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3 weeks ago
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Sony will own the first weekend of November which will see the second frame of the Culver City, CA lot’s Venom: The Last Dance down around 60% or $20M for No. 1 followed by the studio’s release of Miramax adult drama Here.
Here, which reps the Forrest Gump reteam of filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, scribe Eric Roth, and stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, is expected to do around $7M with an eye on hopefully pulling older adults out again this weekend after they made a date for Focus Features’ Conclave last weekend ($6.6M opening).
It remains to be seen whether Here slots in second place, giving Sony the one-two-punch of the weekend.
The question is whether audiences will go along with watching a generations drama story about various families on the same property/house at a skewed-degree angle. Hanks and Wright are technologically de-aged to their former 1980s/1990s selves, their storyline being the aorta of the story. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes responded with a 33% Rotten grade after the pic world premiered at AFI Fest last Friday.
Here was fully financed by the former Miramax administration of Bill Block for $50M, who is a producer on the movie. Block also produced last year’s Miramax Oscar winner, The Holdovers, which sold to Focus Features in a $30M global rights deal. Here is a domestic distribution deal for Sony which has been in business with Hanks of late on the 2022-23 drama, A Man Called Otto, which saw half of its wide release audience over 55 years of age; that pic doing a $15.4M 4-day opening after a three-step platform and finaling its domestic run with $64.2M. Sony also had the Hanks’ movies, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which opened to $13.2M pre-Covid 2019 and ended with $61.7M stateside, as well as the WWII movie Greyhound which they unloaded to Apple TV+ during the pandemic.
Here was originally planned as a three-step platform with an exclusive debut in NYC and LA on Nov. 15, limited expansion on Nov. 22, and wide blast on Nov. 27 before Sony moved it up to this weekend as a complete wide release.
The box office isn’t going to go back to some energy until Nov. 15 when Amazon MGM Studios’ Dwayne Johnson-Chris Evans Christmas action feature, Red One, opens to $36M+, followed by Wicked and Gladiator II on Nov. 22 and Moana 2 on Nov. 27.
Also opening wide this weekend on 1,200 runs is Samuel Goldwyn’s Liam Neeson action movie, Absolution, as well as Viva’s animated movie, Hitpig, about a bounty hunter pig who finds himself trekking the globe with a free-spirited elephant he intended to capture. Andy Serkis, Rainn Wilson and Jason Sudeikis have voice parts in a movie directed by Cinzia Angelini and David Feiss.
Here showtimes start at 2PM on Halloween night, Thursday.
