Weekend Box Office Thread - GUARDIANS Opens to Diminishing Returns

[AndyDursin]

Huge win for Nintendo/Universal/Illumination, all time biggest 2nd weekend for an animated movie:

1) Super Mario Bros Movie (Ill/Uni) 4,371 (+28) theaters, Fri $22.6M Sat $39.5M Sun $24.9M 3-day $87M (-41%), Total $347.8M/Wk 2

2.) Pope’s Exorcist (Sony)3,178 Fri $3.465M Sat $3.1M Sun $1.9M 3-day $8.5M/Wk 1

3.) Renfield (Uni) 3,375 theaters Fri $3.1M Sat $2.75M Sun $1.85M 3-day $7.7M/Wk 1

4.) John Wick: Chapter 4 (LG) 3,033 (-574) theaters, Fri $2.1M, Sat $3.5M Sun $2.08M 3-day $7.67 (-47%), Total $159.8M/Wk 4

5.) Air (Amazon) 3,507 theaters,Fri $2.15M Sat $3.3M Sun $2.15M 3-day $7.6M, Total $33.1M/Wk 2

6.) Dungeons & Dragons (Par/eOne) 3,324 (-532) theaters, Fri $1.94M, Sat $3.3M Sun $2.1M 3-day $7.4M (-47%), Total $74.1M/Wk 3

[Monterey Jack]

I'm glad...the Mario movie (along with last summer's Minions 2) proved what family audiences really want in their animated entertainment...bright colors, ace slapstick, funny voices and an overall atmosphere of benevolent disposability. If Disney had released that movie, Princess Peach would have been a butch, mixed-race lesbian in a wheelchair. Instead, The Super Mario Bros. Movie actually looks like the games, concentrates on humor instead of social programming, and doesn't insert any inappropriate stuff for the target audience. Hopefully we can get more movies like this as the year progresses.

Also good hold for Air, which won't make back its $90 million(!) budget, but proves there is a theatrical adult audience out there hungry for content.

[AndyDursin]

I want to see Pope's Exorcist when it comes on video. People say its hysterically funny.

[Monterey Jack]

I want to see Pope's Exorcist when it comes on video. People say its hysterically funny.

I might see it tomorrow. It's supposed to have more laugh-out-loud moments than Renfield, and I don't really care if they're intentional or not.

[AndyDursin]

My friend said he was laughing outloud at a bunch of scenes.

Sounds like Crowe is a lot of fun in the movie also. Will check it out at home eventually!

[Monterey Jack]

No wonder Mario is making so much...it's ACTUALLY FUN instead of a joyless, chiding civics lesson.

[AndyDursin]

Aint no woke in this dojo.

And to think internet fanboys spent a year worrying about Chris Pratt voicing Mario!!

[Monterey Jack]

And to think internet fanboys spent a year worrying about Chris Pratt voicing Mario!!

Did anyone really expect Mario to chirp "It's-a-me!" for 90 straight minutes? I like how the movie played up the silly accents right at the beginning, then just dropped them.

Anyways, the phenomenal success of the movie should act as a beacon of hope that studios that keep pushing agendas in favor of entertaining people will continue to flounder, while studios that only want to give audiences a good time will continue to reap the box-office bounty. This "diversity remake" B.S. from WB is proof they need to take a look at what the people really want. Same with Disney. I don't want to see an ancient Indiana Jones being one-upped, chastised and literally replaced in history by his lesbian goddaughter. No one wants that, not even lesbians!

[Monterey Jack]

Over a billion dollars worldwide in just under four weeks. It's already dethroned Frozen II and Finding Dory as one of the highest-grossing domestic animated movies of all time (only Incredibles 2 is still above it, and Mario has had some of the smallest week-to-week declines of any animated movie, ever, with zero animated competition for over a month). I must admit a certain mean satisfaction seeing the Mouse get their faces rubbed in...well, what they made Pinocchio smell.

[AndyDursin]

Movie's on fire. And yes it is awesome to go see something with a kid that isn't going to have some socio-political statement rammed home by Disney baked into it OR content that's unsuitable for them.

Speaking of that, bless the adult GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY fans who won't care, but a supposedly "disturbing" plot line involving animal experimentation, enslaved children and an F-bomb are indeed going to keep my 3rd grader out of the theater this time around. That's the problem with James Gunn -- there's giving a director freedom that works, then there's giving them TOO MUCH and when left entirely to his own devices, Gunn is someone with questionable instincts. I've seen a few reviews calling this film "grotesque" so obviously the self-indulgence was dialed up on this sequel which is his "Marvel going-away" present. I mean, I'll see it myself at home, but Marvel has a certain family brand attached to it -- that also supported the previous two movies -- that may not support this one. At least that's the choice as a parent I'm making. He's disappointed, but I'm definitely not bringing Theo to it with that kind of material thrown in.

[Monterey Jack]

Speaking of that, bless the adult GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY fans who won't care, but a supposedly "disturbing" plot line involving animal experimentation, enslaved children and an F-bomb are indeed going to keep my 3rd grader out of the theater this time around.

During that four-month(!) gap between Puss In Boots: The Last Wish and Super Mario Bros., when parents bemoaned the lack of ANYTHING age-appropriate to take their under-ten kids to, I kept reading things like, "What are you talking about? Ant-Man 3 and Shazam 2 are both out right now!" Just because it's not rated R doesn't mean it's appropriate to take a young child to! Even if there's no blood or gore or F-Bombs (at least until Guardians 3), most PG-13 superhero films are still jam-packed with violence, ear-punishing noise and scary imagery. I couldn't imagine being eight years old and not being TERRIFIED at the levels of casual collateral damage in something like Man Of Steel (which is a film with almost zero humor or "heart" to balance out the mayhem). Even the quippier MCU movies are often full of things that would distress very young children, yet I'm constantly seeing parents taking kids who are well under the age of ten to see these films. "It's superhero stuff, I can take my seven-year-old to see it!" Hell, that scene in Superman 3 where the woman is pulled into the machine and turned into a robot scared the CRAP out of me as a kid.



Yeah, as an adult, I can laugh it off, but kids process confusing/scary imagery in a way that people forget about after they hit a certain age.

[AndyDursin]

Since I don't always post the weekend results (some weeks there's nothing to say), might as well make this a single thread for a bit.

GUARDIANS playing to diminishing returns -- as, like we've been saying, is Marvel as a whole.

Also wonder if people got the memo about the "dark subject matter" and animal cruelty component. That would turn off some adults never mind kids.

SATURDAY UPDATE, after Friday exclusive: refresh for updates and for chart…Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 so far is staying on track with a $48.2M Saturday, still on its way to a $110M opening per early AM industry estimates. Exits remain high with the threequel getting its third A CinemaScore, and PostTrak at 91% positive, 79% definite recommend. As we told you yesterday, GOTG3 was modeling out like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, however, some saw it going under $100M — which would be an awful start for the third fully opened summer after the pandemic. Yes, this opening is off 25% from GOTG2’s $146.5M start, but it’s also 17% ahead of the original 2014 movie’s $94.3M opening. We’ll postmortem GOTG3 after it gets through its Saturday. GOTG3 is pushing overall weekend ticket sales for the first weekend of summer to around $152M, -32% from a year ago when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with its $187.4M opening pushing tickets sales to $222.3M.