The Holdovers and A24’s Priscilla. The two films opened in several locations both in New York and Los Angeles, with each reporting a promising per-location average in the $33,000 range.

    The Holdovers grossed $200,000 from six locations for a per-theater average of $33,333. Priscilla, launching in four cinemas, earned $132,139 for a location average of $33,035.

    Oct. 29, 8:10 a.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates.

    This story was originally published at 7:55 a.m. Saturday.

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  • Box Office: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Is Off to Rip-Roaring Start With $10.3M in Thursday Previews

    Box Office: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Is Off to Rip-Roaring Start With $10.3M in Thursday Previews

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    Five Nights at Freddy‘s partied hard on its first night in theaters.

    The latest horror offering from Universal and Blumhouse scared up a massive $10.3 million in Thursday previews at the domestic box office. That’s on par with New Line’s It: Chapter Two ($10.5 million), which debuted to a record $91 million in 2019, not adjusted for inflation. And it’s notably ahead of Blumhouse/Universal’s Halloween ($7.7 million), which also smashed records when opening to $76.2 million in 2018, as well as Halloween Kills ($4.9 million) and Halloween Ends ($5.4 million), not adjusted for inflation. It also trumped Jordan Peele’s Us ($7.4 million).

    Freddy’s is tracking to open to $45 million to $50 million, a huge sum considering that the movie is being released simultaneously on Universal’s sister streaming service, Peacock (only paid-tier subscribers will have access). Others think it will do notably more, a premise backed up by the preview gross. But no one knows yet how front-loaded the film is.

    Universal insiders say the decision to do a day-and-date release is a win-win for the overall ecosystem. Those who want the communal experience of watching a horror movie in a theater can do so, while Peacock can woo much-needed subscribers. (Apparently, streamers see notable growth in October because of Halloween-themed offerings.)

    Before the pandemic, most theaters would have outright refused to book a title already available in the home. The COVID-19 crisis changed everything, however, with the traditional 72-to-90 day theatrical window shrinking dramatically to as early as three weeks for films that open to less than $50 million. Day-and-date releases aren’t the norm, but no cinema operator was going to refuse playing Five Nights at Freddy’s.

    Directed by Emma Tammi, Freddy’s stars Josh Hutcherson as washed-up security guard who has no choice but to take a crappy job safeguarding a long-shuttered family-themed pizza restaurant. The only problem — the pizzeria’s giant animatronic animal characters spring to life and go on murderous rampages. He’s also trying to maintain sole custody of his 10-year-old sister (Piper Rubio) and prevent her from falling into the clutches of their aunt (Mary Stuart Masterson).

    Things go from bad to worse when a group of local toughs hired by Aunt Jane break into Freddy’s while Mike is off-duty to trash the joint so he’ll lose his job. Needless to say, the giant animatronic animals don’t like the intrusion.

    Kat Conner Sterling and Matthew Lillard also star. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop created the animatronic characters.

    “There has been perhaps no other category of film that has enjoyed the cinematic history, enduring popularity and box office consistency as the horror genre and this weekend will continue the tradition with Five Nights At Freddy’s set to scare up one of the best, if not the best horror debut of 2023,” says box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

    Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which only plays Thursday-Sunday, has grossed a record $132 million domestically and $46.8 million overseas. The movie is tipped to earn another $12 million to $15 million.

    Martin Scorsese’s adult-skewing Killers of the Flower Moon hopes to enjoy a strong hold in its second weekend after opening to $23.2 million domestically. The movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, should pull in $12 million.

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  • Taylor Swift rakes in another $31 million, holds off Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers’ to stay atop the box office

    Taylor Swift rakes in another $31 million, holds off Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers’ to stay atop the box office

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    In a movie match-up almost as unlikely as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” Martin Scorsese took on Taylor Swift in cinemas over the weekend. And while the box office belonged for a second time to “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” got off to a strong start in Apple Studios’ first major theatrical gambit.

    After a record-breaking opening weekend of $92.8 million, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” took in an estimated $31 million over the weekend from 3,855 locations, according to AMC Theaters. In an unconventional deal, the theater chain is distributing Swift’s concert film, and playing it only Thursdays through Sundays.

    Most Swifties rushed to see the film on opening weekend, when a large percent of sales were driven by advance ticketing. Sales dropped a steep 67% in its second weekend, potentially signifying that “The Eras Tour” was predominantly an opening-weekend phenomenon.

    But “The Eras Tour” has still proved to be a movie event unlike any other. Within days, it became the highest grossing concert film ever in North America, not accounting for inflation. It’s quickly accumulated $129.8 million domestically.

    More was riding on “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a historical crime drama about a string of murders against the Osage nation in the early 1920s. The film, which cost at least $200 million to make, is the largest production yet from Apple Studios. The streamer partnered with Paramount Pictures to release Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s bestseller in 3,628 theaters, with plans to later stream it on a not-yet-announced date on Apple TV+.

    “Killers of the Flower Moon” debuted with $23 million, marking the third best opening for the 80-year-old Scorsese, following “Shutter Island” ($41 million in 2010) and “The Departed” ($26.9 million in 2006). Though Scorsese’s latest opus, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, will have a hard road to reaching profitability, it’s a successful launch for a 206-minute-long adult-skewing drama – a type of movie that, outside “Oppenheimer,” has struggled mightily at the box office in recent years.

    And “Killers of the Flower Moon,” with rave reviews, an “A-” CinemaScore from audiences and the backing of a robust Oscar campaign, should continue to play well over the long haul. It added $21 million overseas.

    “Killer of the Flower Moon” also marks the best wide-release debut for a film from a streaming company. While Netflix (which backed Scorsese’s last narrative feature, “The Irishman,” in 2019) has charted a mostly limited approach to theatrical release, Apple and Amazon, which last year closed its purchase of MGM, have pursued more expansive theatrical strategies.

    Earlier this year, Apple said it plans to spend $1 billion a year making movies that will have theatrical releases before reaching its streaming service. Apple is also behind Ridley Scott’s upcoming “Napoleon,” with Joaquin Phoenix, which Sony Pictures will distribute Nov. 22, and has partnered with Universal for Matthew Vaughn’s “Argylle,” due out Feb. 2.

    Paramount had initially signed on to produce and distribute “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but transitioned into the deal with Apple when costs of project, shot during the pandemic, rose.

    “If ‘flexibility’ is the new mantra of the theatrical movie business, then this is a significant success — it establishes a viable option for the companies,” David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, said of the “Killers of the Flower Moon” launch.

    As dissimilar as “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” are, they’re alike in their extended run times. A double features of the weekend’s top two movies would have taken you six hours and 14 minutes, not counting ads and trailers.

    “Killers of the Flower Moon” also reeled in more young moviegoers than you might have expected. Paramount said 44% of ticket buyers were under the age of 30.

    “Exorcist: The Believer,” the horror sequel directed by David Gordon Green, came in a distant third with $6.7 million in its third weekend of release. The Universal, Blumhouse film has grossed $54.2 million domestically.

    “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” came in at No. 4 with $4.3 million in its fourth weekend. The fifth spot went to the rerelease of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which collected $4.1 million 30 years after it first landed in theaters.

    Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

    1. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” $31 million.

    2. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” $23 million.

    3. “The Exorcist: Believer,” $5.6 million.

    4. “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” $4.5 million.

    5. “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” $4.1 million.

    6. “Saw X,” $3.6 million.

    7. “The Creator,” $2.6 million.

    8. “Leo: Bloody Sweet,” $2.1 million.

    9. “A Haunting in Venice,” $1.1 million.

    10. “The Blind,” $1 million.

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    Jake Coyle, The Associated Press

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  • Box Office: Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ Nabs $10.4M Friday, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Rides to $9.4M

    Box Office: Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ Nabs $10.4M Friday, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Rides to $9.4M

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    Taylor Swift and AMC Theatres’ Eras Tour earned $10.4 million on its second Friday, enough to beat the $9.4 million grossed by Martin Scorsese‘s Western true-crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon on its opening day at the domestic box office.

    While Taylor Swift: Eras Tour is virtually assured of winning the weekend with a gross of $30 million to $33 million after crossing the $100 million mark domestically, that doesn’t mean Killers of the Flower Moon can’t carry a tune. (AMC is being more conservative in projecting a $26 million to $27 million weekend for Eras in case there is, once again, little walk-up business.)

    Flower Moon — starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro — is expected to score $23 million for the weekend, the third-best nationwide opening of Scorsese’s career behind 2010’s Shutter Island ($41 million) and 2006’s The Departed ($26.9 million), not adjusted for inflation. It also ties with The Departed and Goodfellas in receiving the best CinemaScores of his career, an A-.

    Apple Original Films is giving the $200 million to $250 million film a traditional theatrical run via Paramount. Its performance so far is impressive for an adult drama that runs three hours and 26 minutes.

    And while Flower Moon is skewing older, 46 percent of Friday ticket buyers were under the age of 35, including 27 percent between the ages of 25 and 34. Among older adults, 38 percent of the audience was 45 and older. Since this latter demo is notorious for not rushing out on opening weekend, Apple and Paramount are counting on Flower Moon to enjoy a strong run in the ensuing weeks as awards season unfolds, thanks to strong reviews and audience exit polls.

    The movie skewed notably male on Friday (61 percent), but the gender breakdown could even out as the weekend unfolds.

    Flower Moon is based on David Grann’s book about the murders of Osage Nation tribe members in the 1920s after oil was found on their Oklahoma land.

    DiCaprio — one of the world’s biggest movie stars — and the rest of the cast haven’t been able to do any publicity since the SAG-AFTRA strike commenced July 14. Apple was able to bank some interviews previous to the strike and generated headlines around the world when it took Killers of the Flower Moon to the Cannes Film Festival in late May but didn’t reap the benefits of a final publicity blitz by the actors. (Scorsese, who has a strong fan base, instead did the heavy lifting solo.)

    This weekend marks a turning point for Apple’s film ambitions. Killers of the Flower Moon, costing $200 million, is arguably the biggest event film to date from a tech giant to be given a conventional theatrical release versus going relatively quickly to streaming. Earlier this year, Apple Original Films revealed it intends to spend $1 billion a year to produce movies intended for theatrical, both to boost its streaming service and strengthen its profile in theaters.

    Apple’s next major theatrical test after Killers of the Flowers Moon is director Ridley Scott’s historic epic Napoleon, starring Joaquin Pheonix in the titular role. Apple and Sony open the film Nov. 22 on the eve of Thanksgiving.

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  • ‘Barbie’ Become Highest-Grossing Movie of 2023 in U.S.

    ‘Barbie’ Become Highest-Grossing Movie of 2023 in U.S.

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    There is a new king (or technically queen) of the box office.

    After holding the title of the biggest film of the 2023 in the U.S. since shortly after its debut back in the spring, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has officially been dethroned. As of today, Barbie is now the highest-grossing movie of 2023 domestically. The film has earned $575 million in U.S. theaters, compared to The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $574 million.

    In other words, Barbie just flattened Mario, like an Italian plumber in overalls jumping on a sentient mushroom creature.

    READ MORE: Barbie Is Headed to IMAX Theaters With New Footage

    For the moment, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is still the worldwide box office champ of the year, with $1.359 billion in theaters around the globe compared to Barbie’s $1.286 billion worldwide. But Barbie is still playing in theaters everywhere — and it’s going to get a boost in a few weeks when it starts playing in IMAX theaters as well.

    If Barbie isn’t dethroned by any of the fall’s big releases, it would be the first non-sequel to top the annual box office charts since 2018, when Black Panther was the year’s biggest release. (And that might not even count, since the film was sort of a sequel to Captain America: Ciivil War, which introduced the Black Panther character to the MCU — if you exclude that, you have to go back to 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy to find a top film of the year that wasn’t a sequel.)

    So… ya think they’re going to make a Barbie 2 now? Seems somewhat likely to me?

    The Best Movies That Made More Than $1 Billion

    From Batman to Bond, hobbits to blue aliens, these are the movies worthy of the $1 billion crown.

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    Matt Singer

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  • The Biggest DC Box Office Bombs

    The Biggest DC Box Office Bombs

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    It hasn’t been a great run of movies based on DC Comics lately, at least from a box office perspective. The lame duck era of the DC Extended Universe has produced one financial disappointment after another; I was sure, for example, that The Flash would be one of the two or three biggest movies of the summer. How could it not be, thanks to an appearance by Michael Keaton’s Batman? Boy, was I wrong; the film is barely hanging onto a spot near the bottom of the 20 biggest films of 2023 in the U.S.

    It wasn’t always like this. Richard Donner’s Superman completely changed the way people looked at superhero movies in the late 1970s; a decade later, Tim Burton’s Batman did the same. That said, DC has also had its share of flops through the years. You can probably rattle some of them off the top of your head; when DC movies fail at the box office, they tend to fail in spectacular fashion.

    The precise degree to which a movie bombs is sometimes hard to pinpoint; Hollywood studio accounting is notoriously secretive, and even the reported figures for things like budgets rarely included the money spent on marketing, which can sometimes double the cost of a production. So these are listed not in the order of the size of the bomb, but simply based on their raw ticket sales. But you can also see that number compared to budgets (based on the best available information on sites like The Numbers.)

    Here are ten notable DC box-office bombs.

    The Biggest DC Movie Bombs

    These movies may have featured some of the biggest superheroes in history, but they were also big flops.

    READ MORE: Every DC Extended Universe Movie Ranked From Worst to Best

    The Biggest Marvel Box Office Bombs

    These movies, based on comics released by Marvel, were not hits — and that’s putting it mildly.

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    Matt Singer

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  • ‘Barbie’ Passes ‘Dark Knight’ As Warners’ Biggest Movie Ever

    ‘Barbie’ Passes ‘Dark Knight’ As Warners’ Biggest Movie Ever

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    For months and months, Barbie has been pitted against Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Coming out on the same summer weekend, people got weirdly obsessed with “Barbenheimer” and who would earn the most money at the box office.

    Long before the films opened, it became very clear that Barbie would open bigger than Oppenheimer, and it did. But even though Oppenheimer has also had an outstanding run in theaters for a three hour drama about a guy building a bomb, Barbie has not only outgrossed it, it has now officially surpassed Nolan’s biggest movie ever — which also happens to be the biggest film ever released by Warner Bros. prior to 2023: The signature DC superhero movie, The Dark Knight.

    READ MORE: Surprising Pairs of Movies That Were Released on the Same Day

    At present, Barbie has made $537.5 million at the domestic box office, a bit better than The Dark Knight’s $536 million. That’s still far from the biggest movie ever in the U.S., though. The top movie of all time domestically is Star Wars: The Force Awakens which earned an incredible $936 million in the U.S. alone. (Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Avatar, Top Gun: Maverick, Black Panther, Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Infinity War, Titanic, and Jurassic World have all outgrossed Barbie too…. for now.) Previously, Barbie beat another record held by The Dark Knight, the highest gross for a movie on a Monday.

    How high will Barbie go? The film continues to dominate theaters; it was the number one movie in America last weekend a month after it first opened, and it’s already grossed more than $1.19 billion worldwide. But it does seem to be slowing down a little. Still, beating the Batman at anything is an impressive achievement. That dude is the world’s greatest detective and martial artist.

    2022 Flops That Deserved Better at the Box Office

    These 2022 movies were not blockbusters — but they deserve to be seen by much wider audiences. But it’s not too late to change that.

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    Matt Singer

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  • ‘Barbie’ Crosses $1 Billion at the Box Office

    ‘Barbie’ Crosses $1 Billion at the Box Office

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    Do you think they will make a commemorative Billionaire Barbie doll? Think of the accessory opportunities.

    After years of stops and starts, and numerous scripts and different creative teams, the Barbie movie is officially a mega-blockbuster. Over the weekend, the film crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office. That makes Greta Gerwig the first female director to helm a $1 billion movie solo. (Three previous movies that crossed $1 billion were co-directed by women: Frozen and Frozen 2 by Jennifer Lee, and Captain Marcel by Anna Boden.)

    Barbie was #1 at the box office last weekend for the third straight week. It earned another $53 million in the U.S., bringing its domestic total to $459 million and counting. That makes it the the second-biggest movie in the country for 2023 behind only The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed $574 million in theaters back in the spring. Barbie has earned another $572 million overseas, bringing its worldwide total to $1.031 billion so far. That’s also the second-highest total of 2023, once again behind just The Super Mario Bros. Movie (with $1.352 billion).

    READ MORE: The Worst Movies That Grossed $1 Billion Worldwide

    So what’s next? A Barbie sequel seems all but inevitable at this point, although it will have to wait until the conclusion of the Hollywood strikes before work can even begin on a screenplay. Whether Gerwig, Margot Robbie, or Ryan Gosling would want to make a sequel remains to be seen.

    While a brand name as strong as Barbie would seem to be a guaranteed hit, Gerwig’s film was certainly not a cookie cutter story about a beautiful woman named Barbie, or a doll that magically comes to life. Instead, she used the iconography of Barbie to make a movie that celebrated the dolls’ history while also satirizing some of its stranger moments (and the behavior of men in general). That was a risk — but clearly it paid off.

    Surprising Movies Released on the Same Day

    These movies debuted in theaters on the same day, giving cinephiles a tough choice of which to watch first.

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    Matt Singer

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  • This Barbie Has Made $1 Billion at the Box Office

    This Barbie Has Made $1 Billion at the Box Office

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    It’s one thing to look like a million bucks, and it’s another to make a billion. On Sunday, August 6, Greta Gergwig‘s Barbie officially surpassed $1 billion at the global box office. That’s a whole lotta dream houses. 

    Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, previously became the biggest blockbuster of the summer on Wednesday, when it surpassed Chris Pratt‘s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s $845 million global haul; Gerwig’s film entered the weekend with $880 million in its plastic purse. And even before she walked her pink pumps past the billion dollar mark, Barbie had already made Greta Gerwig the highest grossing female director of all time, besting Patty Jenkins‘ Wonder Woman (2017), which made $822.8 million at the global box office.

    Barbie‘s ticket sales were, of course, boosted by the “Barbenheimer” craze, which saw cinephiles flocking the cinemas for a double feature of Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, about the invention of the atomic bomb. The frenzy led to Barbie making $356 million in its opening weekend—the largest opening for a female director of all time. 

    Robbie, for one, was confident Barbie would make a billion dollars well before Barbie became the smash hit of the summer. Robbie, who also serves as an executive producer on the film with her production company LuckyChap, had to do her fair share of convincing producers to rescue Barbie from over ten years of developmental hell.  In an interview with Collider, Robbie said during her pitch meeting she hammered home how successful films like Jurassic Park were that paired “a big idea with a visionary director” a la “dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg.”

    “I was like, “And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig,” she said. ”And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!”

    Turns out she was underselling. With all this money, it looks like Ken can retire from his job at “beach.”

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    Chris Murphy

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