SATURDAY AM UPDATE: With no new wide releases, and New Line’s Mortal Kombat pushed to next weekend, Warner Bros./Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong is still in charge with $2.075M on Friday, -47% from a week ago, at 3,001 theaters and a current running total of $74.9M. The three-day is expected to be $7.1M, -49%, with a new domestic take EOD Sunday near $80M.
GvK will be on HBO Max for another two weeks, and then it’s exclusive to movie theaters for another month. As we mentioned previously, the fourthquel is on PVOD in Canada, given the numbers of cinemas which are closed there.
Even though Godzilla vs. Kong lit the domestic box office on fire over Easter weekend, we’re still in a holding pattern here, waiting for the domestic B.O. to wake up. I mean, New York City is still at 25% capacity. Really, Cuomo, that’s gotta stop.
Also, this week’s news of Arclight/Pacific Theaters shuttering is a huge dent to the L.A. theatrical marketplace. In 2019, L.A. generated over $905M, and that local chain fueled 11% of that number. Seriously, studios can’t live without that money, plus the Hollywood Arclight and Cinerama Dome are launch-point theaters. It’s where an indie film from a budding filmmaker can debut, and ultimately crossover and shine and make a long-term career of it. Conversations with sources this past week believe these theaters will come back, it’s just a matter of who, when and whether it’s Decurion in some shape or form in the end as a minority partner.
Everything out there is pure speculation and not solid, as Arclight/Pacific/Decurion has gone radio silent in their lease negotiations. In regards to those kicking the tires, I can tell you it’s not Alamo (which is contending with bankruptcy), AMC, or Netflix. In regards to Netflix, despite their purchases of the Paris and American Cinematheque, they have no yearnings to own a greater theater and stray beyond their wheelhouse of streaming. But all of this is a gut check to the motion picture industry: If you want to truly mess around with theatrical windows and do audacious things like play day-and-date on streaming, this is what happens. Movie theaters close down, especially as they try to resuscitate themselves after a year of lockdown.
In second place this weekend at the B.O. is Universal’s R-rated Bob Odenkirk action movie Nobody, with a fourth Friday of $720K, -3%, on its way to a great 3-day hold, -2%, with $2.6M and a total by tomorrow of $19.1M.
Sony’s third Friday of The Unholy did an estimated $590K, -16% from a week ago, on 2,057 theaters (+207) for an estimated 3-day in third place of $2.1M, -13%, and a running total of $9.6M.
Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon at 1,945 theaters in weekend 7 did $471K yesterday, -18%, for an anticipated 3-day of $1.69M, -23%, for a total of $37.4M.
Warner Bros. Tom & Jerry looks to rank 5th for the weekend with around $1 million, -17%, and a cume of $42.5M.
In regards to GvK, RelishMix updates that on social media, “The main studio owned trailer of the two videos posted on Youtube for the film has hit 86M views and up 10.5M since opening on March 31st, and has a continuously strong viral reposting rate of 48:1. Fan chatter debates whose team they are on, from Godzilla and flipping over to Kong and back — plus, in ripped videos from the film, fans debate the fight scenes as proof of who truly rules the world.”
Looking ahead to the social media buzz on Mortal Kombat next weekend, as we first told you, the red-band trailer scored a massive 116M views, the second-best for a trailer drop of that type after Warner Bros.’ James Gunn R-rated The Suicide Squad. RelishMix is spotting a lot of heat here on this videogame feature adaptation reboot.
“Intermixed with trailers and clips from previous Mortal Kombat movies, TV series, game play materials, plus picture-in-picture posting over more than 10 years — and views for the top ten videos at 452M on top of the social media universe specific to this film at 141.2M, the general awareness for the brand is exceptional. Activity on the meter is strong for fresh materials, given a shortened runway of six weeks. The film has an added advantage of the momentum of Warners releases in the social quadrangulated cross-promotion across Warner Pictures 54.7M, HBO Max 2.5M, Warner Games 1.1M and New Line Cinema social at 355K feeding the movie’s social network at 328K,” reports the analytics corp.
In regards to chatter, RelishMix adds, “Super fan expectations are high and they’re calling out references to characters and other incarnations of the franchise — and how Godzilla vs. Kong is a good lead-up to Mortal Combat, plus positive chatter about the Snyder cut of Justice League in the HBO Max ecosystem too.”
In regards to the social media star in the cast, that’s Joe Taslim who plays Bi-Han/Sub-zero in the film. He counts 2.2M fans across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
In regards to notable materials on social, RelishMix applauds the fan reaction trailer which dropped on Feb. 25 and is clocking north of 206K views on YouTube.
MORE..