The North American film market continued to be dead last weekend. In the absence of new films from major Hollywood studios, market data continued to decline.
Blockbusters are in stasis, and it’s hard to make a profit at the box office.
Because the box office numbers released by the two film companies are so close, it’s hard to tell who is between Amazon MGM’s “ The Beekeeper ” and Paramount’s “Mean Girls.” It is the box office champion this weekend. The actual data will probably not be determined until further statistics from the box office publishing agency comscore media company later. However, the three-day weekend box office of these two films was actually only US$7.4 million and US$7.3 million. They are all old movies that have been in theaters for a long time. The audiences who should watch them have already seen them. It is normal that these are the only ones at the weekend box office.
"The Beekeeper" was released in mainland China for more than three weeks, and the total box office was only 92 million yuan
In 2021, when the new crown epidemic was severe, "Chainsaw 9: Vortex" was released on the third weekend of May that year. With a box office of more than 4 million US dollars, it ranked first on the weekend box office list. After that, the North American film market gradually came out of its trough, and the box office data of the weekend box office champion gradually increased from more than 8 million US dollars to tens of millions of US dollars. It was not until this past January weekend in 2024 that the three-day box office of the box office champion fell below US$8 million again, which is really weird.
But this is the fact. This is the second weekend in a row that no new film from a major Hollywood studio will be released, which also means that the box office in January 2024 may drop by 10% compared to January last year.
Overall, the total North American box office this weekend was only about 61 million U.S. dollars, which was slightly less than the previous weekend's 67.2 million U.S. dollars, but it will certainly not be the lowest point of the year. Because this actually includes the box office of many films that were nominated for Oscars last week after expanding their release scale. However, as time goes by, this part of the box office will definitely gradually disappear, while new works have been blocked due to last year’s union strike. It has been unable to replenish it for a long time, so it is inevitable that the weekend total box office will continue to decline.
Next, "Argyle: The Secret Agent" jointly produced by Apple Pictures and Universal Pictures will be released on February 2, while Sony Pictures' superhero movies " Spider-Man: The Supernatural Awakening ", Pie Ramon's biopic "Bob Marley: A Love" will be released on February 14th, which may inject some momentum into the market, but the real rebound in box office may have to wait until " Dune 2" is released in March. . Pre-sales for this sequel are pretty good.
"Dune 2" poster
Young audiences are beginning to be willing to pay for literary films
As usual, after the Oscar nominations are announced, some nominated films will be re-entered into theaters. On the one hand, they are taking advantage of the situation to make money, and on the other hand, they are advertising. Lala's popularity can be said to kill two birds with one stone. Last weekend, " Barbie " resumed screening, " Oppenheimer " entered 750 IMAX theaters around the world, and a24 Films also re-entered North America for the long-defunct "My Life" About 320 theaters.
On the other hand, some nominated films that were still in theaters also took the opportunity to expand their screenings, with the same purpose of the above two points. Searchlight Pictures' "Poor Things" has increased its screen availability from 1,400 screens to 2,226 screens; Amazon MGM Pictures' "American Novel" has increased its screen availability from 850 screens to 1,500 screens; Focus Features' "Stay in School" Alliance" has soared from 127 screens to 125 screens. Neon Pictures' "Falling Judgment" has increased its number of screens from only 15 to 400 screens; a24 Pictures' "Zone of Interest" has increased its number of screens from 82 to 311 screens.
"Poor Thing" stills
In the end, "Poor Thing" did the best at the box office, with US$3 million in three weekend days, ranking seventh on the box office list. Of course, if we count the total North American box office results of all ten Oscar Best Picture nominees on the weekend after the nominations were announced, this year it was 13 million U.S. dollars, and last year it was 22 million U.S. dollars - but 16 million U.S. dollars of it all came from " Avatar 2".
Therefore, overall, among the ten best films this year, excluding "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer", which have the best box office, the box office performance of the remaining eight films may be better than last year's except "Avatar 2" nine other works. In other words, the situation in the North American art film market has improved.
In fact, relevant statistics show that such literary and artistic films, which have always been focused on the middle-aged and elderly audience market in the past, have recently also gained good appeal among the target group of 18 to 34 years old, and all this is partly due to the film The company has kept up with the times and marketed on the short video platform Douyin.
"Iron Claw" stills
For example, a24 Pictures' niche wrestling-themed movie "The Iron Claw" (the Iron Claw), which was released on December 22, 2023, was released in 2,774 theaters for three days during its first weekend and only earned 5.06 million. The box office opened in US$16 million, which is a flawless achievement for an independent film with a production cost of US$16 million. But looking at its latest box office results, it has gradually accumulated to 32.71 million U.S. dollars. Don’t underestimate this number. Among all the 112 films released by a24 Pictures so far, such North American box office results have ranked sixth, second only to "The Universe", "Uncut Gems" and "Bird". "Miss" and a few other highly popular works.
This box office performance is largely due to the young audience. It is reported that more than 60% of the film’s ticket buyers are under the age of 35, and a large part of them are even standard young people aged 18 to 24, and many of them are because they saw the film on Douyin. After watching the audience’s feedback on the video, I decided to buy a ticket to watch it.
html For more than ten years, Hollywood's art-house films have relied on middle-aged and elderly movie audiences aged 35 or 40. However, the three-year COVID-19 epidemic has severely affected this group's enthusiasm for watching movies, and it has not yet fully recovered. On the other hand, many young audiences aged 18 to 34 who originally favored superhero blockbusters have become tired of such works. In addition, according to Elissa Federoff, head of distribution department of Neon Pictures, “Everyone also realizes that the development of streaming media is leveling off, and good content can be watched at home. , seems to be becoming less and less.”Focus Features Distribution President Lisa Bunnell also said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that among the first weekend ticket buyers of "Stay in School", more than 40% were under the age of 35. Under the age of 18, its North American box office total has reached US$19.34 million, exceeding the US$17.3 million total North American box office of the box office champion "Movie House" released by their company last year.
It’s a similar story with Searchlight Pictures’ “Poor Things.” In the past few weeks, ticket buyers under the age of 35 have consistently accounted for 60 to 70% of the total, helping the film earn nearly $25 million at the North American box office to date.
