A new “Star Wars” movie hit theaters over the holiday (it did fine), but the story of the Memorial Day box office weekend is “Obsession.” The Focus Features horror film from YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker actually rose 39% in its second weekend, grossing $23.9 million to bring its domestic total to $60.1 million in two weeks. And the film only cost $1 million to make.
That kind of increase is almost unheard of in this day and age, and speaks to how audiences have embraced the thriller about a guy whose wish that his childhood friend would fall in love with him has horrifying consequences.
And while 26-year-old writer/director Curry Barker is popular on YouTube for making comedy videos, the success of “Obsession” goes beyond creator fandom. The film earned an A- CinemaScore and has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences are hungry for great horror movies and Barker delivered, while Focus leveraged the creep factor at the center of the movie for maximum buzz building.
Also key: 75% of the audience who turned out for “Obsession” was between the ages of 18 and 25. Gen Z came out.
It’s one of the success stories of the year, surely, and could mark a one-two punch as another YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Kane Parsons heads to multiplexes this weekend with “Backrooms,” an adaptation of his viral horror YouTube videos.
It’s an exciting moment in horror and for Gen Z filmmakers, and Barker is off and running with another Focus horror film, “Anything but Ghosts,” already in the can, and he’s signed to write and direct the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” reboot for A24.
The big questions now are, can Barker deliver again, and perhaps more interestingly, can Focus use this to take on A24 and Neon in the “acclaimed horror” sphere?
Now, on to the rest of this week’s column.
Box Office: ‘Mandalorian and Grogu’ Flies to a Steady $163 Million Global Opening
Disney/Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is having a “glass half-full or half-empty” sort of weekend at the Memorial Day box office, earning a 4-day start of $100 million domestic and $163 million worldwide, not counting Monday international grosses.
The glass-half-empty view is that this start is roughly what “Solo: A Star Wars Story” opened to on Memorial Day weekend in 2018 before going on to gross a franchise live-action low $392 million worldwide.
“Mandalorian and Grogu” has a chance to avoid that fate with better legs over the coming weeks, but even in the best-case scenario it is looking at a box office total similar to the $521.8 million that Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” opened to a year ago, well shy of the record-breaking pedigree of “Star Wars.”
Another worrying trend is that 27% of the film’s audience is under the age of 25, compared to 37% for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” in 2017. That suggests that the “Star Wars” fanbase is starting to skew older, as the interest in “Star Wars” handed down from generation to generation might not be picked up as strongly by Gen Alpha kids.
The half-full read is that “Mandalorian and Grogu,” fanboy online grumbling aside, has been generally well received with an A- on CinemaScore, 4.5/5 overall on PostTrak, and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 62% critics and 89% audience, raising the chances of a box office endurance provided that it can withstand competition from early June titles like “Masters of the Universe” and “Scary Movie” aimed at Gen X and Millennial nostalgia.
“Mandalorian and Grogu” should also drive plenty of ancillary revenue through Baby Yoda merch, home platform revenue, and renewed interest in “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, where the ride “Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run” has been updated to include the main duo from the film. – Jeremy Fuster
The Spotlight
Jeremy Fuster goes deep on the Memorial Day weekend box office with three major takeaways. On “Mandalorian and Grogu,” he considers whether the “Star Wars” fanbase is aging as demographic numbers for the latest Lucasfilm movie aren’t exactly promising in the Gen A or Gen Z department. Plus a deeper dive into the “Obsession” phenomenon and how a robust lineup of releases at the box office proved all the prognosticators wrong. Read the full story here.
New Releases
Mandalorian Synergy: Drew Taylor got the inside story on how Disney got a “Mandalorian” movie and theme park attraction up on the same day.
“Star Wars” at the Box Office: Jeremy Fuster takes a comprehensive deep dive into every theatrically released “Star Wars” movie.
Queerest Cannes Ever: Ben Croll writes on the prevailing theme of this year’s Cannes lineup.
Creators on the Big Screen: Creators are having a moment with theaters right now, Kayla Cobb writes.
Netflix’s Oscar Contender?: The streamer won one of the most acclaimed titles at Cannes, “La Bola Negra.”
What SAG Protects: Jeremy Fuster breaks down what the new SAG-AFTRA contract means for AI performers — and what it doesn’t.
Go Speed Racer: Emile Hirsch spoke with Drew Taylor about the unlikely legacy of the Wachowskis’ “Speed Racer” for the film’s anniversary 4K Blu-ray release.
Concession Stand
James Gray says “Ad Astra” was taken away from him, and the cut that was released is not his version. Yeah, we could tell…
Brett Goldstein absolutely nailing J.Lo movie trivia in front of her is a delight.
Julia Roberts is teaming with Sony to adapt “Home Economics.”
Damon Lindelof says his Rey “Star Wars” movie was trying to wrestle with the issues of the fandom inside the film. He was fired.
Matt Damon looks likely to lead the next movie from The Daniels at Universal.
Also at Universal, Michael Bay will direct a movie about Operation Epic Fury.
Streaming Corner
- Netflix may have moved Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” to February, but the streamer isn’t giving up its prime pre-Thanksgiving Imax slot. The studio announced last week that it will release David Fincher’s still-untitled Cliff Booth movie, starring Brad Pitt, in Imax on Nov. 25. It will play in the large format for two weeks, then go dark, then it drops on the streamer for Christmas. This marks Fincher’s first movie in theaters since 2014’s “Gone Girl.” And cinephiles the world over rejoiced.
What I’m Watching
A clip of filmmaker Mike Flanagan revealing that “The Exorcist III” is a big influence on his new reboot of the horror franchise starring Scarlett Johansson inspired me to watch the 1990 William Peter Blatty film for the first time, and what a trip. George C. Scott is terrifically disgruntled as a cop trying to solve a serial murderer case, and the film has some great scares, hilarious quips and all-around wonderfully spooky vibes.
