SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU: Like a huntsman lurking around in the woods, Jason Statham’s A Working Man scared Disney’s Snow White into second place at the office, $15.2M to $14.2M.
At a time when feature production development executives have their faces in their hands, baffled at what works at the box office, let’s not deny the attraction of the tried and true meat and potatoes dude action movie, which can still find an audience. Keep in mind part of the allure her to after with this $40M Statham pic is it’s based on the Chuck Dixon book series about a retired counter-terrorism agent turned construction worker who’s pulled back into his old career. There are several books and ample Transporter opportunity for Statham in the near future. The screenplay was written by Sylvester Stallone and David Ayer, who directed the pic. The opening here isn’t far from Statham’s previous Ayer and Amazon MGM Studios reteam, The Beekeeper at $16.5M.
Also amid the jawdropping news about Jen Salke’s exit as Head of Amazon MGM Studios, it’s a nice win here for the studio which will be fortified product wise on the motion picture side by Warner Bros’ vet Courtenay Valenti
A Working Man gets a B CinemaScore. Amazon MGM Studios didn’t shell out an MG commitment for A Working Man in regards to North American, just a P&A commitment around $20M. Prime Video took the world on streaming. Warner Bros. is handling overseas theatrical distribution. A Working Man is the last campaign for Amazon MGM Studios marketing whiz and 007 promo vet Gerry Rich after announcing his departure.
Snow White‘s $14.2M is a -66% plummet for the princess after $3.7M second Friday and $6.25M Saturday boosted by matinees. Very sad. Again, it’s a solid movie; but coupled with all the bad publicity, “Nobody is going! Nobody is going!” as a vet Hollywood producer loves to groan to me when movies tank. Snow White‘s drop is steeper than Dumbo‘s second frame (-60%), and makes Maleficent: Mistress of Evil‘s second weekend look rich at a -48% decline ($19.4M second weekend). Spring break is still in session on Monday with close to a third of K-12 schools off on Monday per ComScore.
Two horror movies, largely female skewing went after each other this weekend, with Blumhouse/Universal’s The Woman in the Yard having the upper hand at $9.45M over A24’s Death of a Unicorn with the hippest star for today’s generation’s Jenna Ortega trailing behind at $5.8M. Death of a Unicorn was made for $15M net while Woman in the Yard was $12M net.
Woman in the Yard drew 31% women over 25 and 24% women under 25 while Death of a Unicorn had 29% women over 25 and 20% female under 25.
How the hell did that happen? How did a film with no stars and a woman looking like she was in mourning defeat Wednesday? And Death in the Unicorn has the better grades with a B- to Woman int he Yard‘s C-.
When it comes to horror, straight up jump scare will usually win over any horror hybrid, the one sheet for Death of a Unicorn conveying Neverending Story. And yes, Death of a Unicorn is original IP, it’s not Beetlejuice or Scream, but still, if Harry Styles can propel Don’t Worry Darling to $19.3M, it seem that the digital marketing and non-outdoor ways of A24 didn’t sell Unicorn as a unicorn.
Universal’s marketing kicked ass in its jump scary wheat field, scary lady trailer, that towering billboard near Cahuenga, and the live stunt in theaters where the ladies in black were sitting in the lobby in front of the pic’s standees. This was a bigger bullhorn than A24 taking Death of a Unicorn to the studio’s stomping ground of SXSW to world premiere.
Woman in the Yard also had the bigger social media universe than Death of a Unicorn, 125.4M followers across all platforms to 64.3M, the latter -59% behind other horror pics before opening. And Unicorn had Ortega’s 38.6M followers. Statham was still taller than her with his 115.7M.
Andrew Wonder
Despite the dull horn on Unicorn RelishMix found before the pic’s opening, “Convo on Death Of A Unicorn is running enthusiastically positive as fans are sold on the idea, ‘Good actors, new story, I’m in.’ plus, ‘This is not death of a unicorn, This Is death by unicorn.’ Franchise fatigue is well referenced, ‘Glad to see something other than a damn remake.’ Also, the cast is selling through, ‘Rudd, Ortega and murderous unicorns? Let’s go!!!’ Fans are up for some fun and spreading the word, “Am I the only one that searched about unicorn startups and suddenly jumped to this amazing trailer? jesus.. I loved it!..’ Who the hell knows. Maybe there’s an uptick tonight; A24 rarely opens movies north of double digits and this is slightly under the $6.5M 3-day opening of Midsommar, but damn, Heretic with 64-year old Hugh Grant opened to $10.8M. At the end of the day, around a $30M domestic take is where most of these A24 movies lay. Death of a Unicorn was made with a SAG interim agreement during the strike.
What wonder is missing in Death of a Unicorn? As Deadline film critic Glenn Garner pointed out at SXSW: “For a movie with a nearly two-hour runtime and a bonkers title with the plot to match, the action kicks off awfully late into the movie. Meanwhile, the laughs and gore are few and far between, and the satirical element ultimately takes a backseat to the father/daughter dynamic, which is heartfelt enough on its own… though we came for the unicorn bloodbath.”
Faith-based actually does seem to still work as Fathom’s The Chosen: Last Supper Part 1 booked at 2,235 locations did $5.1M Friday for a third place of $11.49M in 3rd place. It’s been a while since faith-based has put up good numbers like this. No CinemaScore, but 99% on Rotten Tomatoes popcorn meter which is higher than this weekend’s A Working Man (90%), Death of a Unicorn (74%) and Woman in the Yard (49%). Truly a celebratory moment to turn water into wine: it’s the biggest opening for a Chosen movie according to Comscore, higher than November 2022’s The Chosen: Season 3 which debuted to $8.77M.
The weekend is coming in around $79M for all movies, +5% over last weekend, but -42% off from a year ago, which was Easter weekend. That saw Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire open to $80M and propel the frame to north of $152M.
Updated Sunday numbers below, indicated in bold.
1.) A Working Man (AMZ) 3,262 theaters, Fri $5.6M Sat $5.8M Sun $3.7M 3-day $15.2M/Wk 1
2.) Snow White (Dis) 4,200 theaters, Fri $3.7M (-77%), 3-day $14.2M (-66%), Total $66.3M/Wk 2
3.) The Chosen – Last Supper – Part 1 (Fath) 2,235 theaters, Fri $5.1M Sat $3.5M Sun $2.8M 3-day $11.49M/Wk 1
4.) Woman in the Yard (Uni) 2,842 theaters, Fri $3.6M Sat $3.5M Sun $2.2M 3-day $9.45M/Wk 1
5.) Death of a Unicorn (A24) 3,050 theaters Fri $2.2M Sat $2M Sun $1.4M 3-day $5.8M/Wk 1
6.) Princess Mononoke (GKIDS) 330 theaters, Fri $2M, Sat $1M Sun $920K 3-day $4M/Wk 1 (re)
7.) Captain American…(Dis) 2,380 (-520) theaters, Fri $730K (-35%) Sat $1.3M Sun $770K 3-day $2.8M (-30%), Total $196.55M/Wk 7
8.) Black Bag (Foc) 2,065 (-648) theaters, Fri $620K (-50%) Sat $960K Sun $570K 3-day $2.15M (-50%), Total $18.7M/Wk 3
9.) Mickey 17 (WB) 1,648 (-936) theaters, Fri $560K (-47%) Sat $825K Sun $535K 3-day $1.92M (-48%) Total $43.5M/Wk 4
10.) Novocaine (Par) 2,273 (-1,096) theatees, Fri $415K (-62%) Sat $630K Sun $405K 3-day $1.45M (-61%), Total $18.7M/Wk 3
Notables:
Alto Knights (WB) 2,651 theaters, Fri $300K Sat $470K Sun $330K, 3-day $1.1M (-65%), Total $5.5M/Wk 2
2ND UPDATE MIDDAY: Disney’s Snow White with $4M today and potentially $15M+ for the weekend hopes to lead the weekend, but she could be undone by Amazon MGM Studios/Black Bear’s Jason Statham movie A Working Man.
At a time of depressed box office, Statham’s meat-and-potatoes dude action still has an audience with a Friday near $5M today and outlook of $13.5M. Some rivals even show Snow White and A Working Man neck-and-neck for the weekend. Snow White is booked at 4,200 sites, while A Working Man is at 3,262 locations including PLFs like Dolby and 4DX.
Third place goes to Fathom Events’ The Chosen: Last Supper with $5M today and $12M for the weekend at 2,234 locations.
Fourth is Universal/Blumhouse’s The Woman in the Yard. The pic is more popular than A24’s Jenna Ortega horror film Death of a Unicorn but not by much — $8.4M to possibly $5M. Woman in the Yard at 2,842 is seeing $3M today, while Death of a Unicorn is eyeing $2M at 3,050 theaters.
Gkids’ rerelease of Princess Mononoke at 330 sites is looking at $2M today including last night’s previews for a beefy $3M weekend.
Overall, it’s an embarrassingly depressed weekend at the box office just as every single studio struts its stuff at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.
‘Princess Mononoke’
Studio Ghibli
1ST UPDATE AM: There was a handful of cash thrown at four new movies Thursday night, with Gkids’ re-release of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1997 anime Princess Mononoke taking the lead at 330 Imax locations with $1.2M in a new 4K print. The princess will share some of those Imax hubs with Disney’s Snow White, which saw a second Friday of $1.8M, ending its first week with $52.6M. The film is expected to hold at No. 1 despite all the noise over Rachel Zegler’s casting, etc., with hopefully around $20M.
Princess Mononoke follows Ashitaka, a young warrior who is seeking to cure himself from a curse. He stumbles into a conflict between the people of Iron Town and Princess Mononoke, a girl raised by wolves who will stop at nothing to prevent the destruction of her home. The stateside release of the movie was handled by Miramax back in 1999 and grossed $2.37M. Box Office Mojo reports a $159M global gross on the film, but we’re looking into that.
Clockwise from top left: ‘Snow White’, ‘Death of a Unicorn,’ ‘The Woman in the Yard’ and ‘ A Working Man’
Everett
A Working Man, Amazon MGM Studios’ David Ayer-directed reteam with Jason Statham, clocked $1.1M at 2,550 locations. Black Bear financed the latest shoot-’em-up, which is expected to do between $10M-$12M this weekend.
Blumhouse/Universal’s PG-13 horror movie The Woman in the Yard saw $870K at 2,500 theaters from showtimes that began at 2 p.m. She’s booked in 2,842 theaters. Woman in the Yard‘s Thursday is a little higher than Lionsgate/Blumhouse’s Imaginary from a year ago, which did $725K in previews on its way to a $9.9M opening. It also was PG-13. The psychological horror, which is an exploration for grief, film cost $12M before P&A.
A24’s Jenna Ortega-Paul Rudd R-rated genre movie, Death of a Unicorn, horned $700K. The $15M production comps to R-rated titles Mother! from Darren Aronofsky and Sony’s Rough Night, both of which did $700K in previews and filed respective openings of $7.5M and $8M. It’s just not a good weekend for horror.
Warner Bros’ $50M Robert De Niro bomb, The Alto Knights, did $175K last night ending its first week with $4.4M.
