Nicolas Pesce’s reboot of Sony’s R-rated The Grudge drew $1.8M at 2,393 locations last night that began at 7PM. Industry estimates believe this will put the Sam Raimi production somewhere in the teens for the weekend, but Sony is forecasting $9M. Grudge‘s Thursday is off from the studio’s Escape Room last year, but that was PG-13 with showtimes starting at 4PM for a $2.3M preview night. Escape Room overperformed its $10M-$14M expectations with a $18.2M opening for a No. 2 debut.
The bad news here for Grudge is that PostTrak exits were atrocious with a 1/2 star. Keep in mind, fans are typically the ones to show up first. This could potentially impact Grudge projections, putting them exactly where Sony sees them. Males over 25 at 30% were last night’s biggest crowd for The Grudge, followed by men under 25 (27%), females under 25 (25%) and then women over 25 (18%). Don’t Breathe, another R-rated Screen Gems movie like Grudge, posted $1.875M but that was off great reviews (88% certified fresh) and opened to $26.4M. Grudge reviews at 17% rotten are just a bit better than the horrible reviews that Paramount’s reboot of The Ring, 2017’s Rings, earned at 8%. Grudge reportedly cost $10M before P&A.
Disney’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has posted its first single day digit gross in its 14th day of release with $9.2M, -46% from yesterday for a two-week total of $417M, now -10% behind Last Jedi. The ninth-quel is expected to pull in a third weekend in the $40Ms for another No. 1 win.
The last two weeks of the year are traditionally lucrative for the theatrical and exhibition business, and this year for all movies, since Skywalker opened on Dec. 20, we’re looking at $863.9M through yesterday. That’s 14% ahead of the same two-week period a year ago in 2018 (Dec. 21-Jan. 3) but it’s -17% compared to the banner holiday year, 2015, when Force Awakens led all titles to $1.04 billion for Dec. 18-31 period.
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