What is currently happening in American cinemas is a true disaster. It has long been known that “Marvels” couldn’t even dream of an opening like “Captain Marvel” ($153.4 million). However, pessimistic forecasts gave the new Marvel Studios spectacle an opening result of around $70 million. Closer to the premiere, they dropped to $60 million, and even that turned out to be exaggerated.
Current Disney estimates put “Marvels” at only $47 million! This is the worst opening in the history of Marvel Studios. For the first time, a production from the studio failed to exceed the $50 million mark!
So far, only two films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) had openings below $60 million: “Ant-Man” ($57.2 million) and “Incredible Hulk” ($55.4 million).
Is the catastrophic result of “Marvels” an effect of audience fatigue with comic book productions? Deadline disagrees. It provides a different diagnosis, claiming that it’s evidence of the failure of a strategy that involves building a single universe from theatrical and streaming productions. As evidence, it cites data indicating that 2/3 of the audience that went to see “Marvels” has Disney+. Thus, the studio failed to mobilize Marvel fans who don’t have Disney+ to go to the cinemas.
The second major release of the week also didn’t have a successful start. “Journey to Bethlehem” received positive audience ratings (A- in CinemaScore). The problem was that there were very few viewers. Apparently, the Christian audience wasn’t interested in watching a Christmas story turned into a pop musical. Estimates give it only $2.4 million for the opening.
This result is worse than what “Winter Break” achieved, whose distribution expanded by 714 theaters over the weekend. The film earned an impressive $3.2 million, marking the second-best average among the titles in the Top 10.
The distribution of “Priscilla” increased by over a thousand theaters, and as a result, A24 boasts only a 4% drop in revenues.
On the horizon, the studio may already have another hit. “Dream Scenario” starring Nicolas Cage started in six theaters. The film achieved a solid (though not spectacular) average of $35,900. Only six titles had better averages for their openings this year (with “Asteroid City” at the top – $142,200).
Meanwhile, AMC executives can break out the champagne. The screening of the concert film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” paid off. It just surpassed the seventh installment of “Mission: Impossible.” And in a week, it should enter the top ten of the highest-grossing premieres of the year.
Somewhere in the Top 10, there will also be the new Bollywood spectacle “Tiger 3.” The film debuted on Saturday, and for now, we only have data from that day. In American cinemas, it earned $1.05 million. UPDATE: comScore reports an opening result of $2.3 million.
Next Friday, viewers will face serious dilemmas as four major releases hit theaters. Lionsgate will invite audiences to the spectacle “The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” Disney will try to pull Michael Fassbender fans away from Netflix, where “The Killer” recently premiered, by introducing the sports comedy “First Goal.” After enjoying success in theaters worldwide for a month, Universal will finally release the animation “Trolls 3” in America. The fourth premiere is the slasher “Thanksgiving Night,” inspired by a fake trailer for “Thanksgiving.”
