UPDATED, Saturday PM: Amazon MGM Studio’s Project Hail Mary continues to shine at the box office brighter than a sun now with an updated second weekend of $53.1M, after a better-than-expected Friday of $14.6M. That’s a phenomenal second frame for a non-franchise film, some may argue the highest. 1997’s Avatar (which wasn’t a franchise when it opened, it was deemed an original; only history has made it a franchise) posted a second weekend of $75.6M. But more pom poms for Project Hail Mary: The pic’s second weekend is higher than multi-Oscar winner Oppenheimer ($46.7M, -43%) and the 2024 March sci-fi movie Dune Part Two ($46.2M, -44%). That’s a big deal.
There’s a lot of positive here at the box office: The spring has proven prime for studios post Sinners and now Project Hail Mary to roll the dice on original event movies. All titles this weekend at $96.8M are 25% ahead of weekend 13 a year ago which was a hodge podge of Jason Statham’s A Working Man ($15.5M), Chosen: Last Supper ($11.8M), Woman in the Yard ($9.3M) and the Jenna Ortega misfire Death of a Unicorn ($5.7M). People are going to the movies, Project Hail Mary pulling in 54% men, 36% women in weekend two. Broken out that’s women over 25 at 37%, men over 25 at 36%, and men under 25 at 19%. Family audiences are flocking to movies with Disney/Pixar’s Hoppers at an estimated fourth weekend of $11.3M, running cume of $137.3M (it has already surpassed Elio‘s domestic take of $72.9M; and it’s 25% ahead of Elemental‘s fourth weekend ending cume at same point in time).
However, not to necessarily quote the Harry Styles song in Project Hail Mary, the lingering impact of Covid remains a sign of the times at the B.O.: Not everybody is back, evident in how hard it is for counterprogramming to bust out during a non-holiday period: Read, New Line/Nocturna’s They Will Kill You –technically the first big collaboration in the road to merger between David Ellison’s Skydance (they have a stake in Nocturna) and WarnerBros– isn’t wowing with a $5M to $5.5M opening after a $2.2M Friday/previews. Back in 2019, weekend 13 minted $137.3M per Box Office Mojo comprised of an underperforming Disney’s Dumbo at No. 1 with $45.9M, the second weekend of Jordan Peele’s Us ($33M) and the fourth weekend of Marvel Studio’s Captain Marvel with $20.6M — a very robust weekend in the tail end of spring break).
More in a bit…
UPDATED, Friday PM: There is a path to a bigger universe this weekend for Amazon MGM Studios’ Lord & Miller-directed and -produced Project Hail Mary, which is cruising to a second Friday of $12.9 million at 4,077 theaters on its way to a $46.8M second weekend, off 42% from its first frame.
That’s better than the second frame of Dune: Part Two, and it gets the Ryan Gosling movie to a 10-day of $156.5M. Dune: Part Two‘s 10-day was $157.2M, and that was franchise IP. Remember, Project Hail Mary keeps all the PLFs and Imax screens. Don’t be surprised if the pic produced by Amy Pascal and Gosling hits $50M in weekend 2.
Second for the frame goes to Disney/Pixar’s Hoppers at 3,650 screens; it is seeing a $2.6M fourth Friday for a $10M weekend, -44%, and a running cume of $136.3M.
Third is the Bollywood hit Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge at 987 sites, with a second Friday of $1.4M and a second weekend around $5M, off 50%, for a running 10-day cume of $23M.
Fourth goes to New Line’s Zazie Beetz genre movie They Will Kill You at 2,778 screens with a $2.4M Friday and a $5M-$6M opening. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score is pretty good currently at 83%, though not as high as Ready or Not 2: Here I Come‘s 90%.
Fifth goes to Universal’s Reminders of Him at 3,174 locations with a third Friday of $1.4M and third weekend of $4.2M, -48%, and a running cume of $40.5M.
Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2 at 3,010 theaters is looking at a second Friday of $1.2M and second weekend around $4M, -56%, with a 10-day of $16.2M. The first chapter in pre-Covid August 2019 had a better hold in its second frame (granted, it was August) with $5.9M, -26%.
PREVIOUSLY, Friday AM: New Line/Nocturna’s They Will Kill You banked $1 million in previews from both Thursday 3 p.m. showtimes and Monday Mystery screenings. That’s a number that’s just under that of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come‘s $1.2M last Thursday, which went on to file a three-day total of $9M.
They Will Kill You, a Z$20M production starring Zazie Beetz and co-financed between New Line and the Skydance-owned Nocturna, is expected to a post a similar opening.
RelishMix is measuring the social media universe for They Will Kill You, which launched as the closing night film out of SXSW on March 17, at 183M, which is +18% above first installment horror genre norms across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram combined. However, that figure is below the SMU reach of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come before opening at 294M. The leading social media stars for the feature are Tom Felton at 26.7M fans, Patricia Arquette now activated to 1.1M, Beetz at 827k and Heather Graham at 748k. Critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are at 72% fresh, a few digits below Ready or Not 2‘s 75%. No audience score yet. The Kirill Sokolov directed and co-written genre movie is in play overseas in 65 territories, including France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Spain and the UK at 7,000 screens.
Amazon MGM Studio’s Project Hail Mary ends its first week at 4,007 theaters with $109.7M after a $6.1M Thursday, off 10% from Wednesday. The hope is that weekend 2 will emulate Dune: Part Two, which was down 44% with around $45M.
Again, there’s a little bit of spring break still in effect which is good for business, with 16% K-12 schools today and 12% of colleges off according to Comscore.
The rest of the week:
2. Hoppers (Disney) 3,675 theaters, Wk $23.9M (-46%), Total $126.3M/Wk 3
3. Dhurandhar The Revenge 987 theaters, Wk $14.1M, Total $18M/Wk 1
4. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (Sea) 3,010 theaters, Wk $12.2M/Wk 1
5. Reminders of Him (Uni) 3,441 theaters, $11.2M (-55%), Total $36.3M/Wk 2
We’ll have more updates later.
