Easter weekend 2021
With today being Good Friday and most schools are out, so it’s always a really good day for movie consumption, because it’s a really good way to warehouse the kids. Of course, last year we were all locked down on Good Friday, but since even virtual school was on holiday (and you had to do something with the kids) Trolls World Tour did a ton of PVOD business. And it seemed like Universal had cracked the PVOD code, but nah, it was just one of those one off lightning in a bottle situations and we’ve never seen anything close to it during the oovid lockdown. We’ve got two films going wide this weekend, and both studios are not allowing anyone outside of the studio walls to see the numbers. It seemed like we were past all this, but there are two really good reasons why everyone should report their grosses. I’ll talk about one of the reasons below, but the second reason is validity of the numbers. There have been whispers ever since the theaters opened back up that one of the studios that doesn’t report isn’t being completely honest with the grosses. None of this has leaked into the press yet, but if this continues, fingers may get pointed. It’s not like theatrical wants to be compared with the horseshit numbers that the streamers self report (2 mins or more counts as a ‘view’……sure), but it seems like we’re getting close to that territory. And I still think that having grosses reported in the press is a good thing for the business, it raises awareness of theatrical and everyone will benefit.
Godzilla vs. Kong - If you looked at the trade press yesterday and today, you’ve seen that this film is doing some really good business since it opened on Wednesday (or at least we’ve been told that). But that’s the problem, it’s only the trade press. The numbers being reported, considering it’s on pay tv and the theatrical sector isn’t fully open yet, are fucking fantastic. This is a tremendous accomplishment by Legendary/WB and the new marketing voices driving the campaigns there, but it shouldn’t be a trade press story; this should be a national press story and it should have started Wednesday. If the very capable WB publicity department had been getting this accomplishment in the national press, it would have been good for everyone; WB, who has been beaten up for the AOL Max thing and is being seen as non film maker friendly, and it would have added a much needed glow to the theatrical sector. Plus, the exit polls have been very good for this film, so some national press on how people going are back the the theaters might have helped get moviegoers who were on the fence to actually go. Moviegoing is a very ’social’ activity, if there’s positive reinforcement that it’s something everyone is doing, WB could have captured that high revenue per view theatrical generates, instead of borrowing your friends friends friends cousins sisters HBO Max password to watch it. So how is it going to do this weekend? Based on what films opening on Good Friday do based on what we know about the first 2 days, figure the 3 day is in the 20’s, probably in the mid 20’s. Which would bring the 5 day to over $40 million, which is a tremendous accomplishment. I just wish it wasn’t being kept a secret.
The Unholy - Not reporting grosses as well, but you would expect it to land somewhere similar to what the lower grossing Covid horror films have done.
Now for the films that report
#1 Nobody - This crowd pleaser from last weekend is holding in very nicely, figure it’s only down about 40% this weekend.
#2 Raya and the Last Dragon - Still hanging in there, it’s actually up from last Friday. Figure it’s only down about 10% from last weekend.
#3 Tom and Jerry - Really benefiting from the Good Friday holiday business (and no longer on HBO Max), it’s up about 10% from last week.
#4 The Girl Who Believes in Miracles - This Faith based film opened on 650 screens and is doing some decent business in the middle of the country, especially Texas. Figure it ends up around $500k.
#5 The Courier - Still hanging in there as well, looks like it’s only down about 30% for the weekend.
The Ravine - The only reason I’m including this film is the gross. It’s only open in 3 theaters in Kansas City, so clearly there’s some local connection, but one of the theaters has a gross of $34k for today (!!!!). Doing some digging, it’s being sold as a VIP Premier Event at $100 a ticket, with 100% of the ticket price being donated to a local Kids charity that deals with kids who have witnessed violent crimes. But the fact that any film can generate $34k in a day at one theater is another step forward.