by Nathaniel R
| Weekend Box Office (Sept 15th-17th) |
|
| W I D E | L I M I T E D |
 mother! |
 BEACH RATS |
| 1. IT $60 (cum. $218.7) REVIEW |
1.🔺BEACH RATS $320k on 67 screens* REVIEW |
| 2.🔺AMERICAN ASSASSIN $14.8 new | 2. DO IT LIKE AN HOMBRE $125k on 226 screens (cum. $2.3) |
| 3.🔺mother! $7.5 new REVIEW |
3.🔺BRAD'S STATUS $100k on 4 screens new REVIEW |
| 4. HOME AGAIN $5.3 (cum. $17.1) |
4. 🔺 COLUMBUS $89k (cum. $637K) on 62 screens |
As you've probably heard box office for 2017 is way down, the lowest in several years overall. I've read numerous reports blaming this on Hollywood's overreliance on event movies and franchises and the like but here's a depressing theory: I don't actually think that's the problem...
No I think the problem is that's the only kind of film that mainstream audiences rally for. So of course Hollywood latches on to them and makes more. Audiences just can't be budged when it comes to non pre-branded work. Even when a movie does break out of the doldrums this year to do phenomenal business it's a pre-branded title (It and Wonder Woman for example, both of which exceeded all expectations in terms of gross capability). Yes, word of mouth can still generate small hits. That's especially true at the arthouse where you'll note Sally Hawkins in Maudie is STILL playing and, in its 23rd week, still in the top ten for limited releases. Menashe, an interesting Orthodox Jewish drama, is also playing well to the select city crowds.
 SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING |
 MENASHE |
| 5. THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD $3.5 (cum. $70.3) |
5. MENASHE $87k (cum. $1.5) on 90 screens REVIEW |
| 6. ANNABELLE CREATION $2.6 (cum. $99.9) | 6. INGRID GOES WEST $81k on 100 screens (cum. $2.9) |
| 7. WIND RIVER $2.5 (cum. $29.1) REVIEW |
7. 🔺 DOLORES $68K on 18 screens (cum. $151k) |
| 8. LEAP! $2.1 (cum. $18.6) |
8. MAUDIE $38k (cum. $6) on 63 screens REVIEW |
| 9. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING $1.8 (cum. $330.2) REVIEW | 9. GOOD TIME $29k (cum. $1.9) on 29 screens REVIEW |
| 10. DUNKIRK $1.3 (cum. $185.1) PODCAST | TOM HARDY | 10. CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER $22k (cum. $128k) on 18 screens |
🔺 = new or significant expansion numbers from box office mojo |
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Meanwhile, though, Spider-Man Homecoming is in its 11th weekend and still in the top ten, which is even more weekends than Wonder Woman managed (though Diana trumps Peter in overall gross).
See, when it comes to mainstream audiences, they stick with the franchises. Even when a movie gets tremendous buzz and audiences who "risk" it love it, it has a cap if it's not a franchise (see Dunkirk and Girls Trip and Get Out and Split and on and on). If you're not a franchise you need massive word of mouth to do between $100 and $200 million at the box office and you're never really going above that. But a film like Annabelle or Pirates: Dead Men Tell No Tales sails to $100+ million merely by existing as part of a series. Even if regular mainstream audiences don't actually like it!
So next time you see an article blaming Hollywood for their lack of ideas, remember that it's actually the audiences who demand the sequels and familiarity. Yes yes, chickens and eggs... because Hollywood did deprive audiences who want more than sequels so often (especially in the summer months) that those audiences stopped being in the moviegoing habit. But the problem we have now is really with the audience themselves because they haven't come back even if people tell them something's great.
AMERICAN ASSASSIN
Note that American Assassin and Hitman's Bodyguard, the type of generic shoot-em-up movies that get several iterations a year (though they aren't technically franchises) and that no one will remember they saw the following year, both opened stronger than mother! which had a ton of publicity and a bonafide movie star leading it and that everyone will remember they saw even if they hated it.
But it looked... Strange. Unfamiliar.
No, the problem is not that Hollywood makes so many franchises -- audiences open their wallets when they do (simple supply and demand) -- but that sometimes they often choose poorly in terms of which pre-brands get the greenlight (Baywatch? CHiPs?) which movies get a sequel (The Nut Job 2?). And of course the larger problem which is plaguing the industry this year is that they're sticking with franchises to which the audience has already demonstrated waning interest (Alien & Transformers & Pirates, for example) which is not a position of strength. They're trying again with Terminator, too. That's another franchise where audiences were pretty "meh" about in its last iteration. With all of these long in the tooth franchises they're clearly hoping for a Fast & Furious or James Bond situation where the series suddenly gets more gargantuanly popular than it ever was in the past... but the odds of that happening are so rare you might as well buy a lottery ticket.
At any rate, thank god summer is over and Hollywood shifts their focus a bit away from money-making towards awards-grabbing. At least that forces a bit of variety into movie theaters.
* About the Beach Rats gross. That's the number from Box Office Mojo but I think they've made an error. That looks like it's cumulative gross to me (given its prior performance and the fact that it doubled theater counts this weekend). They're also listing that same number as its cumulative gross though the movie had already made $200,000. So it probably only made $120,000 or so this weekend. Either way that micro Sundance indie is doing well so at the arthouse at least the box office can still be exciting and hard to predict in terms of which films will connect and which won't.