Before Chris Pratt picked up his Walkman and called himself Star-Lord in the MCU, he played Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation and learned valuable lessons about endings that have helped him deal with the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy coming to a close.
Speaking during a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 press junket, Nathan Fillion asked Pratt what it was like on the last day on set because, as we've all been told, this will be the end of a journey that began in 2014. He also wondered if they expected him to get up and give a big speech to honor this moment.
"I don't know if they wanted me to, but they weren't gonna stop me. I guess -- you know, the thing that you want to avoid is regret, right? One day looking back and thinking 'ugh, why did I just let that go by without trying to enjoy every moment? Why didn't I savor that?' And I knew that going into it," Pratt said. "So I'll never have that thought in my head that, 'Man, I just wasn't present to it.' I was present, and it still felt like a whirlwind and for the most part, you know, the feelings that I was sort of writing down in the back of my mind about the experience were -- they sound trite -- but it was just gratitude and just being grateful to James.
"I wanted to be the guy who reminded everyone how far we've come and all the things that we've overcome. So I read, like, a few reviews from people who had said that the Guardians was gonna be the first big flop. I was like, 'here's what this guy said and this guy said and this guy said. Don't know how those ended up in my notes for the past nine years!'"
As Pratt continued, he discussed how Parks and Recreation, which aired from 2009 to 2015 on NBC, prepared him for what was to come.
"But it was just important to me to -- I knew how important it was to me to be present in that moment and I also knew, because I have had the experience of being part of things that have come and gone," Pratt said. "I remember on Parks & Rec, it felt that after seven years, on TV shows that I've done, it was like the last day of school before summer, and you're not gonna be coming back to school together. It's that summer camp vibe of, 'am I ever gonna see these people again?' It's an emotional feeling and having gone through that, it was important that I A) be present, but also, that I coerce other people into being present as well. So that was sort of a responsibility that I felt like I had, just checking in with everybody."
Pratt is set to star in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which will be released in theaters on May 5, 2023. In our review, we said, "The Guardians of the Galaxy deliver their swan song in Vol. 3 and it’s a rockin’ good time. Rocket's tragic origins, great action and effects, and James Gunn's soulful style send them out on an emotional high note."
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Now in its fourth weekend of release, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is still dominating the competition on domestic charts, fending off theatrical newcomers “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Sisu” and “Big George Foreman.”
The adaptation of Judy Blume’s best-selling 1970 novel is faring the best among new releases. Opening in 3,343 locations, the coming-of-age film earned $2.25 million on Friday, a figure that includes roughly $600,000 in Thursday previews. That may be enough for the Lionsgate release to project a third place finish for the weekend, but it’s ultimately an underwhelming result for a crowdpleaser based on a literary mainstay that carries a $30 million production budget.
That’s not to say support isn’t there for “Margaret.” The film has earned glowing reviews, landing a 98% approval rating from top critics on aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences are also a big thumbs-up, as research firm Cinema Score drew an “A” grade after surveying the first round of ticket buyers.
Lionsgate will look to make the most of that word-of-mouth, as “Margaret” continues to play through the upcoming Mother’s Day weekend. Beyond theatrical, the distributor can hope that the coming-of-age tale finds a shelf life as enduring as its source material’s.
Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” stars Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates. As in the original book, the film follows sixth-grader Margaret Simon, who finds herself suddenly transplanted to the suburbs of New Jersey while wrestling with puberty and her religious identity.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is still towering over its competitors. The animated adventure is putting up yet another impressive hold, projecting a slim 37% drop from its previous outing for a hearty $37.5 million weekend gross. Already the highest-grossing release of 2023 so far, the film will almost certainly cross the $1 billion mark at the global box office this weekend. It’ll be the fourth title to notch that achievement since the onset of the global COVID pandemic, following in the footsteps of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
“Evil Dead Rise” looks to take silver after grossing $3.6 million on Friday, down 65% from its opening day last week. The nutty horror sequel looks to expand its total domestic gross to $43 million this weekend. It’s a rewarding run for the film, which carries a $19 million production budget and was initially slated to debut exclusively on HBO Max. But Warner Bros. shifted to a theatrical rollout and now looks to be rewarded in substantial ticket sales.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” continues to show staying power, looking to stick at fourth place on domestic charts. The Keanu Reeves action epic drew $1.2 million on Friday, down only 21% from a week ago. Total domestic gross should surpass $175 million through the weekend. With $373 globally, the “John Wick” entry is the third-highest grossing release of the year, behind “Super Mario Bros.” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
It’s clear that it’s somewhat of a quiet weekend at the box office when a film from 1983 is ranking in the top five. Disney is re-releasing “Return of the Jedi” this weekend to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the “Star Wars” trilogy capper. Playing in 475 theaters, the classic earned $1.75 million on Friday.
Also dropping stateside this weekend, the Indian epic “Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two” looks to land in the top 10 on domestic charts, projecting a haul around $3 million to $4 million. “Part One” opened to $4 million when it debuted last fall.
“Sisu,” a quirky Finnish action film being opened by Lionsgate, drew $1.4 million on Friday from 1,006 locations. The distributor fashioned a targeted marketing campaign and has looked to make a buzzy title among genre audiences after acquiring the title out of the Toronto International Film Festival.
The newly released George Foreman biopic, fully titled “Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World,” will likely open outside of the top 10. Distributed by Sony’s Affirm Films banner, the title is projecting a $2.8 million debut.
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Judy Blume’s groundbreaking novel about puberty — and so much more — finally gets the adaptation it deserves.
It is 1970 and the almost-12-year-old Margaret Simon returns from summer camp to boxes strewn about her family’s jammed New York City apartment. Why? Because she and her parents are moving to New Jersey, her grandmother blurts out before her folks can ease their only child into the news. And so begins the yearlong adventure at the heart of this pitch-perfect adaptation of the author Judy Blume’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
The director-writer Kelly Fremon Craig’s rendering of the book about puberty, family and nascent spirituality offers lessons in how a cherished object, when treated with tender and thoughtful regard, needn’t turn precious. It doesn’t hurt that Craig and the producer James L. Brooks assembled a cast that delivers the joys and blunders waiting at the edge of childhood but also touches on the pangs of other kinds of growing up. Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie portray Margaret’s youthful parents, Barbara and Herb. Kathy Bates is Margaret’s paternal grandmother, Sylvia, of the aforementioned blurt.
But it is Abby Ryder Fortson who carries the day, or rather the school year. In her face, Margaret’s glimmers of dawning self-awareness and hurt ring true. From the moment the soon-to-be sixth grader utters the movie’s first prayer — which ends with the entreaty, “Please don’t let New Jersey be too horrible” — Fortson’s Margaret proves to be a protagonist who is as incidentally funny as she is authentic.
Margaret’s ability to register hope and skepticism gets only more endearing when she opens the door to her Mockingbird Lane neighbor and new classmate, Nancy Wheeler (Elle Graham). In short order, Nancy invites Margaret over to her house and into her secret club. At the Wheeler home, Margaret also meets a friend of Nancy’s brother: the 14-year-old Moose (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong), who stays on the periphery of the action, representing ever so gently the ickiness but also the allure of boys.
Filling out their gang of four are the open-faced and openhearted Janie Loomis (Amari Price) and the wavy-haired, bespectacled Gretchen Potter (Katherine Kupferer). Together they will compare notes on boys they like, chant a famous mammary mantra, peek at a Playboy and peruse an anatomy book’s illustration of male genitals. But most of all, they’ll mildly obsess over (and maybe even fib about) which one of them will be the first to menstruate.
Not horrible at all, the movie’s Farbrook, N.J., has a halcyon glaze. As in the book, published in 1970, the issues challenging the United States at the time lie beyond the story’s frame. (Though it’s fun thinking of Blume’s novel as the little sister of another iconic book from the same year: the women’s health manual “Our Bodies, Ourselves.”) If the era’s edges are softened, it’s to make way for something differently roiling — as the narrator of a sex-education film will intone later in the movie, “our changing bodies.”
With subtlety, Craig breaks from the novel’s sweet-natured, first-person narration and transforms it into an overall aura. “Are You There God” becomes a coming-of-age saga for three generations of Simon women. McAdams makes quietly clear Barbara Simon isn’t entirely comfortable in her role as suburban mom. Bates’s Sylvia will be nudged to expand her own horizons after Margaret, her little best friend, moves.
Craig also broadens the novel’s reach. Margaret’s teacher, Mr. Benedict, is Black. (So is Janie Loomis.) Echo Kellum is understatedly winning as the new but sensitive sixth-grade teacher who picks up on Margaret’s response to a questionnaire — “I hate religious holidays” — and turns it into a yearlong assignment. Puberty provides most of the movie’s outright and tender comedy. But its depths are captured in Margaret’s seeking, in the notion that her No. 1 interlocutor might be a God she’s not even sure exists.
If Barbara handles her daughter’s request for a bra with respectful if amused aplomb, she’s thrown by Margaret’s plan to go to “temple” with Sylvia. (Herb’s even-tempered response: “You know what got me off of temple? Going to temple.”) Barbara and Herb are nonreligious. In the novel, Margaret already knows the reasons for her mom’s estrangement from her own parents: They are Christian. Herb is Jewish. Never the twain shall marry. The writer-director has taken that back story and cast it into a mother-and-daughter revelation and one of the film’s most commanding scenes.
That puberty and a nascent spiritual quest might begin in earnest at approximately the same time turns out to be one of the movie’s (and its source’s) most radical charms.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Rated PG-13 for themes involving sexual education and some suggestive material. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters.
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The "Mother" singer is ready to reveal the sex of her second child with husband Daryl Sabara—it's a boy! During the April 25 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the couple enlisted the help of their son Riley to share the news as host Kelly Clarkson gushed, "I love that Riley did it!"
The pair announced the news with a heartwarming video of their sex reveal at home with friends and loved ones, including TikToker Chris Olsen, who was seen cheering in a pink hoodie.
Meghan, 29, previously shared on her Workin' On It podcast that she has scheduled her baby's arrival on the anniversary of meeting Daryl. "Isn't that cute?" she said. "It timed up."
Back in 2021, she welcomed Riley via cesarean section, and he was quickly taken neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to treat his respiratory issues, while she remained on the operating table. Meghan recalled in her new book Dear Future Mama that she felt helpless and traumatized not being able to be near her son after his arrival.
"I was alone, without Daryl or Riley, and I wasn't sure if my baby could even breathe," she said, per an excerpt published by People. "Would he be okay? Would Daryl be okay, up there on his own with this crisis? The drugs and the stress made it seem like everything was happening in slow motion."
After her procedure was over, she was able to FaceTime Daryl and Riley. "I cried when I saw all the tubes and cords connected to him. He felt so far away," Meghan wrote. "But I was also distracted by his beauty and by the fact that he was a real person out in the world. I couldn't wait to hold him, rock him, nurse him, kiss him."
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She's hoping her book, out April 25, will be a guide for other expecting mothers going through a similar experience.
"Being pregnant for the first time was super lonely, confusing and I wish I had a bestie to go through it with," she shared on Instagram April 13. "So if you're pregnant, planning to be pregnant, or have a pregnant bestie or partner, let me be your bestie and hold your hand through it all."
(E! and The Kelly Clarkson Show are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted at the Lakers-Grizzlies playoff game Monday night in a rare public appearance.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were captured smiling and laughing on the Jumbotron at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena as fans cheered, according to photos and videos posted to Twitter.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were captured smiling and laughing on the Jumbotron.
Footage of the appearance shows the royal couple on the Jumbotron at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena.Twitter, @ArchewellBaby
Footage shows Prince Harry and Meghan Markle turn and look at one another while Markle giggles.Twitter, @ArchewellBaby
Harry appears to possibly go in for a kiss, but is stopped by his beaming wife, who puts a hand around his upper arm. He then turns and grimaces at the camera in a joking manner, the short clip shows.
The couple have lived in California since March 2020 and sat in one of the stadium’s suites to cheer on the Lakers as the team battled the Memphis Grizzlies in game 4 of the first-round playoff series.
The pair delighted basketball fans with their rare public outing a day after Markle made a surprise appearance in a video message introducing her photographer friend Misan Harriman’s TED Talk.
Meghan was seen fixing Harry’s hair.Getty ImagesFootage shows Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies game at Crypto.com Arena on April 24, 2023.Getty Images
Next week, Harry is expected to attend his father’s coronation ceremony solo — as Markle plans to stay behind in California with their children to celebrate son Archie’s fourth birthday the same day.
Amid the family’s ongoing estrangement, the duke will sit 10 rows behind the rest of the royals and make a prompt exit following the May 6 coronation of King Charles, according to a royal associate.
Several other celebrities were spotted sitting courtside at Monday night’s game. Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Adam Sandler, Dyan Cannon, Timothy Olyphant, Si and more cheered from the sidelines, according to photos.
Meghan Markle takes her seat at the start of the game at the Crypto.com Arena on Monday night.Prince Harry & Meghan react during play.Harry & Meghan cheer during the game.
"I knew her history with teachers, and I knew my husband's history with his teachers, and I was bullied by some teachers," the 29-year-old continued. "So, in that moment, I got angry and said ‘f teachers.' F those specific human beings back in the day, but I did not mean that to all teachers."
Meghan added, "I love teachers, I fight for teachers. I think they have the hardest job and they are the most underpaid. They are the most unappreciated when they literally raise all of us. I don't want to make excuses, and I'm just so sorry."
POCOPSON TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Pennsylvania State Police have issued an arrest warrant for professional skateboarder and former "Jackass" star Brandon "Bam" Margera.
According to police, troopers responded to the 400 block of Hickory Hill Road in Pocopson Township, Chester County at about 11 a.m. Sunday for a reported disturbance.
Brandon "Bam" Margera.
Police said Margera was involved in a physical confrontation with the victim, who suffered minor injuries.
Margera ran into a wooded area before police arrived and has not yet been located.
An arrest warrant has since been issued.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 610-268-2022.
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The box office continues to heat up as the summer season approaches.
Illumination and Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie remained a monster at the multiplex in its third weekend as it crossed the $400 million mark domestically and $800 million globally to finish Sunday with a remarkable cume of $871.8 million.
It easily won the weekend race in North America with an estimated $58.2 million from 4,350 theaters for a domestic cume of $434.3 million through Sunday. Overseas, it earned another estimated $70.7 million for a foreign total of $437.5 million.
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Super Mario continues to make history. The pic supplanted Jurassic World ($46.4 million) to rank as Universal’s biggest third weekend in history. It was also the seventh-biggest third weekend among any film at the domestic box office after surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home ($56 million), and the biggest for an animated title, not adjusted for inflation.
Other new records: Mario is now the highest-grossing animated film in Universal history at the domestic box office after besting Minions: The Rise of Gru ($369.7 million) and the third-highest of any Universal movie behind Jurassic World and E.T. The Extraterrestrial, unadjusted.
The movie adaptation of the Nintendo video game is playing more like an all-audience blockbuster than an animated tentpole thanks to its multi-generational appeal and will become the first movie of 2023 to join the billion-dollar club.
Coming in a strong No. 2 at the domestic box office was Warner Bros.’ new supernatural offering Evil Dead Rise, the fifth installment in the cult series created by Sam Raimi. The movie opened to an estimated $23.5 million from 3,402 theaters, ahead of expectations and on par with the likes of recent horror hit Cocaine Bear. Overseas, it scared up $16.8 million from 58 markets for a global start of $40.3 million. Mexico led with $1.9 million, followed by the U.K. with $1.9 million.
Directed and written by Lee Cronin, the pic has been embraced by critics and earned a B CinemaScore from audiences (that’s a good grade for the horror genre). Males made up 58 percent of all ticket buyers, while the vast majority of the audience, or 67 percent, was between the ages of 18 and 34.
Evil Dead Rise stars Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as sisters in a twisted familial tale of demonic possession. Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols and Nell Fisher co-star.
The movie was initially intended to go straight to HBOMax, but Warners switched course as part of its overall focus on theatrical, a mandate handed down when Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav took office.
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant also opened this weekend. Distributed by MGM, the military action thriller came in No. 3 with an estimated $6.3 million plus from 2,611 theaters on Friday. The well-reviewed film earned an A CinemaScore and drew in older consumers (27 percent of ticket buyers were 55 and older).
The Covenant stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a U.S. Army sergeant who goes back to Afghanistan to rescue his former interpreter, played by Dar Salim, from the clutches of the Taliban.
Lionsgate’s holdover John Wick: Chapter 4 placed No. 4 with an estimated $5.8 million from 2,685 locations for a domestic tally approaching $170 million.
Matt Damon and Viola Davis in ‘Air.’ Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Amazon and Ben Affleck’s adult-skewing biographical drama Air rounded out the top five with $5.6 million for a domestic tally of $41.3 million.
The big headline at the specialty box office is Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, which expanded nationwide after scoring a stellar start last weekend in four theaters. The mind-bending film, starring Joaquin Phoenix, came in No. 9 with an estimated $2.7 million from 965 locations for a domestic cume of $3.1 million.
Elsewhere, specialty distributor Searchlight decided to open Stephen Williams’ Chevalier nationwide from the get-go. The period drama stars Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the famed French nobleman, violinist and conductor who was of mixed race.
Chevalier placed No. 11 in its debut with a projected $1.5 million from 1,275 theaters.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges in ‘Chevalier.’ Courtesy of TIFF
Among specialty holdovers, the Picturehouse and National Geographic Documentary Films’ Wild Life conservation documentary continued to draw interest in its third weekend. The film earned $44,614 from 14 theaters for an early cume of $112,227 and enjoyed the third-largest weekend of the year at the Angelika in New York.
Wild Life has also done well at the Angelika Pop-Up in Washington, D.C., and boasts the second-highest gross of the year so far at Landmark’s Opera Plaza in San Francisco.
From Oscar-winning filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo), Wild Life chronicles the work of conservationists Kris and Doug Tompkins.
‘Wild Life.’ National Geographic
April 23, 7:20 a.m.: Updated with revised estimates. April 23, 10 a.m.: Updated with additional estimates.
This story was originally published on April 22 at 7:44 a.m.
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WRITETHRU SUNDAY AM UPDATE after Saturday AM update: Illumination/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie stayed on course with its third weekend estimate notching an $58.2M, which is the best third weekend for an animated movie ever, beating the $46.4M earned by Pixar/Disney’s The Incredibles 2 during June 29-July 1, 2018 which was a pre-Independence Day weekend.
As we told you, the Nintendo pic crossed the $400 million mark stateside yesterday in its 18th day, the second-fastest animated pic to that point after The Incredibles 2, which hit the four-century mark in 15 days. By EOD Super Mario Bros Movie will be the third highest-grossing Universal title of all time at the domestic box office with $434.3M, behind 2015’s Jurassic World ($653.4M) and the lifetime total of 1982’s E.T. The Extraterrestrial ($437.1M).
Some distribution sources thought Super Mario would take a slightly harder hit due to softer midweek numbers as kids returned to school after spring break. That’s so not the case.
Evil Dead Rise per Warner Bros this morning did $10.3M Friday, another $8.2M yesterday, -21%, for a fantastic $23.5M. That’s up there with recent pandemic genre hit starts, i.e. Cocaine Bear ($23.3M), Smile ($22.6M) and The Black Phone ($23.6M). That’s fantastic, and I’m hearing the negative pick-up cost for the film was $19M. Even if the movie goes down tonight, and the three-day total winds up to be $20M (which right now is not expected), CinemaCon will still be patting the Burbank, CA studio on the back after pivoting this intended HBO Max title to the big screen. Bravo, Warner Bros. CinemaScore is a B — higher than the C+ which the 2013 Evil Dead remake did. PostTrak is at 3 stars, 71% positive and 57% recommend.
“The filmmakers made a scary movie and the Warner Bros marketing team nailed it with evil moms,” beamed the studio’s domestic distribution boss Jeff Goldstein this AM.
On these horror movies, you have to find a hook, and something that resonates and that’s creepy — the masked guy in The Black Phone or wicked smiling people in Smile. Here it’s the evil mom. And that trailer where she’s trapped in the elevator, which was put out on social, I’ve never seen anything like that.
The R-rated franchise title pulled in 58% guys, 66% between 18-34, with the largest demo being 25-34 at 36%. Strong Latino and Hispanic turnout which is standard for horror movies at 35%, with Caucasians at 33%, 16% Black, and 16% Asian/other. The West, but also hearing the South, were the strongest for the movie executive produced by Sam Raimi, with Burbank AMC the best of the bunch with $50,000 so far. PLF screens are driving 16% of Evil Dead Rise’s Friday gross.
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenantfrom MGM via STX landed an A CinemaScore for what’s was a $2.2M Friday and $6.28M three-day total in third place. PostTrak audiences also liked the Jake Gyllenhaal title at 92% positive, 77% recommend. Guys at 60% showed up, 45% between 18-34 years old, with the largest quad being 25-34 years old at 27%.The mix was 44% Caucasian, 30% Hispanic and Latino, 10% Black and 15% Asian/other. The movie excelled where it was expected: South Central, but also the West was solid with AMC Ontario Mills close to $8K.
All films this weekend are eyeing $123.6M, +32% from a year ago. It’s also +13% from 2019 ($109.1M), which was Easter weekend, when New Line opened The Curse of La Llorona, to $26.3M.
While we know tentpoles can thrive in the post-pandemic marketplace, how are arthouse titles doing? Still wobbly, and again, it boils down to product, and whether that appeals or excites audience. Auteur Ari Aster, who created a fervent following in his genre movies Hereditary and Midsommar, has a more dramatic title in the 3-hour Beau Is Afraid. While its rhymes with the tone of his previous movies, it’s solely about a man’s pain, the deconstruction and redemption of it. If you’re an Aster fan, you’ll likely love it, but for mom and dad, and your older sister, it’s a movie that divides — evident in its 68% Rotten Tomatoes critics score and 71% fresh from audiences.
The movie’s expansion by A24 from four NYC and LA theaters to 965 was all right for a movie of that size, landed a $2.7M second weekend per the distributor or $2,8K per theater. That’s slightly better than the expansion of Searchlight’s The Banshees of Inisherin back in the fall from 58 theaters to 895, the pic at that latter threshold pulling in $2M (after its Oscar momentum, Banshees ended its run at $10.5M). Hence, there’s some hope there at the arthouse. However, if you drill down into Beau‘s numbers, we hear there’s a core group of theaters that are driving the action, but the wider one gets down the list, the grosses peter out. Hopeful is the key word here.
There’s some headlines out there that Beau Is Afraid will lose money off its $35M production cost. But so are a number of other auteur driven pics during the pandemic — and even those before that. That just comes with the territory when you’re doing business with an artist, and a distributor has to hope they have something else on the calendar to offset the losses. Who do auteurs make movies for? Not necessarily the greater AMC moviegoing audience. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, at a cost of $40M before P&A, and a global box office just north of $33M, also lost money — but it brought a pulse to arthouses during a downbeat time. Furthermore, you’d be surprised what actually makes money after all the waterfalls. I’ve heard through multiple sources that Focus Features’ Robert Eggers’ viking epic The Northman from last April, which was co-financed with New Regency at $70M, cleaned up on PVOD in the new Universal 17-day theatrical window/Peacock-Amazon Prime downstream model after only making $69.6M WW. I’m told it was only a few single digits millions lost. BTW at $35M, Beau Is Afraid carries a production cost that’s on par with the multi-Oscar winning hit Everything Everywhere All at Once— which netted a $32M profit.
Searchlight’s Chevalier, despite having better reviews at 82% certified fresh and Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96%, isn’t wowing with a $1.5M start as of Sunday morning in the No. 11 spot from 1,275 theaters. Part of the problem might be is that the pic looks like Bridgerton in its period execution, and well, fans of that aren’t venturing out en masse to see it. However, there are some as the pic’s core audience were 58% women, 51% over 45, with the over-55 set showing up at 34%. Diversity demos were 41% Caucasian, 38% Black, 8% Latino and Hispanic and 13% Asian/other. Halfway decent runs I hear in NYC, L.A., Houston and Austin, but soft ticket sales across the board.
Sunday reported studio numbers below. Jill Goldsmith will have arthouse highlights.
1) Super Mario Bros Movie (Uni) 4,350 theaters (-21), Fri $14M (-38%), Sat $25.9M Sun $18.1M 3-day $58.2M (-37%), Total $434.3M/Wk 3
2) Evil Dead Rise (NL) 3,402 theaters Fri $10.3M, Sat $8.2M Sun $4.9M 3-day $23.5M/Wk 1
3) Guy Ritchie’s Covenant (MGM) 2,611 theaters Fri $2.2M, Sat $2.3M Sun $1.65M 3-day $6.28M/Wk 1
4) John Wick: Chapter 4 (LG) 2,685 (-348) theaters Fri $1.57M (-25%), 3-day $5.75M (-29%), Total $168.8M/Wk 5
5) Air (AMZ) 2,823 theaters (-684) Fri $1.47M (-32%) Sat $2.4M Sun $1.68M 3-day $5.5M (-39%), Total $41.3M/Wk 3
6) Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Par) 2,960 (-364) theaters, Fri $1.39M (-29%), Sat $2.4M Sun $1.61M 3-day $5.4M (-30%), Total $82.1M/Wk 4
How is this eOne co-production doing? Again, the hope was that D&D would be the start of another franchise. As we told, it was just another niche cult franchise that got a big polish ala Lionsgate’s Power Rangers in spring 2017, which opened solid at $40.3M off a $100M production, but collapsed thereafter. Right now, D&D is pacing 2% ahead of Power Rangers in its fourth weekend, that latter title finaling at $85.3M. At that level, Power Ranges didn’t spur an immediate feature sequel.
7) Pope’s Exorcist (Sony) 3,178 theaters, Fri $1M (-71%) Sat $1.39M Sun $925K 3-day $3.3M (-63%)/Total $14.9M/Wk 2
8) Renfield (Uni) 3,378 (+3) theaters, Fri $910K (-68%), Sat $1.37M, Sun $820K 3-day $3.1M (-61%), Total $13.6M/Wk 2
9) Beau Is Afraid (A24) 965 (+961)theaters, Fri $1.13M (+701%), Sat $898K Sun $678K 3-day $2.7M (+744%), PTA $2,8K Total $3.1M/Wk 2
10) Suzume (Sony/Crunch) Fri $450K (-79%), Sat $670K Sun $505K 3-day $1.62M (-68%), Total $8.4M/Wk 2
11) Chevalier (Sea) 1,275 theaters, Fri $540K, Sat $570K Sun $390K 3-day $1.5M,/Wk 1
UPDATE FRIDAY MIDDAY: Illumination/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, of course, remains a huge reason to go to the movies in its third sesh, which is looking at $13.5M today (-40% from a week ago), and a third weekend of $56M at 4,350 theaters, -39%, sending the Nintendo movie to $432.1M by Sunday. Big theater average over $12K here.
And despite two horror movies going at it last weekend, Universal’s Renfield and Screen Gems’ The Pope’s Exorcist, which both filed in the high single digits, the arrival of a third this weekend is proving reason for horror fans to go out as they’re spending $9M+ today (including Thursday night’s $2.5M previews) and between $18M-$22M over three days for the Sam Raimi-executive produced Evil Dead Rise. Rivals see the pic’s three-day higher, but like all horror films, it comes down to Saturday night as business typically is frontloaded for such fare.
Social Media experts RelishMix report that Evil Dead Rise has a social media universe across Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube of 191.5M, comping to Halloween, which was 189M ($76.2M opening in 2018), The Black Phone at 135M ($23.6M, 2021) and Halloween Ends at 136M ($40M opening last year). The hottest metrics are on YouTube, with a huge viral reposting rate of 48:1 off five videos with 98.2M views.
Says RelishMix: “Convo is woven with positive anticipation for the film as fans trust the Evil Dead franchise and believe the 2023 remake will be a high-quality horror film since the franchise is regarded as the ‘only horror franchise without a bad movie.’ The trailer is praised for its creepy and terrifying imagery, teasing the potential twists and jump scares. Many consider ‘Mommy’s with the maggots now’ to be an iconic horror movie line, and references to other horror comps like The Shining are also appreciated by viewers — plus appreciation for the expansion of the franchise, ‘I still own the special 6.1 edition of the original. This looks fantastic.'”
FRIDAY AM: New Line and Warner Bros’ Evil Dead Rise freaked out $2.5M last night from previews that began at 7PM at 3,000 locations.
The R-rated horror movie from Irish director Lee Cronin and executive produced by Sam Raimi is eyeing a start between $15M-$20M+ as Illumination/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie (read the reivew) swats any newcomers away from No. 1 with $46M-$55M. It’ll take the Guardians of the Galaxy gang with their threequel to do that on May 5. Super Mario Bros easily won Thursday with $4.9M, +2% from Wednesday for a second week of $115.3M for a running total of $376.1M.
The 2013 Evil Dead remake from Fede Alvarez earned $1.9M in 10 p.m. Thursday previews before charting an $11.9M Friday and $25.8M opening. Exhibition is confident that this latest installment of the Raimi-created franchise can deliver after great reviews out of its SXSW, now at 88% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and 86% on its audience meter.
Here’s how Evil Dead Rise stacks up to recent notable R-rated horror previews post-pandemic: Blumhouse/Universal’s Black Phone did $3M, and Paramount’s Smile grossed $2M before respective opening weekends of $23.6M and $22.6M. Genre comedy CocaineBear also saw $2M in previews before a $23M domestic start.
Other movies opening this weekend include Searchlight’s Chevalier, which will do in the single digits at 1,275 theaters (read the reivew). The period drama is 82% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. A24’s Beau Is Afraid is jumping from four theaters in NYC and LA to 926 (read the reivew). MGM has Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant at 2,611 theaters and is spotting around $6M (read the reivew). The Jake Gyllenhaal pic is 82% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Article From & Read More ( ‘Super Mario Bros’ Has Best Third Weekend For Animated Pic With $58M+; ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Still Alive With $23M+ – Sunday Box Office Update - Deadline )
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