'Drive-Away Dolls' Bombs at Weekend Box Office
by EG
Ethan Coen's dark comedy Drive-Away Dolls didn't resonate with moviegoers over the weekend. The movie faced very little competition from new releases, and it still barely made the top five this week. Madame Web, the latest superhero flop, also struggled, leaving last week's top movie, the music bio pic Bob Marley: One Love, to stay on top of the box-office charts for one more week. Read on for details.
Hollywood’s latest music biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, continues to jam at the global box office, where it crossed the $100 million mark on Friday, including $61.4 million domestically and $39.7 million overseas after only 10 days in theaters.
The Paramount movie easily stayed atop this weekend’s domestic box office chart with an estimated $13.5 million from 3,597 locations, pushing its domestic tally to $72.2 million. Marley’s star also continues to shine brightly overseas, where it has amassed $49.4 million for global cume of $120.6 million.
One Love first starting making headlines last week, when it snagged a six-day launch of $51.1 million over the Valentine’s Day-Presidents Day corridor, one of the best openings ever for a music biopic (Straight Outta Compton remains top of the list), and remained well ahead of the dismal $26 million debut of Sony’s doomed Madame Web.
Madame Web continues to spin out of control. The female-led superhero pic grossed a mere $5.6 million from from 4,013 theaters in its sophomore outing, possibly only good enough for a fifth-place finish. The news is just as bad overseas, where the film has earned $42 million for a worldwide gross of $87.3 million.
The latest installment in the Japanese anime series, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — to the Hashira Training, from Crunchyroll and Sony, placed No. 2 with an impressive $11.7 million from 1,949 locations.
Ordinary Angels, a faith-based film from Lionsgate starring Hillary Swank, followed with estimated $6.5 million from 3,020 cinemas after earning a coveted A+ CinemaScore from audiences. If that holds, Madame Web will fall to No. 5.
Focus Features and Working Title’s specialty film Drive-Away Dolls, which Ethan Coen of the Coen brothers fame directed on his own from a script he wrote with his wife Tricia Cooke, is also spinning out. The lesbian road-trip comedy — slapped with a C CinemaScore —opened to an estimated $2.4 million from 2,280 locations despite a star-studded cast that includes Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Pedro Pascal and Matt Damon.
Generally speaking, a specialty title — such as a Coen brothers’ movie — has a small footprint to begin with before platforming. Focus and the filmmakers took a different route and decided to open Drive-Away Girls everywhere in hopes of helping exhibitors who have seen a dramatic slowdown in product throughout January and February. Alas, moviegoers don’t appear to be going along for the ride, though it could spark interest on premium VOD.
Ge the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.