April has been so much more fun to talk about than March as far as box office stories go. For four straight weekends, films have been overperforming, and summer movie season begins on Friday (well, technically Thursday).
Once again, our champion is Sinners, but that’s not even the good news going for it. The critically acclaimed vampire period piece dropped only six fucking percent according to studio estimates, which is absolutely insane. With $122 million in the blood bank so far, suddenly this has a healthy shot of reaching $200 million stateside. Last weekend, for whatever reason, talk of the film’s budget (which was anywhere from $90 million-$150 million, depending on the source) dominated the press, but those discussions should be put to a rest now. Sinners is doing leaps and bounds better than anyone would’ve predicted a month ago.
What went right? Non-horror fans are also buying tickets, as well as cinephiles who normally avoid the genre the way the characters in the movie avoid vampires. And speaking of those vampires, they take a very long time to actually show up, but hey, clearly the pacing isn’t negatively impacting people’s good will towards this one in any significant way. Sinners also isn’t nearly as heavy-handed as some social media posts would lead you to believe. It’s an entertaining ride which isn’t particularly gory (at least compared to other stuff out there), making it more accessible to broad audiences.
Our number two movie isn’t The Accountant 2, but a re-release of a blockbuster that came out 20 years ago. That’s right, Revenge of the Sith is our biggest surprise of the week, blowing up expectations with a take of $25 million. And that’s without a conversion to 3-D or any other goodies to bring people back to a film they’ve already watched countless times. Supposedly, Disney intended to keep this playing for only one week, but with these kinds of numbers and May the 4th being on the calendar next weekend, there’s no way they end up keeping that promise. Between this and Sinners, it’s a good time to be evil at the box office.
Moving on, we have The Accountant 2…which also did well! A month ago, everyone would’ve pegged this for an easy number one opening, but that was before the combined forces of Minecraft and Sinners showed their teeth. Still, $24 million for a sequel to a Ben Affleck thriller many might not even remember isn’t too shabby (you also probably didn’t know that the original Accountant legged it out to $86 million). Clearly the Fleck is still able to bring in an audience, and it will be interesting to see how this fares against Thunderbolts* next week.
As for Minecraft, it continues to build on its own success. With $22 million this week, it is now a lock for $400 million before its done in the states and could possibly reach $1 billion worldwide. Never underestimate the power of Steve.
Still, not everything is sunshine and rainbows this weekend. Until Dawn brought in $8 million despite Sony trying to bring awareness to it in the stupidest way possible. Too bad since this film is actually quite fun, with its victims dying brutal deaths over and over and over again. Plus, it’s fast-paced. Once it gets going it really does provide almost non-stop thrills. Doing even worse than Dawn is The Legend of Ochi from A24, a family fantasy flick which the normally hip studio was unable to build any form of buzz. Which is odd considering this fared extremely well with critics. A love letter to Amblin Entertainment-style filmmaking, I never saw so much as a trailer for this, much less a TV commercial. With only $1 million (ouch!), it’s clear people didn’t even know this one existed.
Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline
1.) Sinners (WB) 3,347 (+39) theaters Fri $13M (-32%) Sat $18.8M Sun $13.2M 3-day $45M (-6%), Total $122.5M/Wk 2
3.) Revenge of the Sith (Dis) 2,775 theaters Fri $11.3M Sat $8M Sun $5.9M 3-day $25.2M/Wk 1 (re)
3.) The Accountant 2 (AMZ) 3,610 theaters, Fri $9.4M Sat $9.1M Sun $5.9M 3-day $24.4M/Wk 1
4.) A Minecraft Movie (WB/Leg) 3,841 (-191) theaters Fri $5.2M Sat $10.6M Sun $6.9M, 3-day $22.7M (-44%), Total $379.9M/Wk 4
5.) Until Dawn (Sony) 3,055 theaters, Fri $3.2M Sat $2.9M Sun $1.9M 3-day $8M/Wk 1
6.) King of Kings (Angel) 3,175 (-360) theaters, Fri $1.1M (-83%) Sat $1.8M Sun $1M 3-day $4M (-75%)/ Total $54.5M/Wk 3
7.) The Amateur (20th) 3,060 (-340) theaters, Fri $1M (-56%) Sat $1.7M Sun $1.1M 3-day $3.8M (-46%), Total $33.8M/Wk 3
8.) Warfare (A24) 1905 (-765) theaters, Fri $730K (-54%) Sat $1M Sun $836K 3-day $2.65M (-45%)/Total $21.8M/Wk 3
9.) Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXI (Trafalgar) 678 theaters, Fri $1.34M Sun $1.3M 3-day $2.62M/Wk 1
10.) The Legend of Ochi (A24) 1,153 (+1,149) theaters Fri $630K (+2900%) Sat $464K Sun $348K 3-day $1.44M (+2669%), Total $1.5M/Wk 2