Final Sunday AM: In a continuous pandemic market like this, with 57% of all movie theaters still closed, whether you are a distributor or an exhibitor, you should be grateful for any amount of money you can get your hands on. Open Road released Liam Neeson’s second film during the pandemic, The shooter, during the MLK 4-day holiday, and is opening for $ 3.7M. It is the third film by Neeson to reach the first place in Open Road after October Honest thief and its first wide entrance, The grey.
Open Road boss Tom Ortenberg told Deadline this morning: “It is a universal truth that even in a depressed market there is an opportunity. And there are many people who want to go to the cinema. Not everyone wants to go to the cinemas, and the cinemas are not open everywhere. But there are many people looking for broad-based entertainment, as they always have. To like Honest thief the sniper filled a gap in the market. They are midsize distributors like us who managed to fill the void and meet needs. There is a great thirst for products among consumers and the opportunity is there. The competition is light and we can sell and distribute films for less money; our advertising investment goes a long way. “
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Case in point: when Open Road placed an ad for Shooter during the College Football Championship game last Monday, they did not face seven other titles during the show.
Note that the Open Road had fewer cinemas available this time than in mid-October, when it opened Honest thief: 1,975 cinemas to 2,245. Shooter3 days is $ 3.2 million for Honest thiefof $ 4.1 million. Honest thief it ran for 11 weeks and posted a domestic BO of $ 14.1 million, which is average for most launches during these times of depression, with an overall count of $ 28.3 million.
Shooter was fully funded by Raven Capital Management. Raven acquired Open Road Films in 2018.
Shooter, directed by Robert Lorenz, it’s just one of two big releases this month, as Covid continues to keep most movie theaters closed, especially in the box office capitals New York and Los Angeles. The second release is the release of the Warner Bros. date and date police thriller. Small things, starring Denzel Washington and Rami Malek on January 29. There will be more titles in February, probably counting on the beginning of the winter holidays in schools. It is these types of action films with older meat and potatoes that are usually shown in early winter.
Open Road is also doing very well in homes with the launch of not just Neeson’s Honest thief, but your recent documentary The dissident by filmmaker Bryan Fogel. The doc follows Washington Post the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, his fiancee and dissidents around the world who collect the clues to a murder and expose a global cover-up. It is the first documentary in some time to be released entirely in PVOD (most debut in streaming or HBO), and last weekend the title was in 3rd place on iTunes, which is impressive for a doc. The film is 96% new certified on Rotten Tomatoes, and even caught the eye of Hillary Clinton.
If you haven’t seen #TheDissident, Hope so. This incredibly powerful documentary about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of the Saudi government is available to watch now: https://t.co/FMB43ngyoc
– Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 12, 2021
AP
For those who think that streaming has won the battle for filmed entertainment, just look at last year, at this time during pre-pandemic times, when the MLK weekend raised $ 205.3 million at the national box office, much more 25% compared to the 4-day holiday period before thanks to Sony Bad boys for life, who coined 4 days of $ 73M, the second best MLK debut ever after American shooterof $ 107.2 million. This revived the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence police franchise like a phoenix. With the new president of the United States, Joe Biden, looking to deliver 100M Covid-19 vaccines in their first 100 days, exhibition analyst Eric Wold of B. Riley recently exclaimed last week “a return to normal” for big screen theatrical deals.
Universal is reporting the DreamWorks Animation sequel, Croods: a new era, second in 4 days, with $ 2.9M on his 8th weekend. Pic is scheduled for 1,855 cinemas, +37 from a week ago. Even though the domestic gross of the film has been handcuffed by the pandemic with a current domestic revenue of $ 40.1 million to date, what is striking is that during a normal market, when gross profit is anticipated, a film like this would never make that amount of money on his 8th weekend. More than 3 days, Croods 2 done $ 2M. On its 8th weekend, Uni / DWA’s How to train your dragon: a hidden world grossed $ 746,000 in 822 cinemas – and was not on PVOD at that time. For a Thanksgiving release like Croods 2 doing this kind of business now, even though it is available on PVOD, just shows that people want to go back to the cinema. In all world Croods 2 is at $ 134.8 million.
Warner Bros. ‘ Wonder Woman 1984, according to sources, it is in third place in 4 days with $ 2.7 million. Warners reported $ 2.6M for the 3-day period, it fell by only 13% due to holiday traffic. The DC sequel directed by Patty Jenkins, who will be on HBO Max until January 24, is in $ 35.8 million household through DOE. Worldwide is in $ 141.7 million. Last weekend, sources told us that some cinemas closed in the United States and therefore did not pay their bill to Warners for WW1984. Warners told us that they are charging their rents very well, thank you very much, with a quick return from your exhibition partners. Note, if an exhibitor is open in this current environment and it skips payment in WW1984, it will be very difficult for them to book any other Warners title in the future; that is, if they are keeping the lights on. Some smaller exhibitors (not belonging to the network) tell us that their terms for HBO Max theatrical releases are about 55% in their favor, against 45% for Warner. End of the game here in the United States for WW1984 is in the middle of $ 40 million.
Open road
Although critics are tired of Neeson’s action shots, with Shooter earning 33% on Rotten Tomatoes for Honest thiefof 40%, Comscore / Screen Engine audience outputs gave 73% positivity with 46% recommendation, I heard. Boys increased by 57%, and those over 25 years of age by 72%. The more than 45 crowded represented 33% of the participants in general. The distribution of diversity was 50% Caucasian, 23% Hispanic, 17% African American and 10% Asian / other.
Shooter The best market was the South, which has been the main box office sector in the country for cinema. The main markets, I heard, were Dallas, Washington DC, Houston, Phoenix, Tampa, Denver, Miami, Cleveland, Orlando, Indianapolis, Nashville, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Las Vegas.
Top ten cinemas for Shooter it was Cinemark Pharr in Phar, TX; Paramount Drive-in in Los Angeles, Estrella Falls 16 in Goodyear, AZ; AMC Dine-In Disney Springs 24 in Orlando; Solano Twin Drive-in in Concord, CA; Sacramento 6 Drive-In; Century 16 in Corpus Christi, TX; Cinemark 24 in Salt Lake City; AMC Tysons Corner in DC; and Cinemark Majestic in Boise, ID.
As I was told, the Open Road campaign to Shooter aimed at Neeson’s trusted target audience of boys over 35 (51% of the total). The plot and key cast (Juan Pablo Raba, who plays the film’s villain and has many followers) allowed Open Road to target Hispanic audiences, especially in Texas, where cinemas remained open and performing well. The film’s biggest box office on Friday was a cinema near the border in Harlingen, TX, which is probably the first time this location ranks first at the national box office. Neeson appeared on programs like Despierta America at Univision and Un Nuevo Dia in Telemundo. He also appeared in James Corden and Today.
In paid media, Open Road bought national TV, including advertisements on the College Football Championship Game, NFC Wild Card Game and several advertisements on the WWE Friday Night SmackDown to foster mass awareness. In digital, the distribution segmented the markets where cinemas were open. Open Road was also able to redirect the fan base that cultivated Honest thief in October, which grew during the title’s launch in home entertainment. Open Road teamed up with Mike Polydoros’ Paper Airplane in various marketing programs directly with exhibitors, focusing on cinemas where Honest thief overindexed, as well as regions where Hispanic audiences were dominant.
By social media analytics firm RelishMix, Shooter had a presence on social networks similar to Honest thiefis back in October, with 8 million views for eight videos posted, most driven on Facebook. The YouTube trailer and a TV commercial that were dropped in the past five weeks were reaching 7 million views with a moderate 9: 1 viral ratio.
RelishMix noticed in social media conversations by Shooter coming to the weekend: “Most of the conversation is positive for Neeson fans, who have clear expectations for the topic with ongoing references added to other action thriller pieces Where the weak have no place + Logan + Rambo: last blood = The shooter. And although the tone of the topics is positive, the discussion also questions whether the film will be on HBO Max, Netflix, Apple + or another mess in the day / day or what the window will be. “
Top 10 chart:
1.) The shooter (Open) 1,975 cinemas / 3 days: $ 3.2 million/ 4 days: $ 3.7M/ Wk 1
two.) Croods: a new era (Uni) 1,855 cinemas (+37), 3 days: $ 2M (+ 13%) / 4 days: $ 2.9M/ Total: $ 40.1M / Sem. 8
3.) Wonder Woman 1984 (WB) 2,201 cinemas (-17) /$ 2.6M (-13%) / 4 days: US $ 2.7 million est./ Total: $ 35.9M / Sem. 4
4.) World News (Uni) 1,953 cinemas (-33), 3 days: $ 1.05M (-15%) / 4 days: $ 1.27M/ Total: $ 8.7M / Sem. 4
5.) Monster hunter (Sony) 1,694 cinemas (-71), 3 days: $ 920K (-16%) 4 days: $ 1.09M/ Total: $ 9.2 million / week 5
6.) Fatale (Lionsgate) 1,175 cinemas (-47), 3 days: $ 530K (-19%) / 4 days: $ 630K/ Total: $ 4.8 million / week 5
7.) Promising young woman (Focus) 1,333 cinemas (-115), 3 days: $ 430K (-24%) / 4 days: $ 518K/ Total: $ 3.4 million / week 4
8.) master (Tamil and Telugu) 130 cinemas / 3 days: $ 206K/ 4 days: $ 251K/ Wk 1
9.) Emperor’s new rhythm (Dis) 744 cinemas, 3 days: $ 169k / 4 days: $ 239K/ Total: $ 89.6 million / wk. 1,049
10.) The war with grandpa (101) 422 cinemas (+37), 3 days: $ 155K (pair) 4 days: $ 200K/ Total: $ 19.2M / Sem. 15