On a weekend where all the films in the box office top 5 cleared $10 million, Marvel Studios was king with “Avengers: Endgame Encore,” which took in $26 million domestically and $86 million worldwide.
The domestic total is just a touch above the $25.5 million grossed last year by the 20th anniversary re-release of “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” and brings the lifetime total of “Endgame” to $884 million domestic and $2.88 billion worldwide.
Taking second is Sony’s “Resident Evil” with $23.3 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to $103.4 million. While the arrival of “Endgame Encore” may have led to a sharper 61% drop despite the strong reception for Zach Cregger’s horror film, it should still be a solid theatrical success as it reaches $103 million domestic.
Filling out the rest of the top 5 are a trio of new releases: A24’s “Primetime,” Paramount’s “Heart of the Beast” and Universal/DreamWorks’ “Forgotten Island.” Of the three, “Primetime” is in the best place to turn a theatrical profit with a reported $15 million budget before marketing, while the other two face a more uphill battle with production spends of $80 million.
But it is “Heart of the Beast” that narrowly leads the bunch with a $20 million domestic and $50 million global opening from 3,435 locations. Domestically, the film will have to leg out with its core audience of white moviegoers over 35, predominantly in rural states. Reception for the film is strong with an A- on CinemaScore and PostTrak scores of 74% “definite recommend” and 90% overall positive.
“Primetime” is just behind “Heart of the Beast” with a $19.1 million opening from 2,874 screens with no premium format support. Of the three newcomers, Lance Oppenheim’s dramatization of the downfall of the NBC true crime show “To Catch a Predator” has the lowest reception scores with a still largely positive B+ and 82% Rotten Tomatoes audience score.
It remains to be seen how word-of-mouth will affect the legs of “Primetime,” as the film’s critical eye towards “Predator,” host Chris Hansen and true crime TV in general may have put off some moviegoers who thought they were getting a more straightforward biopic about the show.
But what is clear is that despite the film’s subject matter and 2000s setting, “Primetime” is being driven by Gen Z with an audience that is 69% under the age of 30, showing both the drawing power of lead star Robert Pattinson and A24’s success in building a core fanbase of young cinephiles.
Then there is “Forgotten Island,” which despite excellent critical and audience reception is sputtering out of the gate with an opening weekend of just $12.8 million from 3,548 locations. While the film still has many overseas markets yet to receive it, “Forgotten Island” has made only $7.8 million from 35 international territories, with $1.5 million coming from the Philippines, where the film’s myriad cultural references come from.
Those who have seen “Forgotten Island” have raved about it, giving the film an A on CinemaScore and excellent PostTrak scores of 81% definite recommend and 96% overall positive. But with this start, any legs that come from such strong word-of-mouth would likely only get it close to the break-even point barring an unlikely “Obsession”-sized multiple, making this title the latest example of Hollywood struggling to get audiences to buy in to original theatrical animation even with rave reviews.
More to come…