Most of the newcomers aren’t making a mark dollar wise, however, Showbiz Direct’s Reagan landed an A CinemaScore and 4 1/2 stars on PostTrak. Current 4-day projection is $9M in 4th place at 2,754 locations after a $2.6M Friday. As expected, this movie is playing to the middle of the country with ICON Cinema in Edmond, OK the top grossing location so far this weekend with $10K. The South is also dominant for the Sean McNamara-directed movie. Men/women split is 51%/49% with a 77% definite recommend from audiences. Those over 35 years of age numbered 87% with the largest demo being the 55+ crowd at 63%. Caucasians numbered 78%, Latino and Hispanic were 13%, Black moviegoers were 1% of ticket buyers with others being 2%.
Reagan was financed by producer Mark Joseph and Rawhide Entertainment which ran the pic’s marketing. The pic was largely a distribution deal for Showbiz Direct. The movie had spots air on Fox News, and during the Republican and Democratic Conventions. There was also an on-the-ground push with political groups and a wrap-around car at Daytona Nascar recently, in addition to Quaid putting in appearances on right-wing demo shows, Joe Rogan and Laura Ingraham:
Sony Pictures Releasing
Sony/Blumhouse’s Afraid is disastrously low for the genre brand at $4M in 3,003 locations — but not as low as Blumhouse’s 2015 bomb Jem and the Holograms ($1.3M). John Cho had a niche cult hit in Sony/Screen Gem’s Searching which posted a 4-day of $7.6M and made a 3.4x multiple off of that for $26M with the studio making a sequel last year off the IP, Missing, which actually did better at $32.5M. However, nobody likes Afraid here at C+ CinemaScore, 26% Rotten with critics and PostTrak at 49%. At $12M, co-financed by Blumhouse, it’s a low bar, and likely penciled out for some sort of breakeven, but Sony is smart with their money: If the film doesn’t have the diagnostics to win at the box office, they’ll cut their P&A. Back in 2022, Sony had the penultimate summer vampire movie, The Invitation, which opened to $6.8M and legged out to $25M. Insiders at the Culver City lot told me at the time that that the low-grossing title was profitable for them. Men at 56% showed up while 56% of the audience was between 18-34 and 25-34 year olds were the biggest demo at 32%. Diversity demos were 43% Caucasian, 28% Latino and Hispanic, 14% Black, 10% Asian & 4% Native American/Other. Afraid‘s ticket sales were in the East, West and South with the Regal LA Live the best venue for the pic with just under $5k in gross so far (eek).
Social media reach across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X for Afraid is 103M, per RelishMix, which is 25% behind horror norms before opening weekend — and that’s with Cho having an online reach to half million fans.
In regard to bad word of mouth, RelishMix says, “Negative-leaning convo for Afraid has viewers critiquing what they interpret as another tossed-off horror flick with nothing interesting to say about artificial intelligence. ‘A predictable story, with the only mystery being the AI’s real appearance and origin,’ and ‘Looks cool, but I’ll be honest it’s nothing new another AI movie.’ Blumhouse’s involvement has turned some fans away after a run of missteps.”
In a first, Sight & Sound broadcasted live in movie theaters, the original stage production Daniel based on the Biblical story. Fathom says last night grossed $538K for what’s shaping up to be a $2.5M 4-day outside the top ten. Solid numbers I’m told in Oklahoma City, Cleveland, NYC, DC and Pittsburgh.
Roadside Attractions’ political border story movie City of Dreams is looking at $1.5M over four at 774 theaters. The movie gets an A CinemaScore. I hear there’s alright sales in NYC, LA, Dallas, San Francisco and Austin, but that’s it.
Lionsgate Premiere Releasing’s Ray Liotta crime thriller 1992 fell flat at 875 sites with an estimated $1.2M four-day.
1.) Deadpool & Wolverine (Dis) 3,630 (-210) theaters, Fri $3.6M (-26%), 3-day $15.7M (-14%) 4-day $19M-$20M, Total $603.3M-$604.3M/Wk 6
2.) Alien: Romulus (20th/Dis) 3,120 (-795) theaters, Fri $2.2M (-51%) 3-day $9M (-45%), 4-day $11.75M Total $91.1M/Wk 3
3.) It Ends With Us (Sony) 3,551 (-288) theaters, Fri $2.1M (-45%) 3-day $7.35M (-37%), 4-day $9.5M Total $135.7M/Wk 4
4.) Reagan (Showbiz) 2,754 theaters, Fri $2.6M 3-day $7.2M 4-day $9M/Wk 1
5.) Twisters (Uni/WB) 3,005 (-201) theaters, $1.8M (+6%) 3-day $6.6M (+8%), 4-day $8.1M Total $258.9M/Wk 7
6.) Blink Twice (AMZ MGM) 3,067 theaters, Fri $1.3M (-54%), 3-day $5.2M (-28%) 4-day $6.6M, Total $17.3M/Wk 2
7.) The Forge (Sony) 1,921 (+103) theaters, Fri $1.1M 3-day $4.5M (-32%), 4-day $6.2M, Total $15.9M/Wk 2
8.) Despicable Me 4 (Uni) 2,698 (+107) theaters, Fri $850K (-20%) 3-day $3.67M (-14%), 4-day $5M Total $355M/Wk 9
9.) Afraid (Sony) 3,003 theaters, Fri $1.1m 3-day $3.2M, 4-day $4M/Wk 1
9..) Coraline (Fath) 1,168 (-354) theaters, Fri $708K (-49%) 3-day $3M (-40%), 4-day $4M, Total $30.2M/Wk 3
FRIDAY AM: In what is arguably tradition, the Labor Day weekend is going to be slow this year, moving this summer to a projected $3.6 billion total per Comscore, and that’s because the studios decided to play it that way. Summer’s take is roughly half billion lighter than summer 2023’s $4.09 billion, and that more or less boils down to a Marvel movie missing from the May calendar (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 racking up $359M last summer).
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