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FRIDAY AFTERNOON: DreamWorks/Universal’s The Wild Robot is currently overperforming according to Friday afternoon projections, evidence of the IP’s popularity with kids. The Chris Sanders movie is eyeing $11.3M today, including last night’s near $2M, for a 3-day of $35M at 3,962. That’s more than what big brands Transformers One pulled in last weekend ($24.6M) and what DWA/Uni’s own Trolls Band Together did back in mid November a year ago ($30M). Remember that Wild Robot has all the Imax and PLFs during the day.
Warner Bros.’ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is letting up with an estimated $15.5M fourth weekend, a -40% ease at 3,804 for a running total near $250M by Sunday. Friday is looking like $4M for the Michael Keaton-Winona Ryder-Jenna Ortega-Catherine O’Hara movie.
Ranking third, Paramount’s Transformers One at 3,970 sites is looking at $2.5M in its second Friday and $10M in weekend 2, a -59% decline, for a ten-day of $39.8M.
Fourth belongs to Prathyangira Cinema’s action drama movie Devara Part 1 at 1,040 sites with a $4M Friday and $6.3M 3-day. The movie which stars Oscar winner RRR‘s N.T. Rama Rao Jr. in dual roles is outshining Lionsgate release of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis at 1,854 locations which is doing $2M today, and $3.2M-$5M for the weekend. Again, the movie which The Godfather filmmaker bet on himself to make was never meant to turn cartwheels at the box office, even if it was in bigger hands than Lionsgate here. The pic faced an uphill battle coming out of Cannes. No matter what one’s opinion is of the movie, it is quite spectacle, especially if you catch one of the live meta Imax shows with the live actor in around 34 metro locations in the country including LA’s TCL Chinese and AMC Century City and NYC’s Regal Union Square and AMC’s Lincoln Square which is billed “The Ultimate Experience.” The movie won’t appear on PVOD in the next three weeks and likely won’t be available in home until the holidays.
Below is the trailer for Devara Part 1 which clocks close to three hours versus Megalopolis which has a running time of 2 hours and 18 minutes.
FRIDAY AM: DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s The Wild Robot grossed $1.95M yesterday from showtimes that began at 2PM in 3,000 theaters.
The Lupita Nyong’o voiced movie is expected to lead the box office with a $20M+ take, and that preview take indicates that given previous DWA comps, read it’s higher than Trolls Band Together ($1.3M) which resulted in a $9.3M opening day and $30M opening, and it’s above The Bad Guys which did $1.15M in previews, a $7.98M opening day and a $23.9M opening.
Out of the gate, great PostTrak for The Wild Robot with 5 stars from general audiences, 4 1/2 stars from parents and five stars from kids under 12. General audiences numbered 72%, parents repped 18% and kids 10% last night. More men with the general audience at 53%, while moms outnumbered dads, 58% to 42%; and kids under 12 were mostly girls at 53% as expected. The Wild Robot is based on Peter Brown’s award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller. The movie cost a net of $78M before P&A spend.
Lionsgate’s release of Francis Ford Coppola/Zoetrope’s $120M self-financed Megalopolis did $770k which includes Monday’s live Imax event. We told you that alone grossed around $300K. The film opens today at 1,854 theatres across North America, including 238 IMAX screens and 45 Premium Large Format Screens.
As far as recent comps go, many point to another filmmaker $100M-plus financed bomb, Horizon, from Kevin Costner which did $800K in previews for a $4.09M first day, $11M opening back in late June.
No one is expecting Megalopolis to do well, pegged to open between $5M-$7M; clearly a big loss with the red ink falling on the Coppola winery proprietor. Already Thursday night exits are bad with a 1/2 star and 45% positive on PostTrak — not a lot of big starry movies get that. What can be celebrated is that the 5x Oscar winning 85-year old winning filmmaker is seeing is cinematic dream get a theatrical release, and not sidelined and lost on streaming. Lionsgate has no skin in the game; they’re merely the distributor with Coppola handling the cost of marketing which I’m told is between $15M-$17M. Sources tell me Lionsgate, not matter how badly Megalopolis does will walk away with a distribution fee between $3M-$5M. Coppola said back at the Cannes press conference that Megalopolis will leave him with “no problems” financially and that his offspring, including his filmmaker children Sophia and Roman and their children, “have wonderful careers without a fortune.”
We’ve heard that Imax is the aorta of this movie with most presales for large format showtimes.
Who showed up last night for the Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Nathalie Emmanuel dystopian epic? Most men at 69% and a young audience with 64% under 25. Best grades, if you can call it that, were given by women over 25 (23% of the crowd) who gave it 50%. Rotten Tomatoes critical scores stand at 50% Rotten.
Warner Bros’ third week of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice did $33.2M after a $1.46M Thursday for a running cume of $234M. The Tim Burton directed movie is pacing just under $40M behind Warner Bros.’ top grossing movie of September, It, at the same point in time which ended its run at $327.4M.
Paramount’s first week of Transformers One did $29.8M after an $838K Thursday. The movie is expected to ease around -50% in its second weekend.
Blumhouse/Universal’s Speak No Evil ends weekend 2 with an estimated $8.3M after $520K yesterday for a running total of $23.8M.
Lionsgate’s Alexandrea Aja directed, Halle Berry genre movie, Never Let Go, ends week one with $6M after a $300K Thursday.
Disney/Marvel Studio’s Deadpool & Wolverine wraps up week 9 with $5.2M after a $317K Thursday. Running total stands at $628.6M.
Mubi’s Demi Moore body swap movie The Substance end its first week with $5.05M after a $370K Thursday.
We’ll see how hard Hurricane Helene rocks the box office as the day goes. Per Weather.com there’s more than 4M homes and businesses without power: South Carolina (1.3M), Florida (1.1M), Georgia (1.07M), North Carolina (614K) and Virginia (43K).
