Things should be fairly quiet at the box office this weekend, with two new releases seemingly falling short of expectations.
The Universal and Monkeypaw-produced “HIM,” a sports horror movie, made only $2M on Thursday. Those bad reviews certainly didn’t help — 30% on Rotten Tomatoes — but the numbers are still below projections. It’s now looking at an opening between $13M and $15M this weekend.
At least the budget on “HIM” was a relatively safe $25M. The same can’t be said for Kogonada’s “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” which Sony originally acquired for $50M in a hot package deal. The budget for this one is said to be anywhere between $45M and $60M.
“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” a time-travel romance starring Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, is struggling. With just $400K from Thursday early shows that began at 4 p.m. across 2,737 locations, the film is staring down a catastrophic opening of $6M–$7M.
What went wrong? A lot. First, its original May release was delayed, and once critics finally saw it, reviews were far from kind. It currently sits at 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sony was surely betting on Kogonada’s strong track record with critics to carry this one along, but that gamble didn’t pan out.
The failure of this weekend’s two major releases has left the door wide open for Sony’s “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.” After shattering expectations last weekend with a $70M domestic debut, the film is projected to pull in another $23M–$25M in its second frame. It’s a steep drop, but one that was expected, as anime movies tend to be heavily frontloaded.
Next weekend is when things will get very interesting. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” will be opening on 3,000+ screens, and it remains to be seen whether the glowing reviews can push it above the $20M–$23M opening projections. So far, the needle hasn’t moved, and advanced ticket sales haven’t improved since the raves dropped earlier in the week.
More to come …