Isn’t it great? Theaters are booming at the moment, and won’t let up, as next week sees “Mortal Kombat II” tracking for a $40M debut.
Now, for what’s actually playing right now: that’s a $25M Saturday for “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” It’s expected to have a domestic debut of $78M by Sunday evening. More impressively, that’s a $233M worldwide tally for “Prada 2,” which, apparently, is HUGE in Italy, leading international receipts with a $17M weekend. Remember, the original “Prada,” released in 2006, only made $326M worldwide in its entire run.
Meanwhile, Vantoine’s “Michael” has legs. It just had a Saturday that was only a -30% drop from last week — its second weekend is expected to hit $55M, a -43% drop. “Michael” has become the second-highest-grossing musical biopic of all time at $300M, surpassing “Elvis” and trailing “Bohemian Rhapsody” ($911M), which it could realistically pass in a few weeks’ time.
No, really — $900M for “Michael” is a real possibility. By the end of this weekend, it will have a running worldwide cume of $420M. This is all without Japan, where it releases in June via Kino and Lionsgate. Japan is going to be enormous for “Michael,” where the singer is absolutely idolized. Just as an example, the 2009 Jackson documentary “This Is It” made $35M in Japan — a huge number for non-fiction, and the film’s biggest intake from a non-U.S. territory.
Meanwhile, things aren’t looking good for Andy Serkis’ “Animal Farm,” distributed by Angel Studios. Audiences are actually aligning with critics on this animated film.
“Animal Farm” is set to earn $3M domestically this weekend (from 2,600 locations). The budget was $35M. Furthermore, that “C-” CinemaScore says a lot, doesn’t it? So does the very low 28% “definite recommend” on PostTrak, and a 2.7/10 on IMDb.
What a disaster this film has been for Serkis — a passion project 15 years in the making — especially as he’s about to enter production as director on Warner Bros.’ “The Hunt for Gollum,” which won’t come cheap and still has plenty of question marks surrounding its existence.
Lastly, there’s the well-reviewed, SXSW-premiering “Hokum,” which opened to $6.4M across 1,885 screens—a solid launch for the indie horror film. With a modest $5M budget, it’s already a success for Neon and its creators. I’m planning to check it out soon.
I actually find that number optimistic. Tickets for “Digger” go on sale next Tuesday, and presales will give us a better picture of how bad it’s looking.