Whilst last weekend’s major opening of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” gave exhibitors a reason to celebrate, this weekend they’re getting a dash of cold water to the face with a bomb, some mild underperfomers, and a minor surprise hit.
As expected, ‘Wakanda Forever’ is staying atop the domestic box-office charts but is looking to come in a few million shy of expectations. What was hoped to be a $70 million weekend is now on track for a number closer to $66 million – which would be a fall of 63%.
That’s actually in line with most Marvel films of late (this year’s “Doctor Strange” and “Thor” sequels fell 67%), but is behind the less than 55% drop of the first “Black Panther” and that film had a larger debut with $202 million. Domestically the sequel is expected to reach nearly $290 million by the end of the weekend.
The biggest surprise is “The Chosen” which isn’t a film at all, but rather a faith-based series chronicling the life of Jesus. Fathom Events is holding a special-event screening of the first two episodes of the show’s third season, and it’s pulling in enviable numbers.
Released across more than 2,000 theaters, the show is expected to earn over $10 million for the weekend and landed a $3.4 million gross on Friday. The independently produced series streams on both Amazon Prime and Peacock.
That puts it ahead of this week’s new wide releases. The dark comedy “The Menu,” starring Ralph Fiennes, Anna Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult, is on track for a $9 million debut which is quite respectable for what will be Searchlight’s widest release to date.
Universal’s Weinstein scandal drama “She Said” is bombing. The new film starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan has had very good reviews and a solid A CinemaScore. Box-office wise though, it’s tracking to only earn $2.2 million for the weekend – one of the worst openings in recent memory (excluding the pandemic) for a major studio wide release.
On the speciality front, “Bones and All” is opening on five screens and is headed for a screen average of nearly $28,000.
Source: THR
