SATURDAY BRA: Sony’s Bullet Train scored $12.6 million on Friday, which the studio says will bring the David Leitch-directed action film to $30 million. Some put it lower, between $27 million and $29 million. But the thing with Sony is that it doesn’t usually get over its skis in its projections.
The CinemaScore is a B+, which, interestingly, is the same as 20th Century Fox’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, one of the comps that circulated before Bullet Train premiered. This 2014 film opened with $36.2 million. PostTraks for the Brad Pitt actioner aren’t bad at 82% positive and 63% recommend. The picture was always going to hit with the over 35 demo and that’s clear here with nearly 40% of the audience. People 18-34 are 58% who I hear will always slow down with this movie and the hope was that there might be more of them – despite the fact that they are the dominant demo. Boys over 25 lead with 37% (81% rate), followed by women over 25 (28%, 83% rate), men under 25 (18%, 77% rate) and women under 25 (16%, 89% rate ).
Bullet Train Sony
Why isn’t the Bullet Train a super train? The pic is a bit of a feathered fish when it comes to action movies: Pitt in what looks like a stylized live-action cartoon. While the action is relentless, gory and fun, one of the problems moviegoers have to overcome is that the film never shuts up. It’s too talky, too much backstory—and not a good Quentin Tarantino story and backstory.
Bullet Train also takes no time to breathe tonally like a Nic Winding Refn genre film. That much was evident in the 20 minutes Sony showed off at the CinemaCon showcase. Pete Hammond of Deadline said that Bullet Train “tries too hard to stay on track”. All that snark said, it’s worth the price of admission on Imax and PDF, and a lot of fun (both formats deliver close to 40% BO through Friday). For Joe Schmo movie buffs, it’s not exactly like Pitt’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which also starred Angelina Jolie and opened to $50.3 million. You can’t blame Sony for having the guts to be original here, and as the new slogan goes in a vaccine-pandemic: better a movie be windowed theatrical and have supporting legs than a day-and-date streaming menu buried. That’s the only way to have peace of mind here, spending $90 million before P&A.
Bullet Train was fast in the West and Southwest, but the top 10 theaters were on the coasts. Diversity demos were 46% Caucasian, 24% Latino and Hispanic, 14% Black, 16% Asian/Other.
RelishMix noticed that there was a mixed positive reaction to the Bullet Train material online before the opening:
“Fans love The Bee Gees’ ‘Staying Alive’ as the soundtrack to the trailer and the fun thriller tone of the film, which they say was shot in a tube on an LED virtual stage at Sony during the pandemic.” Others credit the story as coming from Kotaro Isaka’s novel Maria Bumblebee, and there are references to director Leitch’s credits: John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Hobbs and Shaw. Mentions of “waiting to stream” are few and far between — as the appeal of the popcorn thrill is clear. Some wonder if it looks like Fight Club, but wonder if John Wick will appear.”
RelishMix says the pic’s social awareness is 17% above action genre norms, with a core social media universe of 224.6 million across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. The film’s Instagram activity skyrocketed after Monday’s red carpet premiere in Hollywood, adding 1.1K fans per day, plus a solid stack of 21 YouTube videos, including NBA spots, Father’s Day spots and social mobile verticals spots that would normally only be seen on Facebook and Instagram.
“Easter Sunday” Universal
Universal/DreamWorks Jo Koy comedy Easter Sunday lands where the studio expected it to: $5 million. The film made $2 million on Friday (which includes $500k from Thursday). Audiences aren’t exactly falling out of their seats with laughter, giving the film a B+. PostTraks were lower at 71% positive and 49% recommended. Who came out? Females at 54%, with 51% between 25-44 and 31% over 45. Diversity shows were a great 39% Asian, 27% Caucasian, 16% Latino and Hispanic, and 12% Black and 6% Other.
RelishMix says that for a variety comedy, Easter Sunday tracked according to genre norms on social media with 83.5 million across Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, with activity on the material relatively moderate. However, Coy’s 5 million fans are active on social media, with Jimmy O. Young at 843K and Tia Carrera at 580K. Tiffany Haddish released the trailer on Instagram 13 weeks ago to her 7.4 million followers, who represent 54% of her 13.7 million fans on social media.
A24/Stage 6 movies
A24 has the horror-comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies in six locations in New York and Los Angeles, and it looks to be taking in $246K, which would translate to a $41K per-theater average. If that stays the course, it looks to be the second-best theater opening for a New York/Los Angeles release this year, behind A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once’s $50,000 opening weekend average in theaters. Friday was $94.7K for the comedy starring Pete Davidson. Very solid numbers, we hear, at Lincoln Square in New York, Union Square, Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn and AMC Century City in Los Angeles, the Grove and Burbank. The photo expands to 1,200 seats next weekend.
Forecasts for the weekend through Saturday:
1.) Bullet Train 4,357 Theaters Fri $12.6M 3 Days $30M/Week 1
2.) DC League of Super-Pets 4,332 (+18) Theaters Fri $3.35M (-64%), 3 Days $10.9M (-53%)/Total $44.8M Week 2
3. ) No (Uni) 3,016 (-791) Theaters Fri $2.52M (-57%)/3-Day $8.05M (-57%)/Total $97.5M/Week 3
4.) Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney) 3400 (-250) cinemas, Fri. $2.2M (-41%), 3-Day $7.46M (-43%)/Total $315.8M /Week 5
5.) Minions: Rise of Gru (Uni) 3,188 Theaters (-391), Fri $2.09M (-38%), 3 Days $6.85M (-38%), Total: $334.3M/Week 6
6.) Top Gun: Maverick (Par) 2,760 (-248) theaters, Fri $1.9M (-21%) 3-day $6.6M (-21%), $662M total/Week 11
7.) Where the Crawdads Sings (Sony) 3,164 theaters (-362), Fri $1.66M (-28%), 3 days $5.2M (-31%)/Total $64.1M/Week 4
8.) Easter Sunday (Uni/DW) 3,175 theaters Fri $2M 3 days $5M/Week 1
9.) Elvis (WB) 2,411 (-490) Theaters Fri $1.15M (-34%), 3-Day $3.72M (-35%) Total $136.2M/Week 7
10.) The Black Phone (Uni/Blum) 1,197 (-441) Theaters Fri $440K (-43%) 3-Day $1.4M (-44%)/Total $85.8M/Week 7
LANDMARKS:
Vengeance (Foc/Blum) 1,003 (+5) Theaters Fri $200K (-69%), 3-Day $630K (-64%), Total $3.1M/Wk 2
Bodies Bodies Bodies (A24) 6 Theatres, Fri $94.7K, 3 Days $246K/Week 1
FRIDAY MORNING: Sony’s Bullet Train , starring Brad Pitt, grossed $4.6 million in Thursday previews that began at 3:00 PM at 3,596 locations. The pic is expected to bring in about $30 million this weekend as the last big hit of the summer before a two-and-a-half-month drought without four films.
Interesting to note, though not necessarily a comp as it was a branded IP, is that Bullet Train from director David Leitch had previews that weren’t that far off from what his Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw posted in early August 2019, which was $5.8M.
After Thursday’s late summer, Bullet Train trails The Meg’s Thursday ($4 million, $45.4 million opening) and also last year’s The Suicide Squad with $4.1 million (though the latter title was day-and-date on HBO Max and started from $26.2 million).
Critics are sour on Bullet Train with a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences love it more with an 83% on RT.
Easter Sunday Universal
Universal/Dreamworks Easter Sunday starring Joe Coy saw $500K at 2,400 theaters starting at 5pm yesterday. Thursday’s Easter Sunday preview is around that of Marry Me (even though it was a Peacock day and date), which was $525K, and ahead of August 2019’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, which was $450K. The family comedy is expected to open in mid-single digits this weekend. Critics are not fans of Easter Sunday at 32% Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.
Universal launched the Easter Sunday marketing campaign in March, which featured trailers ahead of Jo Koy’s sold-out Comedy is Funny tour to entice his fans to see the films in theaters. An interactive QR code was displayed on the screens of his stand-up shows, sending them to the film’s Fandango page. Joe Coy also appeared at CinemaCon in late April, leaving exhibitors in stitches and sharing how Steven Spielberg saw universal comedy in the history of stand-up.
The film campaign also included a 30-second spot in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, a spot in seven television premieres including The Bachelorette, Better Call Saul, So You Think You Can Dance, The $100,000 Pyramid and What we do in the shadows. Furthermore, Easter Sunday sponsored an episode of Family feud which pits Joe Coy and his real-life family against Lydia Gaston and her real-life family. High impact digital placements take place on Meta (Facebook/Instagram), TikTok Top Feed along with digital presence on YouTube, Female Lifestyle and Cinephile sites.
There was a partnership in the AAPI community that included a #GoldOpen VIP event that included a screening and Q&A that was part of Gold House’s Meta Gold Talk series. There was also a comedy showcase hosted by Jo Koy spotlighting upcoming AAPI comics and a Rise for Comedy VIP Comedy Night in partnership with Rideback Ranch that featured more than 300 attendees of press, influencers and talent (including Simu Liu, Awkwafina and Lisa Ling). This event featured a panel on Performance in Entertainment moderated by Cathy Lim (Director of Media and Journalism for the McCarthy Foundation), a comedy set featuring Ronnie Chang, Jimmy O. Yang.
WB
Among the regular films, Warner Bros. The DC League of Super Pets led off Thursday and the week with…
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