It Ends With Us

Friday, August 9, 2024 Second weekend of August 2024

On the chart It Ends With Us (opening): $50.0M

Expected 'For now, I'll say it's mid 40's, but I really don't know': flagged as structurally unforecastable Actual: $50.0M

In the note Should be off 45% for a weekend in the mid 50’s. It Ends With Us - This is a really massive opening, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a young female skewing film based on a book rise to this level, maybe since The Fault in Our Stars.

Friday, August 16, 2024 Third weekend of August 2024

On the chart It Ends With Us (wk 2): $23.8M, -52%

Expected 'Figure it's down about 55% for a weekend around $20 million' Actual: $23.8M, -52%

In the note Figure either way it’s in the low/mid 40’s. Deadpool & Wolverine - Down a pretty standard 45% this weekend, for a gross in the high 20’s. It Ends with Us - As you may have heard, this had great word of mouth, but it looks like it’s down a decent amount today from last Friday.

Friday, August 23, 2024 Fourth weekend of August 2024

Expected 'Looks down about 50% for a weekend of about 11' Actual: $11.6M, -51%

In the note It’s the time of year when we usually hit the release schedule doldrums; the average total gross for films opening the weekend before Labor Day adds up to about $20 million, and the new films we’ve got this weekend will probably sum up to a number similar to that average. But because we’ve got a much stronger trifecta of holdovers in our quiver, we’ll have another weekend where we’ll soundly beat last year’s total (Gran Turismo, The Hill, Retribution). We’ll take a step back next week, because Equalizer 3 opened on Labor Day last year, but we should have a really good September and dig a little more out of the hole we got into at the beginning of the year. We’ve also got schools going back now, only about 1/3 of grade school kids are out today, and Colleges are about halfway back. In today’s edition of 'nothing ever changes'…… there was a famous Variety headline back in the 30’s that said something like ‘Hicks Nix Pix in Stix’, which when you translate Variety into English meant ‘Hollywood is only making movies for the big cities and they are ignoring middle America’. And as legend has it, Hollywood realized they needed to make movies that were broader, and the common phrase that evolved was ‘but will it play in Peoria?’ We’ve got 3 films opening wide today; two films that are playing hottest on the coasts (and especially LA), and a faith based film that’s playing much better in the Red States; and the Red State film has more money in the till than the either of the Blue State skewing films, as least right now (with only 2/3 of the screens). Of course, Faith Based films tend to be a little hotter with group pre-sales so they are a little faster out of the gate, but what’s a little more interesting is how Los Angeles and New York City is head and shoulders above the rest of the country on the two Blue state movies. Even markets that should behave similarly to LA and NY aren’t as good, so once again I’m asking the question ‘are we only making movies for people we know?’. Anyway, with the accuracy normally associated with Starbucks carbon offset program, here are some thoughts about the weekend box-office. Alien: Romulus - Pretty normal 2nd weekend for a Horror/Sci-Fi film of this size, should be down about 55% for a weekend in the very high teens. Deadpool & Wolverine - Considering we’re pivoting back to a non school holiday period, this is about right today where it should be, down about 45% for a weekend in the mid/high teens. It Ends With Us - Down a decent amount today, but considering its core audience is back in school, that makes sense.

Friday, August 30, 2024 Labor Day weekend 2024

In the note Or maybe we could use this to do some good in the world and It Ends with Us in 4D could be part of a court ordered program for Convicted Domestic Abusers. The ideas are limitless.

Where it turns up