‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Opens to OK $15M as ‘The Dog Stars’ Bombs With $8M at the Box Office

Two very interesting box office openings to report on this Sunday, as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” ($22M) and “The Odyssey” ($15M), which only had a -25% drop, continue their dominant runs.

First off, there’s “Coyote vs. Acme,” which Warner Bros. shipped off to Ketchup Entertainment for $50M, and whose marketing leaned hard on the fact that this movie came very close to never getting released.

The well-reviewed live-action/animation hybrid had a $15M opening weekend, which is OK—not the kind of number that’ll embarrass Warner CEO David Zaslav or his film chiefs, Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca. The truth is, everyone involved with this film might be losing money on it—except maybe Ketchup, which only spent an estimated $10M on marketing and sold the foreign distribution rights for $20M. That means $40M domestic is the breakeven point for them.

Regardless, the art prevailed. A film that was never going to be seen has now been seen by moviegoers, earning an “A” CinemaScore. And that’s a good thing for cinema.

The second major headline at the box office has got to be the absolute bombing of Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars,” starring Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin and Margaret Qualley.

“The Dog Stars” earned $8M domestically from Friday-Sunday, and that’s against a budget that is supposedly, according to 20th Century Studios, $70M. Production filings had it at $110M, likely without the rebates. Still, this is bad news for Scott, who now has his sixth straight money loser after “All the Money in the World,” “The Last Duel,” “House of Gucci,” “Napoleon” and “Gladiator II.” Yet, Scott has now gotten Sony to take the bait on another project, “Treasure Island,” which won’t be cheap and is entering production soon.

It’s not just the critics who were lukewarm on “The Dog Stars”—it currently sits at 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences weren’t impressed either, giving it a “C” CinemaScore. It wasn’t any better on PostTrak, with a 41% definite-recommend score.

Side note: “The Odyssey” has hit $1.5 billion worldwide. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has also officially passed James Cameron’s “Titanic” at the global box office, making it the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time at $2.3 billion.

And sure, you can point to inflation and argue that “Titanic” would be much higher if we adjusted for it. But “Titanic” was everywhere. Your friends saw it. Their parents saw it. Your grandma saw it. Everyone had an opinion about it. People quoted it. “My Heart Will Go On” was absolutely unavoidable.

That’s the part these modern Marvel mega-hits can’t really replicate. They can make an insane amount of money, but they don’t necessarily feel like cultural events in the same way. “Titanic” wasn’t just a blockbuster. It felt like everyone on Earth had seen it.