Jericho Wilson’s Post

SATURDAY AM: Despite “Marchmellow” weather in the Northeast and a B+ CinemaScore, Sony‘s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is expected to still reach an opening between $42M-$44M this weekend after a $16M Friday. PLFs and some of the Imax are accounting for 36% of box right now. Frozen Empire, which cost more than Ghostbusters: Afterlife, $100M to $75M before P&A, is co-financed by TSG. By the way, that B+ CinemaScore is the same grade as the all female 2016 Ghostbusters. This should be a wakeup call for Sony on the goody goody family nature tone of this franchise and its longevity moving forward. More on that later. There are heavy rains along the Atlantic Coast from Washington D.C. up through Vermont with flood watches in effect, however, no significant cinema closures are expected. Mckenna Grace makes a face at baby Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man. Sony Overall the box office with $97.6M is expected to be off -17% from the same weekend a year ago as that’s when Lionsgate’s roared with John Wick: Chapter 4, which posted the highest opening in the franchise with $73.8M and led the marketplace to $116.6M. Updated PostTrak exits from ComScore and Screen Engine are 80% positive on the Gil Kenan directed sequel with a 64% definite recommend. Grades are lower among kids versus Afterlife at 89% postive and a 57% must see right away. Male leaning of course at 55% with 46% of the crowd between 25-44 years old with another 30% of the audience 13-24 years old and the largest quad a tie between 18-24 and 25-34 years old at 23%. Diversity demos are 48% Caucasian, 27% Latino and Hispanic, 12% Black, 8% Asian and 5% Native American. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is playing best in the South, South Central and Midwest. Top grossing cinema in the nation so far is AMC Disney Springs in Orlando FL with over $50K. NEON’s Sydney Sweeney nun horror movie, Immaculate, did $2M yesterday for what’s shaping up to be a $5M opening in fourth place. CinemaScore is a C which is par for a horror movie (they get B and C CinemaScores). PostTrak is significantly lower at 52% positive and a 30% definite recommend. Euphoria crowd is coming out at 52% female with 75% of the audience between 18-34. Largest demo is 25-34 at 39%. Diversity demos were 44% Caucasian, 30% Latino and Hispanic, 11% Black, 10% Asian, and 5% Native American/other. Best markets are the East, South Central and West with the AMC Burbank the pic’s top grossing cinema stateside at $15,3K. Elevation has Canada. The movie, which was fully financed by Black Bear, and a passion project of Sweeney’s, cost under $10M. It’s a P&A deal for NEON. The release model for this horror movie is very similar to what Blumhouse use to execute with its microbudget BH Tilt movies. IFC’s has the other specialty horror fil

For The Atlantic, Shirley Li with a great article about the summer movie season. 'Until these perceptions change, though, this summer will appear to be a strange one, an anomalous dip caused by months of low earnings that haven’t encouraged general audiences to head to theaters on a regular basis. In the meantime, the industry is trying to manipulate so many variables—which actors could become box-office draws, which franchises aren’t experiencing fatigue, which projects should stream rather than play in theaters, which dates might be most appealing for release—but no individual movie will cure Hollywood’s box-office blues. Instead, Dergarabedian Comscore, Inc. said, “Stability is key … Every piece of this puzzle relies on the other.” The moviegoing experience itself needs to be routinely appealing to be lucrative—and a meme-worthy popcorn bucket or film-title portmanteau will only stoke interest for so long. Ironically, Dergarabedian noted, the underperforming films will help next year’s headlines: “2025 is going to look really strong,” he said. “Let’s talk a year from today, and I will be saying very different things.” https://lnkd.in/gZgNmjS7

To succeed in this business, you have to provide what audiences *want to see* in theaters. In a post Covid-19 & post Hollywood strikes landscape especially, now is not the time to take box office gambles. "Content is king", and the studios should double down on this focus to continue the theatrical recovery we have been observing. #BoxOffice #Studios #Forecasts #Movies #BusinessIntelligence #MovieTheaters

MARTIN GROVE'S HOLLYWOOD REPORT FOR 10/27/24: VENOM 3 turned out to be boxoffice poison.   Hollywood buzz-ards expected VENOM: THE LAST DANCE to waltz off with $65M and pump some life into the seriously anemic October boxoffice. Instead, they got a sickly $51M domestic opening that doesn't come close to VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE's $90M Pandemic kick-off 10/1/21. V2 delivered $506.8M in global boxoffice candy.    Coming on the heels of JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX's boxoffice implosion, V3 is another reminder that it's time to retire Hollywood's passion for mega-budget franchises. It may take original IP to persuade audiences to get off their comfy couches and commit time & money to the multiplexes. Of course, original IP is what originally built the movie business.   The Sony/Marvel PG-13 sci-fi action adventure threequel, which reportedly cost $120M to produce, opened at 4,131 theatres ($12,346), per Comscore. It also debuted internationally to $124M, a stronger showing that gives it a better looking worldwide cume of $175M.   V3 is tracking best for first choice equally well with men under & over 25 men (14 points over norm each). Rotten Tomatoes critics hate it at 36% while audiences are just okay at 79%.   This weekend's domestic marketplace totaled $91.9M, per Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian, up 31% from the prior weekend and down 28% vs. this time last year. Comscore's year to date tally has 2024 at $6.76B, down 11.4% from $7.63B in 2023. The previous weekend, 2024 was down 11% vs. 2023.   Meanwhile, back at the multiplexes: Paramount/Temple Hill Entertainment's SMILE 2 slid one slot to #2 with $9.2M (-59%) in weekend two at 3,624 theatres ($2,594). S2, which reportedly cost $28M, has done $40.7M domestic.   Focus Features' PG Vatican set thriller CONCLAVE opened #3 (tied with THE WILD ROBOT) to $6.5M at 1,753 theatres ($3,708), per Comscore. Directed by Edward Berger (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT), it's tracking for first choice below norm with all demo groups. Rotten Tomatoes critics are applauding at 92% while audiences are good at 82%.   Universal/Dreamworks Animation's family audience hit THE WILD ROBOT was #3 in weekend five (TIED WITH CONCLAVE) with $6.5M (-36%) at 3,427 theatres ($1,897). WILD's done $111.4M domestic and $232.3M worldwide.   Next weekend (11/1): The  only wide studio opening is Sony/ Miramax's PG-13 drama HERE at about 2,500 theatres. Directed by Robert Zemeckis (FORREST GUMP), it stars Tom Hanks & Robin Wright. It's tracking for first choice below norm with all demo groups. Rotten Tomatoes critics are a deadly 21%.   Also arriving, but in what's reportedly a strangely micro-sized limited release, is WB/Malpaso Productions' PG-13 thriller JUROR #2, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Nicholas Hoult. No Rotten Tomatoes scores yet.   (See more at www.ZAMM.com)   #movies #boxoffice #martingrove #venom      

Lots of great movies coming out this summer, but this is going to be THE movie of the summer!! Let's talk about your ad running onscreen in front of all of them! #mediabuying #mediaplanning #Mediaadagency #solarmarketing #utilitiesmarketing

How moving from value-chain to value-network thinking can revitalize the movie theater industry: The value-chain for experiencing movies in theatres is linear. 1. Studios produce movies. 2. Distributors markets and distributes them. 3. Exhibition deliver the content (wrapped with value-add to produce a cinematic experience). 4. Audiences experiences this in a theater. A lot of effort (and money) has gone and is going into creating a loyalty relationship between step 3 and 4. Which is natural, movie theatres "own" the audience relationship. However, that's true in "data" but not necessarily in practice or emotion. The modern day movie theater experience stands on the foundation of building and compounding attention to IP franchises. All but one of the top 10 box office successes are franchises (Titanic). If we break down loyalty on this basis; it's actually composed of two components: 1. Loyalty to the physical place (my local theater where I have memories) 2. Loyalty to content (eg. I'm a Marvel fan) Loyalty at the first level is movie-independent. Loyalty at the second level is theater-independent. To add to this; in a transmedia world, fans are engaging with content across different formats and channels. Example: I just to a new city. I could be a massive fan of Disney (via theater visits in my prev city, via online engagement and streaming history). But, to my new cinema I'm a "nobody". The industry needs to break out of the linear thinking of the past, and adopt (in mindset and technology) a networked approach to audience relationship building, rewards and personalization. This allows us to keep up with changing times, new audience behaviours, and probably unlock new value for all network participants along the way. Question is, can it be done in practice? 

The plethora of sequels, prequels and remakes has many moviegoers wondering if Hollywood has any ideas anymore. 2025 won't be changing anyone's minds with wore than half of top studios movies based on existing IP to drive ticket sales. Different cover, same franchise...leading up the summer, the movie box office was sweating over whether the season would be a bust. It wasn't until Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2” came in and not kept the lights on, but generated enough to buy new ones. This was followed Universal’s “Despicable Me 4″ and “Kung Fu Panda 4", which essentially saved the box office. And of the bunch, you'll notice one thing - they're all sequels. Of the top 20 highest-grossing domestic releases of 2024, only two original content: Paramount’s “IF” and Neon’s “Longlegs.” The rest are predominately sequels to major blockbuster features, new and old, or tied to a popular book (Sony’s “It Ends With Us”), television show (Universal’s “The Fall Guy”) or based on a popular historical figure (Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love”). Nostalgia and familiarity sell. There's nothing wrong with sequels, prequels and remakes. In fact, these types of movies in the past have been notoriously bad in terms of scripts and production. Jaws 2, Tron: Legacy, Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, Teen Wolf 2 - anything with a 2 in the title or beyond generally were pretty awful. These days, however, studios are increasingly banking on the art of the redux with flashy marketing campaigns, and hopefully, better content. So, get ready for more. On the other hand, the better viewing experience for moviegoers may be from non-franchise releases. And, who knows, they may even have their own eventual sequel if they do well https://cnb.cx/3TWMr6i #movies #hollywood #entertainment #paramount #universal #sony #disney #lionsgate #warnerbros

"Memorial Day weekend has usually been a reliable time for unveiling a new installment in a popular film franchise, sometimes to the tune of more than $100 million at the box office,” Shirley Li writes. But “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” earned just $32 million over 2024’s holiday break, while the weekend’s other major release, “The Garfield Movie,” cracked only $31 million. Excepting 2020, when the pandemic kept theaters closed, these numbers added up to the lowest Memorial Day domestic box office in nearly three decades. https://lnkd.in/eD7fzKCY “The summer of 2024 was always going to be a rough year for theaters,” Li writes. Due to the writers’ and actors’ strike in 2023, many releases were pushed back, meaning the end of that year lacked a blockbuster. “Fewer people going to theaters has meant fewer people seeing trailers, which has meant fewer people thinking of moviegoing as a must-do activity,” Li explains. But for Hollywood, this likely will be a cold—not a terminal illness. “I don’t think it’s going to be great, but I think it’s going to be okay,” Thaddeus Bouchard, the president of the box-office-analysis outlet Screendollars, told Li. Audiences are notably interested in upcoming projects such as “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” and the industry tends to have a very short-term memory, explained Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at the data-tracking company Comscore. “I’ve seen enough outliers,” he told Li. But this Memorial Day struggle shows that it has become difficult “to not only rebuild but maintain the general public’s interest in moviegoing,” Li writes. “‘Barbenheimer’ may have drawn audiences to theaters, but it certainly hasn’t kept them returning week after week … What Hollywood needs is a consistent stream of juggernauts—projects that are undeniably worth the entry price.” This is not simple, Li continues at the link in our bio, because “no individual movie will cure Hollywood’s box-office blues.” 📸:Millennium Images / Gallery Stock

Greetings! Universal and Illumination’s DESPICABLE ME 4 was the top movie in theatres this weekend, having earned $75M over the past 3 days and $122.6M in the 5 days since it opened last Wednesday. This was a solid start for the sixth movie in the DESPICABLE ME/MINIONS franchise, which has grossed an amazing $4.7B worldwide since it began with DESPICABLE ME in 2010. The series is one of the most profitable movie franchises in Hollywood history, following Illumination’s enviable formula for creating movies that produce high box office grosses on modest production budgets. After three weeks at #1, Disney and Pixar’s INSIDE OUT 2 dropped into second place with $30M. With a 24-day total of $534M in the U.S. and Canada, it has become the top movie of 2024 and is on pace to pass INCREDIBLES 2 as the highest earning animated movie of all time. Check out Dick Walsh’s Weekend Review for more details on this weekend’s results. You will also want to read our Third Quarter 2024 Box Office Preview to go deeper into the upcoming slate, including our forecast of box office results. In this week’s Don’t Kill the Messenger podcast, host Kevin Goetz completes his two-episode interview with Hollywood’s iconic actress Sharon Stone, discussing her rise to stardom, her approach to acting and producing, and lessons she has learned along the way.   #despicableme4 #illuminationentertainment #illumination #universalstudios #insideout2 #pixar #disney #sharonstone #kevingoetz #dontkillthemessenger #boxoffice #boxofficepreview #screendollars

Scream 7: Shocking Secrets Revealed – Uncover Everything Now! - CineRecap.com Article Link - https://lnkd.in/dYJKARiq “ Another familiar face from the franchise who might be back for Scream 7 is Patrick Dempsey, who played Sidney’s love interest Mark Kincaid in Scream 3. Dempsey has expressed interest in returning to the series, saying, “I’m always up for returning to a franchise that means so much to me and the fans. It […] #MovieReviews #WebSeriesAnalysis #StreamingInsights #FilmCritique #EntertainmentNews #StorytellingReviews #OTTContent #BingeWatchGuides #CinemaTrends #FilmAnalysis #StreamingPlatforms #CinematicExperience #MovieRecommendations #SeriesRecap #FilmLovers #StreamingUpdates #MovieInsights #OTTNews #CineCritique #BingeWorthyContent #FilmReviews #OTTUpdates #MovieTrends #StreamingRecommendations #CinematicWorld #FilmDiscussion #SeriesReviews #CinephileCommunity #EntertainmentGuides #MovieExploration