Weekend Estimates: A Quiet Place Opens in the Black with $50 million
April 8, 2018
If it weren’t for Black Panther, A Quiet Place would be the biggest surprise hit of the year so far. The film earned $50 million during its opening weekend, on a budget of just $17 million. Its initial ad buy was probably less than $25 million, meaning this film earned more in its opening weekend that its combined budget. However, I assume Paramount Pictures put in at least another $10 million ad buy on Saturday after Friday’s estimates showed up. As for the film’s future, its reviews are close to Award-worthy and it earned a B plus from CinemaScore, which is impressive for a horror film. Additionally, the film saw its score rise on Saturday when compared to Friday, which is not common for a new release. Previews plus the opening day rush usually result in small declines for films aimed at this target audience. It is still a horror film and next week there is big competition and direct competition, so its legs likely won’t be great, but its nearly guaranteed a profit by this time next week.
Ready Player One slipped a spot to second place with $25.06 million for an 11-day total of $96.92 million. This is a better than expected hold and enough to keep the studio happy. On the downside, the film cost Warner Bros. a ton of cash to make (Reportedly there’s $175 million on the screen, $150 million after tax breaks.) and its global advertising budget was about what it cost to make. It will need to be an even bigger hit internationally, if it wants to break even any time soon. Fortunately, that appears to be the case, as the film added $81.7 million on 35,700 screens in 65 markets to its international total, which now sits at $294.4 million. Granted, of that, $42 million was earned in 20,000 screens in China giving it a two-week total of $161.3 million in that market. The studio only gets about 25% of the box office there, so while it looks impressive, it doesn’t really help the bottom line as much as its domestic numbers do. The film will need about $500 million worldwide to break even any time soon.
Blockers was the next biggest new release of the week, opening with $21.44 million and earning third place, which is actually a little bit higher than its $21 million production budget. It’s another film with strong reviews, but it only managed a B from CinemaScore. That’s fine. It’s fine. It’s hard to get excited about a B score, as it is certainly not good, but also clearly not a disaster for a film that matched its production budget during its opening weekend. It likely won’t find an audience internationally, especially not outside of English-language markets. For example, the film earned $1.41 million in 252 theaters during its second weekend in Australia for a two-week total of $5.35 million there, which is even better than its run here. On the other hand, the film opened with just $164,000 on 160 screens in Ukraine. Granted, Ukraine is a smaller market than Australia, but not that much smaller.
Black Panther earned fourth place with $8.43 million over the weekend for a running tally of $665.36 million domestically, while its worldwide total is just a hair shy of $1.3 billion. The film is now in third place on the All-time Domestic Chart, just ahead of Titanic. This is as far is it will climb, but if the film can have box office synergy with Avengers: Infinity War it could still get to $700 million domestically.
Acrimony matched expectations perfectlywith $8.06 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $31.34 million. Tyler Perry’s average as a director is about $50 million domestically and I don’t think this film will last long enough to get there. It should come close enough to break even sometime during its home market run.
Chappaquiddick surprised with $6.2 million in 1,560 theaters. This is not a bad start for a film many thought would open below the Mendoza Line. Its theater average means theater owners won’t be looking to drop it as soon as they are contractually able to, while its 80% positive reviews should help, but its B from CinemaScore won’t.
The Miracle Season missed the top ten with $4.13 million, but this is enough to avoid the Mendoza Line, so it is not as bad as it could have been. Paradoxically, the film’s reviews were the worst of the new releases, but it was the only film to earn an A from CinemaScore.
As far as the limited releases are concerned, it was You Were Never Really Here’s show. The film earned nearly $130,000 in just 3 theaters for an average of $43,304. Add in its reviews and the film has a real shot at mainstream success. The Endless and Where is Kyra? weren’t as potent, but they both did well with $8,600 and $7,000 in one theater respectively.
- All-Time Top Grossing Films
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- A Quiet Place Comparisons
- Ready Player One Comparisons
- Blockers Comparisons
- Black Panther Comparisons
- Acrimony Comparisons
- Chappaquiddick Comparisons
- The Miracle Season Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Black Panther, Rampage, Ready Player One, Blockers, Chappaquiddick, A Quiet Place, The Endless, You Were Never Really Here, Acrimony, The Miracle Season, Truth or Dare, Where is Kyra?, Tyler Perry