Yahoo Finance ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Leads Quiet Weekend At The B.O. As Town Grapples With Arclight & Cinerama Dome Closures – Sunday Update
SUNDAY AM WRITE-THRU Final: With no new wide releases, and New Line’s Mortal Kombat pushed to next weekend, Warner Bros./Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong is still in charge at 3,001 theaters with a 3-day of $7.7M, -44% now counting $80.5M domestic. Worldwide, Godzilla vs. Kong is at $390.2M, $177M of that coming from China. Broken down that’s $2.075M on Friday, -47% from a week ago, $3.6M Saturday, and $2M Sunday. As we told you last weekend, the Adam Wingard feature is poised to profit. Warner Bros. holds the No. 1 domestic marketshare at the B.O. with $167M to date among all studios (48% share). Of the 16 weekends to date this year, Warners has ranked No. 1 for eight of them including a three week streak here for Godzilla vs. Kong.
GvK will be on HBO Max for another two weeks, and then it’s exclusive to movie theaters for another month. As we mentioned previously, the fourthquel is on PVOD in Canada, given the numbers of cinemas which are closed there. Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta provinces remain closed in the Great White North.
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Even though Godzilla vs. Kong lit the domestic box office on fire over Easter weekend, we’re still in a holding pattern here, waiting for the domestic B.O. to wake up. I mean, New York City is still at 33% capacity. Really, Cuomo, that’s gotta stop. According to distribution sources, 56% of the 5,8K theaters in US and Canada are open.
Also, this week’s news of Arclight/Pacific Theatres shuttering is a huge dent to the L.A. theatrical marketplace. In 2019, L.A. generated over $905M, and that local chain fueled 11% of that number. Seriously, studios can’t live without that money, plus the Hollywood Arclight and Cinerama Dome are launch-point theaters. It’s where an indie film from a budding filmmaker can debut, and ultimately cross over and shine and make a long-term career of it. Conversations with sources this past week believe these theaters will come back, it’s just a matter of who, when and whether it’s Decurion in some shape or form in the end as a minority partner.
Everything out there is pure speculation and not solid, as Arclight/Pacific/Decurion has gone radio silent in their lease negotiations. In regards to those kicking the tires, I can tell you it’s not Alamo (which is contending with bankruptcy), AMC, or Netflix. In regards to Netflix, despite their purchases of the Paris and The Egyptian, they have no yearnings to own a greater theater and stray beyond their wheelhouse of streaming. But all of this is a gut check to the motion picture industry: If you want to truly mess around with theatrical windows and do audacious things like play day-and-date on streaming, this is what happens. Movie theaters close down, especially as they try to resuscitate themselves after a year of lockdown.
On the upside in regards to the domestic box office: NRG reported on Friday that moviegoer consumer confidence hit a new high on Friday, with 64% of moviegoers now ‘very or somewhat comfortable’ going to the movies, up a point from the previous wave and +4 points from a week ago. Those who are “very comfortable” also reached a new high on Friday growing to 28% (+2 points above previous high point). Of those polled, 65% believe movie theaters are “very or somewhat safe,” also narrowly a new record ahead of Monday’s wave. Similar to Monday’s wave, 6-in-10 expect to see a movie in theaters within the next two months, and over 7-in-10 expect to see one within the next three.
Regal reopened 11 locations this past weekend, with plans to reopen another 44 next weekend in time for New Line’s Mortal Kombat. Another 177 Regal sites will turn the lights on for the weekend of May 7-9, and followed by 138 on May 14, and 129 on May 21. In California, 15 counties moved from red to orange tier increasing their auditorium capacities to 50% or 200 people. Among those are Napa, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties.
In second place this weekend at the B.O. is Universal’s R-rated Bob Odenkirk action movie Nobody, with a fourth Friday of $730K, -1%, on its way to a great 3-day hold, -5%, with $2.52M and a total by EOD of $19.05M.
Sony’s third Friday of The Unholy did an estimated $601K, -14% from a week ago, on 2,057 theaters (+207) for an estimated 3-day in third place of $2.06M, -14%, and a running total of $9.56M.
Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon at 1,945 theaters in weekend 7 did $471K on Friday, -18%, for an anticipated 3-day of $1.9M, -14%, for a total of $37.6M.
Warner Bros. Tom & Jerry in weekend 8 ranked 5th for the weekend with $1.09M, -10%, and a cume of $42.5M.
NEON opened their Ben Wheatley directed pandemic horror movie In the Earth, which made its world premiere at Sundance. The pic, which had notable ticket sales on the west coast, is ranking in the top 10 with $506K off of 547 runs in 129 markets and a 75% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score. NEON also had far outside the top 10 the Victor Kosakovskiy directed documentary Gunda in five locations in NY, LA (including the Pico Blvd Landmark) and San Francisco which debuted to $5K off a 98% certified fresh RT score. The black and white feature looks at the daily life of a pig and its farm animal companions: two cows and a one-legged chicken.
In regards to GvK, RelishMix updates that on social media, “The main studio owned trailer of the two videos posted on Youtube for the film has hit 86M views and up 10.5M since opening on March 31st, and has a continuously strong viral reposting rate of 48:1. Fan chatter debates whose team they are on, from Godzilla and flipping over to Kong and back — plus, in ripped videos from the film, fans debate the fight scenes as proof of who truly rules the world.”
The weekend’s top 10 chart; daily B.O. broken out as provided by studio:
1.) Godzilla vs. Kong (WB/Leg) 3,100 theaters (-83)/Fri $2.1M/Sat $3.6M/Sun $2M/3-day $7.7M (-44%)/Total: $80.5M/Wk 3
2.) Nobody (Uni) 2,405 theaters (+5) Fri $730K/Sat $1.1M/Sun $690K/3-day: $2.52M (-5%)/Total $19.05M/Wk 4
3.) The Unholy (Sony) 2,057 theaters (+207) //Fri $601K/Sat $902M/Sun $557K/$2.06M (-14%)/Total: $9.56M/Wk 3
4.) Raya and the Last Dragon (Dis) 1,945 theaters (+4), Fri $471K/Sat $885K/Sun $544k/ 3-day: $1.9M (-14%), Total: $37.6M/Wk 7
5.) Tom & Jerry (WB) 2,028 theaters (-52), 3-day: $1.09M (-10%)/Total: $42.5M/Wk 8
6.) Voyagers (LG/AGC) 1,996 theaters (+24) Fri $250K/Sat $338K/Sun $202K/3-day: $790K (-43%)/Total: $2.55M/Wk 2
7.) The Girl Who Believes in Miracles (Atlas) 1,012 theaters (+112) Fri $155K/Sat $244K/Sun $162K/ 3-day $561K (even)/Total: $1.8M/Wk 3
8.) In the Earth (NEON) 547 theaters, /Fri $205K/Sat $185K/Sun $116K/3-day: $506K/Wk 1
9.) The Courier (RSA) 922 theaters (-85),/Fri $146,7K/Sat $197,5K/Sun $118,5K/3-day: $462,8K (+6%)/Total: $5.4M/Wk 5
10.) Croods: A New Age (Uni) 1,169 theaters (+30), Fri $65K/Sat $150K/Sun $95K/3-day: $310K (+27%)/Total: $57.1M/Wk 21
Looking ahead to the social media buzz on Mortal Kombat next weekend, as we first told you, the red-band trailer scored a massive 116M views, the second-best for a trailer drop of that type after Warner Bros.’ James Gunn R-rated The Suicide Squad. RelishMix is spotting a lot of heat here on this video game feature adaptation reboot.
“Intermixed with trailers and clips from previous Mortal Kombat movies, TV series, game play materials, plus picture-in-picture posting over more than 10 years — and views for the top ten videos at 452M on top of the social media universe specific to this film at 141.2M, the general awareness for the brand is exceptional. Activity on the meter is strong for fresh materials, given a shortened runway of six weeks. The film has an added advantage of the momentum of Warners releases in the social quadrangulated cross-promotion across Warner Pictures 54.7M, HBO Max 2.5M, Warner Games 1.1M and New Line Cinema social at 355K feeding the movie’s social network at 328K,” reports the analytics corp.
In regards to chatter, RelishMix adds, “Super fan expectations are high and they’re calling out references to characters and other incarnations of the franchise — and how Godzilla vs. Kong is a good lead-up to Mortal Kombat, plus positive chatter about the Snyder cut of Justice League in the HBO Max ecosystem too.”
In regards to the social media star in the cast, that’s Joe Taslim who plays Bi-Han/Sub-zero in the film. He counts 2.2M fans across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
In regards to notable materials on social, RelishMix applauds the fan reaction trailer which dropped on Feb. 25 and is clocking north of 206K views on YouTube.
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