'The Woman King' is a Hit with Audiences
by EG
This weekend wasn't quite as quiet in theaters as industry experts had expected. That's because the historical drama The Woman King sold many more tickets than was predicted. Last week's low-budget horror release Barbarian also held on fairly well to take second place and make the weekend not quite as grim for theaters as had been predicted. Read on for details.
Via Box Office Mojo.
Though the box office slump continues, it looks like the worst is over. The weekend’s $48.5 million overall box office is the fourth worst of the year, but it's around a 13% increase from last weekend’s $42.3 million, which was the year’s second worst weekend and may turn out to be the season’s weakest. This weekend is the first in September to perform better than the same weekend last year, which had an MCU title at the head of the month with little else to follow, and the buzz on Don't Worry Darling suggests that next weekend should see more growth. Of course, these low overall numbers are still bleak (keep in mind no pre-pandemic weekend dropped below $60 million since 2001), and the numbers will remain ugly until Halloween Ends opens in four weekends from now, but after seven of the past ten weekends declining, any improvement is a decent sign.
If there’s one title to celebrate this past month, it’s Sony’s The Woman King. The Viola Davis-starring, Gina Prince-Bythewood-directed, West Africa set historical epic opened in first place with an above-expectations $19 million. More important than the overperforming opening, though, is its A+ CinemaScore, making The Woman King just the second film of the year to receive the top grade from audiences (the other was Top Gun: Maverick, and we all know how that went). We can expect strong legs from here (more than four times the opening is common for the rare film that receives the A+), and suddenly the $50 million budget on the film (which was co-financed with eOne) looks much more recoupable.
Critics agree with audiences that The Woman King is a winner (it’s at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes), and its status may get a further boost when awards season comes around. The film opened in 3,765 theaters, and audiences felt this was one to see on the biggest screen around as 34% of its gross came from IMAX and other premium large format (PLF) screens. We’ll have to wait to find out how it performs internationally, but so far it’s off to a strong start.
More good news this weekend comes from the critically acclaimed (93% Tomatometer) horror film Barbarian, which had a strong hold in its second weekend, declining just 40% to come in second place with $6.3 million and a cume of $20.9 million. The numbers may not look spectacular, but given the 20th Century/Disney film’s $10.5 million budget, this tale of an Airbnb booking gone wrong could become one of the season’s biggest successes.
Third place is a close call, but it looks like it will go to Ti West’s X spinoff/prequel Pearl, which debuts with $3.12 million million from 2,935 screens. Not quite the $4.28 million opening of X, but still another nice number for A24 given what is likely a miniscule budget film (the budget isn’t known, but X cost only $1 million and Pearl was filmed secretly immediately after). It’s almost certain that Pearl, which stars Mia Goth and tells the origin story of the villain from X, will finish below X’s $11.8 million cume, but it could still hit the double digits, and its B- CinemaScore is not bad for a horror film. The third film in the X-verse, MaXXXine, is already in the works.
Get the rest of the story at Box Office Mojo.