Indie slasher pic Terrifier 3 is easily winning a weekend of curiosity and carnage at the domestic box office, where Joker: Folie à Deux is suffering the worst decline in history for a comic book movie and one of the biggest among any film.
Cineverse and Icon Events’ Terrifier threequel is on course to come in first with an opening in the $16 million to $17 million range from 1,988 theaters.
The next closest film is The Wild Robot, which continues to shine for DreamWorks Animation and Universal. Now in its third weekend, the family pic is on course to earn another $13.9 million from 3,854 cinemas.
Warner Bros.’ holdover Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also continues to flex its theatrical muscles even though it’s now available in the home on premium VOD. The Tim Burton-directed sequel is parked in third place with an estimated gross of $7.2 million to $7.4 million from 2,408 locations as it crosses the $275 million mark domestically in its sixth weekend.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is even beating Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel, which is falling off a cliff in its second outing with an estimated $6.6 million to $6.8 million from 4,102 theaters, a historic decline of 82 percent. Until now, The Marvels held the record among comic book movies for the worst second-weekend decline at 78 percent.
While Terrifier 3 is slashing and burning in its debut, a slew of other new nationwide openers — including high-profile awards contenders — are struggling to find an audience.
Briarcliff’s Donald Trump movie The Apprentice — which Trump tried to block from ever appearing in cinemas — is looking at a debut in the $1.5 million range from 1,740 locations. That puts it in a close race with holdover Speak No Evil for a 10th-place finish (rival studios show the latter prevailing). Pre-release tracking showed the pic opening in the $3 million range.
The Apprentice, which made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and later played at the Telluride Film Festival, is doing a majority of its business in liberal enclaves in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. It boasts decent reviews, although audiences gave it a B- CinemaScore.
Briarcliff, which acquired U.S. rights to the film at the 11th hour, had only five weeks to sell The Apprentice, which launched a Kickstarter campaign to assist in raising money for marketing costs. Briarcliff chief Tom Ortenberg, who was behind best picture winner Spotlight, believes The Apprentice will grow steadily and that the opening gross doesn’t seal the film’s fate.
Before the pandemic, indie distributors generally opened their awards contenders in New York and Los Angeles in order to build word of mouth, versus launching nationwide and risk losing theaters quickly if a film doesn’t bring traffic. Platform releases have become less common.
Focus Features also decided on a nationwide release for its critically acclaimed Oscar hopeful Piece by Piece, an animated bibliographical doc about Pharrell Williams. The movie, earning a glowing A CinemaScore, is debuting this weekend in 1,865 theaters and is estimating a sixth-place finish with $3.5 million. That’s not bad for a documentary.
Piece by Piece, made in tandem with LEGO, is in a close race with another awards contender, Jason Reitman’s narrative feature Saturday Night, a love letter to Lorne Michaels’ Saturday Night Live. The film also played at Telluride, which is considered ground zero for launching an Oscar campaign.
From Sony, Saturday Night is expanding wide after playing its first two weekends in select cities such as L.A. and New York. The generally well-reviewed film is estimating a subdued weekend gross of $3.5 million from 2,309 cinemas after earning a B+ CinemaScore.
Similar to Briarcliff, Sony believes Saturday Night will find its stride.
After five consecutive weekends of growth, box office revenue this weekend is on course to be down 45 percent from the same frame last year. A major factor is the failure of Joker: Folie à Deux, but the overall soft marketplace isn’t helping.
Numbers will be updated Sunday morning.
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