2018 At The Boxoffice (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

I saw Tag on Thursday night, and while the theater was pretty empty, I enjoyed the movie far more than I expected. Basically, I only saw it because I have MoviePass and really felt like going to the movies and didn't care what I saw, but I ended up really liking it. It's not the greatest movie ever but I found it to be far more enjoyable than the trailer suggested.

I saw Ocean's Eight on Friday. I went in wanting to love it, but found myself bored more often than not. But for a Friday afternoon showing (in a theater that had showtimes each hour) I was surprised that it was as full as it was. It looks like that might hang on a little longer than summer movies usually do.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I included the top 11 because somehow A Wrinkle in Time managed a 1,643% increase from last week. I have no idea how that happened.

My guess is families going to the movies to see Incredibles 2, only to discover it was sold out. A Wrinkle in Time is the other Disney big-budget family movie in theaters right now. Given what a box office disappointment it was, it's kind of amazing that it's managed to slowly crawl over the $100 million mark. With foreign box office and home video, it might eventually break even for Disney.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the actuals for Incredibles 2 come in a couple million higher than the estimates.

 

[Tino]

Top 11 per Box Office Mojo:
TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week #
1 N Incredibles 2 BV $180,000,000 - 4,410 - $40,816 $180,000,000 - 1
2 1 Ocean's 8 WB $19,555,000 -53.0% 4,145 - $4,718 $79,175,170 $70 2
3 N Tag WB $14,600,000 - 3,382 - $4,317 $14,600,000 $28 1
4 2 Solo: A Star Wars Story BV $9,081,000 -42.3% 3,182 -1,153 $2,854 $192,845,087 - 4
5 3 Deadpool 2 Fox $8,800,000 -37.8% 3,212 -611 $2,740 $294,680,808 $110 5
6 4 Hereditary A24 $7,026,000 -48.2% 2,998 +34 $2,344 $27,187,120 - 2
7 N Superfly Col. $6,300,000 - 2,220 - $2,838 $8,441,317 $16 1
8 5 Avengers: Infinity War BV $5,296,000 -26.8% 2,164 -718 $2,447 $664,199,950 - 8
9 6 Adrift STX $2,100,000 -60.2% 1,929 -1,086 $1,089 $26,805,145 $35 3
10 7 Book Club Par. $1,850,000 -56.8% 1,656 -1,146 $1,117 $62,000,093 - 5
11 30 A Wrinkle in Time BV $1,772,000 +1,643.0% 245 +88 $7,233 $100,000,127 - 15


I included the top 11 because somehow A Wrinkle in Time managed a 1,643% increase from last week. I have no idea how that happened.

Wrinkled added 88 theaters. That’s the only thing I could think of. It is strange tho. I don’t think spillage could amount to that much.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Wrinkled added 88 theaters. That’s the only thing I could think of. It is strange tho.

Yes, Disney re-expanded it slightly specifically to goose it over $100 million, which happened. But it's been out for so long now that the majority of the money it made this weekend is going to the theaters, not Disney.

And they've still got to goose Black Panther over $700m for bragging rights. It's crawling there, slowly, but isn't there yet.

 

[Malcolm R]

I call shenanigans. I don't see any way increasing theater count by about 50% would increase total grosses by over 16x, especially since the film is already out on home video.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I call shenanigans.

Well, if you want to go all conspiracy theorist about it, It's theoretically possible that Disney shaved a little bit off the top of Incredibles and/or Infinity War this weekend and added it to the Wrinkle total to get it over $100m. There's almost no way people would actually know if they did that. But they shouldn't really need to do that, since Incredibles 2 (and Infinity War passing Titanic) gave them plenty to celebrate this weekend anyway.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well they didn't spin it quite enough, as the actual figures for the weekend have dropped Wrinkle back below $100m.

 

[Jake Lipson]

the actual figures for the weekend have dropped Wrinkle back below $100m.

That's funny. They'll probably keep it in dollar theaters until they can march it over the mark.

I wonder milestone will come first, Wrinkle at $100 or Black Panther at $700.

 

[Wayne_j]

It is only $94,000 dollars behind, it will probably make it.

 

[Brandon Conway]

From my friend who owns some theaters in Texas, including one drive-in:

"Disney was offering a 5% discount on Incredibles 2 to any Drive in that played Wrinkle with Incredibles 2, so I’m guessing that’s where the juice came from."

So, basically, those double feature sales are split 50/50 between Incredibles 2 and Wrinkle in Time, even though I bet 95% of those screenings played to very low attendance once Incredibles 2 ended as the first half of the double feature.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Screen Junkies addressed the Wrinkle in Time situation in their weekly charting video starting at about the 19:00 mark. As usual, there is some really good analysis in here for the entire box office.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Looks like there is a limited event double feature opening night. How does that work for the box office for the first Ant-Man? Do they split the take evenly between both films?

I think that if they do this with Infinity War and Avengers 4 next year (and they split the take between both) that could possibly get it past The Force Awakens. It’s probably going to finish about 20-30 million behind the world wide total of TFA, so that might not be enough. Guess it depends on where IW actually finishes. It’s late legs are pretty good.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Looks like there is a limited event double feature opening night. How does that work for the box office for the first Ant-Man? Do they split the take evenly between both films?

No. Ant-Man's box office total is closed. Usually, when they do these double features, they just roll the entire ticket price into the Thursday preview gross for the new film. Deadpool did the same thing last month. If they do the same thing for Infinity War and Avenger 4, it will all count towards Avengers 4.

 

[Sean Bryan]

No. Ant-Man's box office total is closed. Usually, when they do these double features, they just roll the entire ticket price into the Thursday preview gross for the new film. Deadpool did the same thing last month. If they do the same thing for Infinity War and Avenger 4, it will all count towards Avengers 4.

That’s weird. So rereleases like the ones Titanic and Avatar had get added to their Boxoffice but double features with a sequel do not? Guess that’s good for the sequel, but kinda unfair to the original.

It would be nice if they did a separate rerelease of Inifinity War then, but I’m not sure I see that happening because I don’t think there is a great time for it. I guess they could do it sometime in the Winter, but they wouldn’t want to do it in April since that would probably eat into Captain Marvel’s box office. Don’t know if something like that is even something Disney would care to do either way.

 

[Jake Lipson]

That’s weird. So rereleases like the ones Titanic and Avatar had get added to their Boxoffice but double features with a sequel do not? Guess that’s good for the sequel, but kinda unfair to the original.

The difference is that re-releases like Titanic and Avatar are extended re-releases in and of themselves that are just for themselves. The double features are a one-time thing that exist only to promote and drive fans to the preview screenings of the new film.

If they were going to have the original Ant-Man in theaters for an extended period of time and have several double feature showtimes over another full release period, then they MIGHT reopen tracking for it. If it were going to get another regular release on its own, then they definitely would. But that's not what this is. It's a one-night one-screening event for the hardcore fans only.

The bottom line is Disney doesn't care about adding more money to Ant-Man's gross from three years ago. They've already made their money on that one. Now it's all about pushing the sequel.

 

[Tino]

Weekend estimates. Boxoffice mojo.

1 N Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Uni. $150,001,000 - 4,475 - $33,520 $150,001,000 $170 1
2 1 Incredibles 2 BV $80,928,000 -55.7% 4,410 - $18,351 $350,374,690 - 2
3 2 Ocean's 8 WB $11,650,000 -38.6% 3,656 -489 $3,187 $100,385,760 $70 3
4 3 Tag WB $8,200,000 -45.1% 3,382 - $2,425 $30,367,545 $28 2
5 5 Deadpool 2 Fox $5,250,000 -39.5% 2,420 -792 $2,169 $304,150,321 $110 6
6 4 Solo: A Star Wars Story BV $4,045,000 -59.6% 2,338 -844 $1,730 $202,176,870 - 5
7 7 Hereditary A24 $3,809,000 -44.4% 2,002 -996 $1,903 $35,000,966 - 3
8 6 Superfly Col. $3,350,000 -51.2% 2,220 - $1,509 $15,266,395 $16 2
9 8 Avengers: Infinity War BV $2,482,000 -54.4% 1,456 -708 $1,705 $669,466,449 - 9
10 15 Won't You Be My Neighbor? Focus $1,875,000 +87.0% 348 +252 $5,388

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

That's the best second weekend for an animated movie of all time.

Solo continues to plunge like a rock.

A Wrinkle in Time made it over the $100 million mark, even if the weekend actuals plunge drastically from the estimates.

Still a quarter of a million to go for Black Panther to make it to $700 million. This upcoming week is the last week of school for a lot of schools in the Northeast. It'll be interesting to see if the weekday grosses edge up once the kids are out of school. My guess is that Black Panther will be playing on less than a hundred screens by next weekend. I wouldn't be shocked if Disney has a "see it one last time in theaters" promotional push to get it over the hump.

 

[Tino]

A Wrinkle In Time is the first film directed by a black woman to gross over $100 million domestically at the boxoffice. Makes sense Disney kept it in theaters to achieve that goal.

While I have no desire to see it I applaud that accomplishment.

 

[Tino]

Incredibles 2 has a good shot at $500 million domestic.

 

[Malcolm R]

There were several milestones this weekend. Oceans 8 reached $100 million, Solo reached $200 million, Deadpool 2 reached $300 million ... and Lobster Cop reached $35,000.