UPDATE SATURDAY MORNING: The weekends adjacent to Halloween have rarely been good at the box office, and even less so during the pandemic when there aren’t many solid films in theaters. Saturday night is mostly party night, not movie night. All titles this weekend are expected to gross $66.2 million, not far from last year’s $64.3 million, but a big drop from last weekend’s Black Adam from New Line/DC Boosted industry ticket sales by 43%. Before the pandemic, the last weekend of October grossed $107.6 million in 2019 and $105.7 million in 2018, according to Box Office Mojo.
The annual spooky effect on cinema visits is forcing Black Adam -63% on weekend 2 be with 25 million dollars, a hold steeper than a string of Dwayne Johnson films on Weekend 2 i.e. Hobbs & Shaw (-58%), Rampage (-44%), Skyscraper (-54%) and San Andreas (-53%) , and some DC movies (e.g. The Batman, -50%; Justice League, -56%), but better than others like Green Lantern (-66%) and Suicide Squad 2016 (-67%). Still, Black Adams flies past $100 million by Sunday $108.4MJohnson’s 18th film to break the century mark at the domestic box office.
Booty for the Devil, from left: Jacqueline Byers, holds Posy Taylor, Christian Navarro, 2022. Ph: Vlad Cioplea / © Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection
Not over-indexed either, no thanks to Halloween Syndrome, is Lionsgate’s PG-13 horror film Prey for the Devil in 2,980 theaters that was shot $2.8M yesterday (including Thursday’s previews) for what looks like a $7M Start third. There, Lionsgate projected the film. It arrives in an already horror-laden market, with Halloween Ends set to finish its third weekend at over $60 million and Paramount’s slasher Sleeper Smile set to climb to over $92 million by tomorrow. Prey for the Devil, while a slightly different breed of exorcism movie in its woman-driven conceit, doesn’t spread the spirit across the country, with a C+ CinemaScore, 68% Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score and 64%/2/1 /2 stars on Posttrak by Comscore/Screen Engine.
Of those who have decided to buy tickets so far, 62% were between 18 and 34 years old and were evenly distributed between 51% women and 49% men. Demographic breakdown: 33% males over 25, 30% females over 25, 21% females under 25, and 16% under 25. The diverse audience was 38% Hispanic and Latino, 33% Caucasian, 12% Black and White 11% Asian. Top ten theaters came from the West and Southwest.
RelishMix measured the social media universe for Prey for the Devil at 62.1 million across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, pushing 29.4 million for the latter on Lionsgate’s official channel. That surpassed the image’s 20.8 million YouTube views on eight studio-owned videos before the opening.
TILL, Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till (left), 2022. © United Artists Releasing / Courtesy Everett Collection United Artists Releasing/Everett Collection
The third weekend expansion of United Artists Releasing until achieved an A+ CinemaScore at 2,058 locations and 91% positive results at PostTrak, mostly women at 61%; With $1.03M yesterday and $2.8M for the weekend and a running total of $3.6M for Eon production. Black moviegoers gave Till a 94% on PostTrak. Much older crowd here with 84% over 25, 63% over 35 and almost over 45 with 27% over 55. Diversity demos were 38% Caucasian, 42% Black, 11% Latino and Hispanic, and 9% Asian/Other. Till saw that most of his box office came from the Southeast, Northeast, and Midwest.
Trafalgar Releasing has the concert film, Coldplay music from Spheres Livebooked at 833 runs in 179 markets. It released solid-core runs in NYC, Los Angeles, Philly, San Francisco, DC, Seattle, Miami, Orlando, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, and Toronto $673,000 on Friday for one $1.38 million Weekend. Clearly older film here, as Trafalgar’s more recent BTS Permission to Dance on Stage opened in March in 803 theaters at $6.8 million.
ARMAGEDDON TIME, from left: Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, 2022. Ph: Anne Joyce /© Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection Focus Features/Everett Collection
Focus Features’ fourth weekend-wide expansion of Todd Field’s TAR made at 1.087 $340,000 on Friday in what looks like a $1M 3 days and running total from $2.46 million. James Gray’s Armageddon Time, also from Focus, was booked Friday at six New York and LA theaters in Lincoln Square, Union Square, Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn, Century City, The Grove and Burbank AMC for $35,000. $78,000 Opening weekend in the light $13,000 per theatre. We heard Lincoln Square and Grove were the strongest of the bunch.
Estimates for Saturday:
1.) Black Adam (NL) 4,402 cinemas, Fri $7.5M (-72%) 3 days 25 million dollars (-63%)/Total $108.4M/week 2
2.) Entrance ticket to paradise (Uni) 3,692 (+149) cinemas, Fr $3.1M (-51%), 3 days $10.36 million (-37%)/Total $34M/week 2
Great stop here for this older female skewing title.
3.) booty for the devil (LG) 2,980 cinemas, Fr $2.8M3 days $7Mweek 1
4.) to smile (Par) 3,221 (-75) Theater, Fri $1.58 million (-39%), 3 days $5.02 million (-41%), total $92.3M/week 5
5.) Halloween ends (Uni) 3,419 (-482) cinemas, Fr $1.14 million (-55%), 3 days $3.77 million (-53%)/In total: $60.2M/ week 3
6.) until (UAR) 2,058 (+1,954) cinemas, Fri $1.037M (+712%), 3 days $2.8M (+670%)/total $3.6M/week 3
7.) Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (Sony) 3,135 (-401) cinemas, Fri $715,000 (-38%), 3 days $2.65 million (-38%)/Total: $32.3M/week 4
8th.) horror 2 (Iconic) 1,550 (+795) cinemas, Fri $575.5,000 (+5%), 3 days $1.87 million (+6%), total $7.7M/week 4
9.) Coldplay music from Spheres Live (TRAF) 833 Theater, Fr $673,0003 days $1.38 million/Week 1
10.) The Woman King (Sony) 1,446 (-412) Theater Fr $300,000 (-42%), 3 days $1.05 million (-44%) /In total $64.5M/week 7
Remarkable:
tar (Focus) 1,087 cinemas (+946), Fr $340,000 (+113%), 3 days $1M (+100%), Total $2.46 million/week 4
Banshees by Inisherin (Sea) 59 (+55) cinemas, Fri $210,000 (+211%), 3 days $400,000 (+117%)/total
$650.76.000/week 2
UPDATE FRIDAY MORNING: New Line/DC’s Black Adam ended its first week at the domestic box office with $83.4 million, slightly above what Dwayne Johnson’s Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw had in its first week with $83.1 million earned US dollars. That’s impressive considering Black Adam is a DC character from a deeper universe, while the other was linked to a long-established franchise — not to mention Hobbs & Shaw, which debuted over the summer.
Hobbs & Shaw ended its domestic run at $173.9 million. The second weekend of the picture cost $36.5 million and currently Black Adam is expected to be lighter for the second frame at $27-$30 million. The antihero’s gross profit on Thursday was $3.1 million, down 8% from Wednesday.
Meanwhile, this weekend, Lionsgate has the only new broad release of PG-13 horror film Prey for the Devil, which isn’t expected to do much in the high single digits across 2,980 locations. Lionsgate usually releases a genre title around Halloween; it’s boo! A Madea Halloween debuted at $28.5 million on the penultimate weekend of October 2016 and had a -40% market share at $17.2 million on the second weekend. Last night, Prey for the Devil grossed $660,000 in 2,450 theaters.
Prey for the Devil stars Roadies’ Jacqueline Byers and 13 Reasons Why’s Christian Navarro, and is directed by The Last Exorcism’s Daniel Stamm. Byers plays Sister Ann in the film, and she believes she is following a calling to become the first female exorcist…but who or what called her? She is looking for a place at an exorcism school reopened by the Catholic Church. So far, these schools have only trained priests in the rite of exorcism – but a professor (Colin Salmon) recognizes Sister Ann’s gift and agrees to train her. Pushed to the spiritual front with fellow student Father Dante (Navarro), Sister Ann finds herself in a battle over the soul of a young girl whom Sister Ann believes is possessed by the same demon that her own mother years ago has tormented.
On Thursday, Universal’s George Clooney and Julia Roberts romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise ended its first week at $23.7 million. Yesterday it was $1.5M, down 8% from Wednesday’s 3,543. It will be fun to see how much this older female comedy can pull off. A $60 million haul in the US is a solid prognosis, but can it top it? Pic beat forecasts at $16.5 million last weekend.
Third place on Thursday belonged to Paramount’s horror title Smile at $640,000, down 7% from Wednesday for a fourth week of $11.3 million and a running total of $87.3 million.
Universal/Blumhouse/Miramax’s Halloween Ends ended Week 2 with $10.3 million, totaling $56.5 million for 14 days, and a second Thursday of $497,000, down 8% from Wednesday. The image can also be seen on Peacock.
Fifth place goes to Lyle, Sony’s Lyle Crocodile with a third week of $5.2 million for a total of $29.7 million and a Thursday of $210,000, up 4% from Wednesday.
Danielle Deadwyler in ‘Till’ United Artists Releasing / Courtesy Everett Collection
A few films, especially those from the art house sector, are becoming widespread today. Till from United Artists Releasing’s Chinonye Chukwu will expand to 2,000 theaters. The image is 98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and is expected to gross around $4 million.
Searchlight’s Martin McDonagh image The Banshees of Inisherin is expanding to 59 theaters in 11 additional markets after posting a hefty box office average of $45,200 last weekend (its highest so far this fall). The Colin Farrell-Brendan Gleeson film’s first week went for $251,000.
Focus Features has booked James Gray’s autobiopic Armageddon Time to six locations in New York City and Los Angeles. Starring Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong and Anthony Hopkins, the film follows Gray’s life growing up in Reagan-era Queens. Since its release at the Cannes Film Festival, the image has scored 80% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes.