Although they both have over half a billion followers on social media each, singer Taylor Swift was much more able to galvanise her fan base into action at the box office this weekend than Dwayne Johnson.
The one-weekend only event “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” pulled in $30-32 million at the box office, the title also landing a rare A+ CinemaScore from attendees, which suggests expectations were met – and then some. Quite a feat for a title only announced two weeks ago with little marketing.
The event stomped over everything else, including the Johnson-led biopic “The Smashing Machine” which looks to debut in third place with just $6.2 million. That’s the lowest opening ever of Johnson’s career as a leading man, even worse than 2010’s “Faster” at $8.5 million, despite a long publicity campaign for the film.
Don’t expect the title to hold on much in the coming weeks, critics reviews were decidedly mixed (just a 65/100 on Metacritic) and a B- CinemaScore suggests it’s going to have to find much of its audience on streaming and home video formats.
The DiCaprio-led “One Battle After Another” held quite well in its second weekend, the title dropping to $12.3 million which is a drop of around 43%. That’s better than the “Gabby’s Dollhouse” film which fell 66% in its second weekend to $4.7 million and fourth place.
The “Avatar: The Way of Water” re-release is headed for a $2.5 million weekend, considered overall a soft number for the IMAX title. The buzzed about dog POV horror film “Good Boy” debuted to $2.3 million, while the limited releases of “Bone Lake” and “Anemone” both did around $900,000 each.
Source: Deadline
