The trades are not talking much about this, but “The Fabelmans” has been underperforming at the box office since its release and projected to not do much business during its wide expansion to 600 theaters.
The current projection is that it will make around $4-5 million this coming weekend. Those are not terrible numbers considering it’s playing in just 600 theaters, but Spielberg used to be a much bigger draw …
Still, “The Fabelmans” will probably end up being the only fall prestige film to get $10+ million in the US, which kind of makes it a de facto success? “The Fabelmans” was never a commercially viable concept, it was inevitably going to have a hard time making its money back. The budget is said to be around $40 million.
The worst thing to have happened post-pandemic is the over-60 crowd discovering and learning how to use streaming and VOD. This demographic now has no reason to go to a movie theater anymore — many of them are still afraid of catching the virus, at least a big chunk of them.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. If an event movie like “Elvis” shows up, then the over-60 might get out of their couches and go the cinema, but, otherwise, they probably see no point going out of their in watching ‘The Steven Spielberg Story.’