What can be as bad as a 2,000-mile snowstorm that shutters theaters? Why, Super Bowl weekend. And while it’s not the lowest weekend of the year, it came close with all movies doing $61.6M (per ComScore) versus the $55.1M till two weekends ago when 400 multiplexes turned off the lights due to snow and ice. Today’s business alone for most movies in the top 10 is expected to drop some -60% or steeper off Saturday’s ticket sales. It’s very, very clear, the old days of a major studio rolling the dice on a Taken or a Hannah Montana movie are far gone, and not worth the investment. Better to play into the weekend, and holdover. If you’re going to open at all, play to the margins, play to the niche demos, play at a low P&A, hence the hodge-podge of indie genre, K-Pop and values-based fare (Angel Studios’ Kevin James rom-com Solo Mio which is best of the new bunch with $7.2M in 2nd place after a $3.1M Friday/previews) and an A- CinemaScore and Screen Engine/Comscore PostTrak exits of 82% definite recommend (amazing) and 5 stars/92% positive.
Disney still believes there is a path for 20th Century Studios’ Send Help to $10M, for another No. 1 win in its second weekend (others have it lower at $9.1M).
Markiplier’s Iron Lung is third with a second weekend of $6M, -67%, in weekend 2. That drop was always foreseen given how fan-front-loaded the movie was on its very low marketing cost. That gets the ten-day on the feature take of the indie video game to $31M per ComScore by end of today.
Read more at Deadline
