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Exhibition cries for a supply of films at the box office, but a flood of titles means nothing if there isn’t any marketing money put behind it. Last weekend there were five wide releases going up against Illumination/Universal’s beast Super Mario Bros Movie. Did it even make a difference? Was a proper amount spent to get audiences in seats? Or did the studios cut their losses and only pony up so much to promote them?
However, as far as this weekend goes, enter Warner Bros’ Evil Dead Rise.
A negative pick-up for the studio during Covid, intended for HBO Max, Warners pivoted Evil Dead Rise to a theatrical release after testing this $15M budgeted pic. Following a trailer which received a rock concert reception in CineEurope, Warners committed even more to the theatrical potential of this Sam Raimi executive produced fifth installment with a fresh face cast. Warners is seeing a $15M start. Exhibition and tracking have the pic over $20M in 3,300 locations. Thursday previews in 3,000-plus locations start at 7PM tomorrow. Warners will have Dolby Cinema, PLFs, Drive-ins and 4DX squeezing even more blood for the film. Warners has the world except for UK and France.
Amping that confidence is the recent success of Paramount’s horror movie ,Smile, another streaming pivot to theatrical, which opened to $22.6M and legged out to $105.9M domestic. Also providing good vibes was a SXSW world premiere for Evil Dead Rise which yielded critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes of 95% fresh.
In the Lee Cronin-directed movie, a road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A apartment. The sisters’ reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie’s building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.
Meanwhile, Super Mario Bros will keep the exhibitors’ plumbing full of cash with $46M-$55M, a 40% to 50% ease in weekend 3, as domestic barrels past $400M and global gets closer to $1 billion.
Among other wide entries, there’s MGM’s domestic distribution deal of STX’s Guy Ritchie movie, The Covenant in 2,611 theaters with a shot at $6M. Aimed at the military heartland, the R-rated action thriller follows US Army Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim). After an ambush, Ahmed goes to Herculean lengths to save Kinley’s life. When Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must repay his debt by returning to the war zone to retrieve them before the Taliban hunts them down first. Amazon Prime Video took some overseas territories and post-theatrical streaming rights. It’s a very different kind of Ritchie movie with reviews standing at 79% fresh. If the pic overperforms, it’s because a segment of the American Sniper audience found it.
A24 is expanding their latest from Ari Aster, the trippy drama, Beau Is Afraid (76% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) from four NYC and LA theaters to 962 locations. The movie scored the second best opening theater average post pandemic at $80K last weekend after MGM’s Licorice Pizza which posted $86K back in December 2021.
Searchlight has Stephen Williams’ Chevalier in an estimated 1,200 locations which is expected to be in the low single digits. Pic, which made its world premiere at TIFF, is based on the true story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, who rises to heights in French society as a composer before an ill-fated love affair. Kelvin Harrison, Jr; Lucy Boynton, Samara Weaving, Sian Clifford, Minnie Driver, Thirty seven reviews have Chevalier at 84% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.