Taylor Swift Trounces Martin Scorsese

Despite losing two-thirds of its audience from last weekend, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour easily won the box office race this weekend, effortlessly outpacing Killers of the Flower Moon, the three-hour-plus drama from 80-year-old director Martin Scorsese. Scorsese's $23-million take is being pitched as a victory, though, because it was expected that audience interest in his movie would be minimal. Scorsese's films are always more about critical praise than popular appeal. That's why he was allowed to spend $200 million making 'Killers' when the movie is virtually guaranteed to lose a lot of money. Read on for details.

Via Variety.

Martin Scorsese‘s star-studded crime epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” impressed in its box office debut, collecting $23 million from 3,628 North American theaters over the weekend. The film also brought in $21 million from 63 international territories for a global total of $44 million.

Despite its second-place finish, it’s easily the best start for Scorsese since 2010’s “Shutter Island” ($41 million debut) and the third-best of his career following 2006’s “The Departed” ($26.9 million debut). And “Killers of the Flower Moon” managed to make a splash even though its stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, haven’t been able to promote the film amid the ongoing actors strike.

Even with its daunting three-and-a-half-hour runtime, the R-rated “Killers of the Flower Moon” has been embraced by moviegoers (landing an “A-” CinemaScore) and critics (92% on Rotten Tomatoes), which is a good sign for the remainder of its theatrical run. Adapted from David Grann’s 2017 novel and co-starring Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons, the story takes place amid the “Reign of Terror,” a period that refers to the mysterious murders that took place after major oil deposits were discovered on the Osage nation’s land in the early 1920s. Inaugural crowds, as expected, skewed older but plenty of younger ticket buyers turned out with 44% under the age of 30.

The $200 million-budgeted movie represents a bold big-screen bet for Apple, which — until now — prioritized streaming over theatrical. This marks the widest release ever for a movie backed by a streaming service. It’s unclear when the film will land on Apple TV+, but it won’t be for at least 45 days.

“Reviews and audience scores are superb. And Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are strong draws overseas,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Between word-of-mouth, press coverage and eventual awards nominations, the picture is set up for a strong run now.”

For most studios, a debut in the low $20 million range would be disappointing for such an expensive endeavor. And given the price tag, “Killers of the Flower Moon” certainly needs to do big business to be profitable; though Scorsese’s movies tend to have significant box office staying power. But analysts have been more generous in reading the box office tea leaves because streaming services, like Apple, have different metrics of success compared to traditional theatrical players. They don’t place as much emphasis on box office, instead viewing ticket sales as a way to bolster the film’s profile before it lands on streaming. Others point out a movie like this may not exist without Apple to foot the bill. Paramount Pictures, which distributed “Killers of the Flower Moon,” was originally going to finance the film as well but brought in Apple to fund the project after production costs soared to $200 million.

Apple is testing the model again with two other high-profile movies, Ridley Scott’s historical drama “Napoleon” on Nov. 22 (distributed by Sony Pictures) and Matthew Vaughn’s spy thriller “Argylle” on Feb. 2 (distributed by Universal). Based on the performance of these movies, box office analysts believe this could open a lane for newer players in the exhibition space.

“The production and distribution of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is breaking new ground,” Gross says. “If ‘flexibility’ is the new mantra of the theatrical movie business, then this is a significant success.”

Regardless of the healthy start of “Flower Moon,” it was no match for Taylor Swift‘s “The Eras Tour,” which remained in first place with $31 million from 3,855 venues. It’s the only concert film in history to repeat No. 1 for two consecutive weekends, and it’s the first to reach $100 million at the domestic box office. After only five days of showtimes, the AMC Theatres-distributed film has generated $131 million to date. Although ticket sales dropped by a sizable 66% from its debut, “The Eras Tour” is already a massive commercial winner. It was self-produced by Swift, cost around $15 million, and required a smaller marketing spend than the average blockbuster of this scale.

Get the rest of the story at Variety.