‘Shang-Chi’ To The Moon: Marvel Asian American Superhero Movie Heading Toward $90M Record-Breaking Labor Day Weekend
And who says American audiences are hesitant about going to the movies?
Hollywood, it’s time to re-think your game plan about the theatrical release schedule. It doesn’t look like Vax cards policing at any movie theaters prevented anyone from going to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as Disney continued to exercise a theatrical window post-Free Guy, taking their latest Marvel Cinematic Universe title to the second best-3 day of the pandemic with $71.4M, behind Disney/Marvel’s Black Widow ($80.3M) and ahead of F9‘s $70M. The 4-day per industry estimate is expected to be $89.2M. Disney is reporting $83.5M for the four-days as of this morning.
Social Media analytics corp RelishMix shows social chatter across a Facebook, Instagram, YouTube views, and Twitter reach of 387.2M, “26% above pre-Covid norms” with video consumption on Facebook just over 45M and over 165M on YouTube with a sold platform balance and strong viral reposting rate of 28:1.
Reports RelishMix, “Chatter runs deep with debates about Stan Lee’s inspiration of Bruce Lee and the potential for Brandon Lee as a fitting character until his on-set accident — the ten rings and “The Mandarin” clan possessing other kinds of ‘relics’ and which villains he will face. Fans of the Korean boy band Got7 are sewing threads of enthusiasm looking forward to bandmates Mark Tuan (seen at the premiere in Hollywood) and Jackson Wang on the soundtrack. Jackie Chan mentions also stand out as he is worshiped as the pioneer of the genre.”
Among the social media stars, are Awkwafina and her 2.1M fans, Simu Liu with 1.1M, Fala Chen with 1.5M and Florian ‘Big Nasty’ Munteanu at 691K. In-the-mix are key soundtrack artists who are delivering strong engagement from their fanbase’s including Tuan with 19.1M fans, DJ Snake from Paris with 16.4M fans and Rich Brian 6.7M, who are posting music clips, stills and trailers.
Opening night party bus with the team, popped into a couple theaters to say hi. I love the movies. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with us on opening night! See you tonight! @shangchi
‘Candyman’ Crushing Late August B.O. With Near $21M Opening
In the wake of a CinemaCon which rallied hopes that exhibition would indeed rise from the ashes of a pandemic and an industry intoxicated by streaming comes Universal/MGM/Monkeypaw’s reboot of 1990s horror IP Candyman which is bound for a $20.7M weekend opening. Not only does the debut indicate the continued appetite for moviegoing among the 18-34 bunch, which turned out at 71% here, but it’s a solid opening for a horror movie during late August, which isn’t exactly a primetime for the box office.
Social media exploded for Candyman according to analytics corp RelishMix which measured an entire reach of 144.1M before opening, a boost from the social media universe of 38.5M on Peele’s 2017 Get Out and 122.8M from 2019’s Us. Candyman‘s SMU across Facebook, Youtube views, Instagram and Twitter is close to 40% above the horror genre average. “Keep in mid that the film dropped the first trailer just three weeks before the lockdown in February 2020 and resumed the digital campaign nine weeks ago,” exclaims RelishMix. YouTube views for the seven owned videos are again at 51% and its viral rate of 19:1 is solid. MGM’s social media channel of 4.2M is in the cross-promotional mix with Universal Pictures social at 43.2M SMU.
In regards to pre-weekend chatter, RelishMix reports, “While fans debate whether this is a remake or a sequel, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II clarified on Fallon, that this is a continuation of the 1992 original 30 years later. With Jordan Peele onboard, fan expectations run high in anticipation of the return of this classic horror villain who’s described as a ‘Black Freddy or Black Jason’ as the film explores racial issues. Plus, fans are looking at the journey into the fine art world, woven into artists creations as they are influenced by demons and ghosts.”
Some of the notable social media marketing drops include this featurette about the underlying cultural significance of the film and how it’s opening doors for young Black creators in the horror genre. This was dropped on Juneteenth and was also livestreamed on Twitter:
Of the social media standouts in the cast, Abdul-Mateen II counts 352K fans.
Ryan Reynolds’ ‘Free Guy’ Is Alive At The Weekend B.O. Heading For $26M+
Saturday AM Update: In what is a big win for an original piece of IP in the middle of August when kids are heading back to school, in particular during the pandemic, Disney’s 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy was truly vibrant yesterday with $10.5M, including $2.2M in Thursday night previews. This puts Shawn Levy’s directed Free Guy on a track toward an estimated $26.4M opening. It’s a number that is higher than the mid-to-high teens that tracking had been seeing, and Disney proves once again, it can beat projections during the pandemic.
FREE GUY: Heading into the weekend, social media analytics corp Relish Mix saw Free Guy‘s social tracking running 42% above awareness norms for an action comedy with a reach of 345.4M on social media from 20th Century channels at 43.2M and social media marketing machine Reynolds who counts 76.1M followers. In regards to chatter, RelishMix noticed that no one was being deterred by the new vax card policy. Despite “the trailer simultaneously showing too much, it still made audiences want to see the movie all the more with excitement for Jodie Comer from Killing Eve and Taika Waititi with positive comparisons to Ready Player One, Wreck It Ralph, The Matrix, The Truman Show on steroids to GTA Grand Theft Auto.”
Also shouting out about the film are Waititi to his 4.7M fans, and Comer to her 1.9M. Sweet piece from Reynolds on the pic’s background actors:
DON’T BREATHE 2: Still it’s an impressive pull-off here by Sony with Don’t Breathe 2 as RelishMix reports that the cast wasn’t activated on social media. That said, “With a short five week ramp up to Friday the 13th, Don’t Breathe 2 social media awareness approached normal levels at 77.1M across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube with activity at normal levels too. Viral reposting rate is near normal at 31:1 with view counts at 32.3M on YouTube for 3 videos and 5.3M views on Facebook for 18 videos,” reports the analytics corp.
RelishMix adds, “Convo for Don’t Breathe 2 is mixed-positive as fans who saw the original in 2016 wondering which story elements will return, the merits of a sequel with call-out comparisons to Terminator 2, A Quiet Place, Bird Box to Split. Fans think that ‘blind man’ has become one of the most badass characters in cinema history — antagonist or protagonist, blind man is a guy you don’t wanna mess with. Audiences are friend-tagging each other on Facebook while threads debate the potential for this chapter on YouTube.”
RESPECT: There’s even great word of mouth here on social media with RelishMix observing, “Fans are getting goosebumps and chills of excitement for Jennifer Hudson as Aretha with call-outs declaring those who got vaccinated specifically to go into the theater to support the opening of the film. Additional excitement bubbles around casting choices of Marlon Wayans, Mary J Blige and Audra McDonald — and songs that will be in the film plus early callouts for a ‘best actor’ Oscar.”
The hurdle here for Respect is its target demo of females (63%) and African Americans (47%), who in movie tracking research the more reluctant demographics to come out during the pandemic, but we’ll see. Older crowd here with 86% over 25, 64% over 35, 44% over 45 with guys showing up at 37% and 36% Caucasian, 11% Latino and 6% Asian/other. Respect sang the best on the East coast Mid-West where close to 63% of its money came from verus the average of 51%.
Respect’s social cast is enthusiastically led by Hudson who is sharing her journey with the movie to her 16.5M fans. Also touting are Wayans with 19.1M, Forest Whitaker 2.9M, and Marc Maron 1.4M. Blige shared the trailer yesterday to her 10M Facebook followers.
‘The Suicide Squad’ Posts Best R-Rated Opening During Pandemic With $26.5M
When it comes to the lackluster result of Warner Bros.’ latest The Suicide Squad at $26.5M this past weekend, one can blame the variant, and they can definitely blame HBO Max, but they’ll also need to blame the brand. Several reasons are weighing down on why this well-intended and valiant effort by the studio to improve a damaged franchise went wrong.
The whole HBO Max factor –and piracy– just kills the film’s legs at the box office, and that has statistically been proven time and again during the pandemic. Also, with a title like The Suicide Squad, a studio is just telling the audience they’ve already seen this movie before.
It comes as no surprise to hear that the under 18 demo gave Suicide Squad an A-, given the overall positive vibe (9 out of a 10) that RelishMix was hearing about the film on social media. After Birds of Prey flew into a spinning fan, maybe it wasn’t wise to keep Suicide Squad R-rated; perhaps it left this demo and families sidelined at home to watch the movie on HBO Max, instead of heading out to the theater. RelishMix further points out that on social, Suicide Squad was strong on all metrics with 12 owned videos on YouTube which had a strong viral rate of 25:1 and 187.9M owned and earned views. The total social media awareness level with cast is also 69% above the norm counting 478.9M across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. There was a huge combined WarnerMedia cross-promotional force of WB Pictures 56.8M (the WB Pictures YouTube channel close to crossing 10M), Suicide Squad‘s 8.7M, HBO Max’s 3.3M and DC’s 25.2M.
The Suicide Squad looks like one of those films that casting Directors talk about, that insist that all cast be on social media. With the exception of Pete Davidson 127K and Taika Waititi 4.7M who are social but not activated — John Cena brings 82.7M, Margot Robbie with 34.2M, King Shark voice Sly Stalone with 22.9M, Idris Elba 16.9M, Viola Davis 12.4M, Storm Reid 1.6M, and director James Gunn with another 3.4M fans, all activated — at 189.2M total for the cast. Pretty good.
Fans are piling on convo comparisons to the first Suicide Squad to Birds Of Prey and high hope for SS2 and positive notes from fans who’ve had sneak peeks — with passions for Margot Robbie Halloween costumes, John Cena, Idris Elba and Joel Kinnaman — plus how the King Shark voice from Sly Stallone is the obvious Goot of this franchise. “I don’t want to do your first work” mentions for the Steely Dan song from the trailer are also enthusiastic as well as for James Gunn coming over from Guardians and connections to his 1.6M social fanbase as a director.
Sly and John Cena at GMA.
A return to movie premieres in Westwood.
Disney Pulls ‘Jungle Cruise’ Into Weekend Port With $91.8M In Global B.O. & Disney+ Premier Spend
JUNGLE CRUISE / DISNEY: In the face of a pandemic, Johnson and Blunt bravely appeared at the Disneyland premiere for the film and even took a surprise ride on the Jungle Cruise much to the delight of fans (see below). Social media analytics corp RelishMix reports that that pic’s social media was massive “connecting Disneyland 29.7M into the mix along with Disney Studios 62.2M, Disney+ 11.8M, Disney Channel 21.9M for a total social media universe of 559.8M total which is exceptional in relation to family live action comps. Superfan channels on YouTube are also reposting cast junkets with a viral repost rate of 23:1 for the five owned trailers which exceeds the norm of 16:1 along with key performance indicators which popped from the Disneyland premiere event last weekend.”
The Rock’s social media pull across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter counts 333.8M which according to RelishMix reps 59% of the entire reach metric for Jungle Cruisealong with The Rock’s YouTube channel, with 5.6M subs, which dropped trailers including the No. 1 trailer from 17 months ago at 8.3M views. And while Blunt, and stars Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti are non-social, the Rock’s social powers mixed with Jack Whitehall’s 10.2M fans and Edgar Ramirez’s 5.2M fans are picking up the slack.
In the theatre prepping for the premiere at Disneyland. The Rock and Emily Blunt with 5.6M views.
THE GREEN KNIGHT / A24: Relish Mix says that a bulk of Green Knight’s near 45M social media universe before opening weekend came from 41.3M views on five YouTube videos which were re-dated from the pic’s original February 2020 drop of materials. In regards to chatter, “Conversations shout with excitement about the approach that A24 has taken to introduce the pic’s mythology with early calls for Oscars cinematography nominations as fans of Patel and Alicia Vikander await the release.”
The studio dropped a video which clocked 7.4M views on YouTube about the pic’s origins which is the 14th Century epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
STILLWATER / FOCUS: Stillwater has taken a light touch on social awareness growth with moderate activity compared to other indy/Oscar contenders with a moderate content load on Facebook with 6 video all un-boosted. On YouTube, the first trailer had support and others that could us a lift.
At Cannes noting a funny storyline in Call My Agent about jostling for ticket to Cannes.
Added comments from Amanda Knox after the film’s US premiere: https://twitter.com/amandaknox/status/1420871392266911746?s=20
‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ Steals Ball Away From ‘Black Widow’ With $31M+ Opening, Best For Family Pic & WB During Pandemic
SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY - Social media was huge here for Space Jam 2 with RelishMix reporting that the sequel’s reach across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram was 601.2M “well above the family animated norms” thanks to the social power of James (166.2M) and Zendaya (138M) in the mix.
“The quadrangulation of Looney Tunes social network (19.1M) along with HBO Max (growing to 3.3M), Warner Bros. Pictures (56.7M) and the channels for the Space Jam movie (868K) are driving strong activity on international materials — dropping materials across WB YouTube channels to Italy, Spain and the Latin channels. Instagram is most notable at 38% in terms of social platform segment at 234.1M fans for the cast. Key soundtrack artists added to the SMU and activating with song posts including John Legend (43.7M) on the red carpet at the premiere, plus The Jonas Brothers (25.5M) and Joyner Lucas (7.1M),” reports RelishMix.
James has been posting about the film heavily, and even Dwayne Johnson did so to his 58.8M Facebook fans about a song by his wife Lauren Hashian that’s in the film (James thanked him as well for the shoutout).
Reports RelishMix about the pre-buzz for Space Jam 2: “Conversation ran wildly mixed with throwbacks to the original, crunchy comparisons of LeBron vs Michael Jordan with hopes that MJ makes a cameo — and dreams of Space Jam 3 based on Kobe or Steph Curry. With a rowdy hoops crowd, fans were expectedly skeptical about the remake, but noting that the target to families and kids — comments on many of the YouTube videos are turned off — while many fans can’t wait to post their reactions on eared materials after they see the film on the day/date big and little screen.”
Anthony Davis is ‘The Brow’ in Space Jam. And the festivities from the purple carpet.
ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS - Escape Room 2 per RelishMix had a social media universe of 39.8M across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, which is well under horror awareness levels per the analytics corp.
“Conversation ran mixed-positive among horror fans who mulled storyline thoughts about the subway with many who love it and ‘puzzle masters’ who are dissecting the trailer,” said RelishMix about the low wattage pre-buzz from the pic.
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One highlight of the sequel’s marketing push: the studio reconstructed the pic’s subway escape room in Hollywood:
‘Black Widow’ Spins $39.5M Friday, Pandemic Opening Record Now At $89M+; All Pics At Weekend B.O. Headed To $125M+ High
Disney/Marvel’s Black Widow is coming in at $39.5M for Friday, which is very close to what we first spotted yesterday. This puts the Scarlett Johansson movie at a projected 3-day start of $89M, still the best domestic start we’ve seen during the pandemic.
As far as social media analytics corp RelishMix sizing up Black Widow, they weighed in the pic’s social media universe before opening at 496.2M across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram which “is above normal for the superhero genre with dedicated Black Widow pages building to 925K fans adding 23K per day, most heavily on Instagram. YouTube views for the 25 owned domestic trailers next to the 53 owned videos on Facebook and outpacing FB views by 4X with a combined 266M views.”
Johansson and fellow Black Widow castmember Rachel Weisz aren’t activiated on social, however Florence Pugh is super loud on her Instagram with 2.6M fans with the social star of the film being Stranger Things’ David Harbour with 7.1M fans, plus Shania West with 610K, Handmaid Tale’s O-T Fagbenle with 170K fans and Violet McGraw with 84K on IG.
Assesses RelishMix, “Convo around MCU super fans observes plans for opening weekend, in theatres and little social reference to the Disney+ option. Chatter compares this weekend to other recent openings including Godzilla vs. Kong and F9— and speculating where the post-Covid box office totals will land as fans clearly know it’s ‘go-time’. Skeptics are back too, which is a return to normal, with call-outs about breadcrumbs, casting, VFX, the upcoming virtual Comic-Con, who is the Taskmaster, if The Winter Soldier is behind-the-mask and will Hydra make a return. Plus, in threads around the film — fans have tears of joy over the unconfirmed reports in Vanity Fair and Page Six that Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost are expecting a baby.”
Universal Launches July 4th Fireworks At B.O. With Trio Of Pics Grossing $109M+ Over Four Days
BOSS BABY2: RelishMix counted a social media universe for Boss Baby 2 that was close to 300M across Facebook, Twitter YouTube and Instagram over the last two weeks “with a noticeable absence of Twitter for the movie, which is an emerging trend especially for family targeted shows. The sequel now has Peacock Kids social channels on Facebook and Instagram which have been merged into the overall Peacock network (18.5M SMU) including the very robust parent control Peacock YouTube channel which has 8.9 million subscribers and the popular function that plays on loop.”
FOREVER PURGE: RelishMix observed heading into Purge Forever‘s opening weekend that its social media universe approached pre-pandemic norms with 78.4M, supported by the Blumhouse’s social media universe of 1.1M fans/followers and Purge pages at 3.1M.
Horror spikes late on social before a pic’s opening, and fueling the fire was a dozen clips over the last week on Facebook. The trailer per Uni has generated 60M views to date since launching on May 12. The studio leaned heavily into promoting the pic on social media on TikTok where fans spread the word, as well as with the launch of a Snapchat lens that saw Purge elements emerge around the user as they watch the trailer along with a first-commercial Snap integration and a custom Twitter emoji.
ZOLA: For a movie based on a Twitter thread by A’ziah “Zola” King, which spawned the Rolling Stone, RelishMix noticed that Zola had a very small social media following, with 3.3M across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube subs. The analytics corp also noticed that there were 3.2M views for the trailer tied to the pic’s social media universe. RelishMix noticed that the original Twitter thread is private, but King has published the thread in a book entitled The Thotyssey tied to the pic. Stars Riley Keough and Taylour Paige are supporting the movie heavily on their social media channels, which combined across Twitter and Instagram are respectively are 450K and 535K.
The following video generated 30K views on Paige’s Instagram and over 25K on Keough’s.
‘F9’ Vrooms To $70M Pandemic Opening Record, A Win For The Theatrical Window
Universal’s F9 grossed in one day what some movies have made in a weekend during the pandemic, earning $30M on Friday, on its way to a revised 3-day of $70M.
Entertainment social media analytics corp RelishMix says that the Fast Saga is one of the most social film franchises, now at 1.3B across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, “over indexing in all social-quads against comps on the action-adventure genre by 3X and 4X”. The F9 cast continues to leverage their social star power at 581.3M across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at 43% of the SMU social media universe. F9 is fueled by 435.2M YouTube views and the official Facebook page with 54.4M fans. Platform segmentation of 341.6M Facebook fans, Facebook video views at 217M from 93 videos and into FB owned Instagram 243.3M at 62% of the entire SMU driven by cast verified FB and IG pages. Historically, segmentation favors YouTube, but Universal has gone where their fans are, on FB.
BTS Queenie and Dom piece on Vin Diesel’s IG at 1.42M views:
In regards to the muscle of the F9 cast on social, RelishMix calculates that Vin Diesel’s social media universe is at 178.1M, Cardi B’s at 144.8M, John Cena with 82.3M Tyrese Gibson with 57.1M, Michele Rodriguez has 24.5M, Sung Kang counts over 17.4, Charlize Theron 17.3M, Jordana Brewster 12.1M as well as Hellen Mirren’s 947K on IG. Talent-posted character vignettes on their social media handles totaling more than 6M views across all platforms. Additionally, a “Women of Fast” featurette spotlighted the Anitta track “Furiosa” from the film’s soundtrack and was shared to her 53.8M Instagram followers. The franchise also launched its new TikTok account which has received 75M views.
One notable piece of social media was on Lin’s IG, with selfies of the cast thanking the world:
Chatter mulls over cast changes after the Hobbs and Shaw spin-off — and the addition of John Cena’s 82.3M fans, Cardi B with 144.8M plus the return of Sung Kang 17.4M and Jordana Brewster 12.1M into the mix. Comparisons are predominantly to comic-book titles Avengers, Transformers and Spiderman. Convo is strong for the flying car magnet set piece, #JusticeForHan and if Dom will handle John Cena in the same way he handled The Rock (Hobbs) and Statham (Shaw) — along with expectations for F10 which is in production and eternal love for Paul Walker.
FULL STORY: https://deadline.com/2021/06/f9-speeds-to-7-1m-thursday-previews-best-to-date-during-pandemic-1234781577/
‘Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’ Running Total Rises To $5M+, Pic Eyes $13M-$15M Five-Day Debut
Social media analytics corp RelishMix noticed that The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is a strong social media universe pull of 238 million across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, 68% above the mixed-genre norm. The YouTube viral reposting rate is 19:1. The social media campaign for the sequel began a year ago and was re-booted nine weeks ago with the official movie page on Facebook counting 180K fans from the first installment with 45 new videos posting at a high cadence and healthy views of 19.8M, along with another 49.1M views on YouTube. A bulk of the social media firepower comes from Ryan Reynold’s presence with 74.3M fans, over half of them from Instagram. His posts there, per RelishMix, can clock 3.4M-6M views. Samuel L. Jackson has 24.7M followers, Salma Hayek counts 21.3M social media followers, and Antonio Banderas has 8.6M.
Reports RelishMix on the social media buzz, “Positive leaning chatter speculates future installments including the Hitman’s Wife’s Cousin’s Brother’s Uncle’s Mother’s Brother-in-law’s Nanny — plus the delight of Morgan Freeman and Samuel L. Jackson in the same movie. Covid references have diminished as masks rules are lifted and interests grows for the algorithm of Ryan Reynolds + Salma Hayek + Samuel L Jackson + a track by Britney Spears, ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ = Perfect recipe for a great movie.”
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FULL STORY: https://deadline.com/2021/06/ryan-reynolds-hitmans-wifes-bodyguard-weekend-box-office-1234777056/
‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Steals Box Office Rhythm Away From ‘In The Heights’
Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II in its third weekend has beaten Warner Bros. highly-publicized Jon M. Chu-directed, Lin-Manuel Miranda musical In the Heights for the top spot at the weekend box office, $11.7M to $11.4M. It is a defeat no one really saw coming. A Quiet Place Part II‘s domestic running B.O. stands at $109M.
As one rival marketing exec told me this weekend, “Warner Bros. was everywhere with In the Heights. Everywhere I turned, on every network, there was an ad.” And that’s not a ding to the Burbank, CA lot; it’s what a filmmaker wants, especially on a diversity project such as In the Heights, with a fresh- faced cast: They want to know that the studio truly has their best intentions and their backs. Warner Bros. supported In the Heights this weekend. Unfortunately, it was the audience who did not.
On social, RelishMix saw a social media universe for In the Heights of 115.6M across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. By comparison, La La Land, which platformed-out for nominations, was only at 48.9M at opening. In The Heights had seven owned video materials, which were cross-promoted across Warners YouTube channels around the globe, including the UAE, Europe, Latin America, and soundtrack videos on the Atlantic Records channel, too. Activity popped from the Tribeca world premiere in Washington Heights and as the cast made the talk show rounds, noting a big “Broadway’s Back” performance on Jimmy Fallon with Lin-Manuel cross promoting In The Heights.
RelishMix noticed a huge push, of course, from the In the Heights’ cast, who were “well-activated and the driving force across social media tracking back over a year from before the pause.” Stephanie Beatriz led the charge with 3.1M fans/followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, along with Leslie Grace 2.5M, Anthony Ramos 1.8M, Miranda 1.8M, Ariana Greenblatt 1.9M, Dascha Polanco 930K, Melissa Barrera 817K — as well as super-activated helmer Chu with 813K fans.
Similar to the social media push to turn Black Panther into an event for African American moviegoers, and Crazy Rich Asians a must-see for Asian American audiences, there’s a #LatinxGoldOpen hashtag going around for In the Heights, with tastemakers holding screenings, according to RelishMix. Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding posted on Facebook:
We could all use a little song and a whole lotta dancing right now, which is why I’m throwing an @intheheightsmovie virtual block party this Thursday 6/10 at 7 PM EST over at @oprahdaily! The magnificent cast is joining me for a chat, music, and games. Tap the link in my bio or head over to OprahDaily.com/intheheights to register for FREE!
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway: Peter Rabbit SMU social reach climbs back from the re-date pause a year ago to at 157.2M across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube which and under the norm for family animated but the top trailer is well boosted to 11M views on YouTube and 8.5M views for the top boosted trailer on Facebook and a solid official Facebook page for the franchise with 279K fans with a well accelerated posting cadence.
Chatter for family films is always dicey as little kids are not the ones commenting and parents are onboard or not and most connected on Facebook. Streaming potential and fan reluctance to attend theatrically with unvaccinated kids is a topic. Mixed-mentions of the Peter Rabbit brand, franchise, James Corden as Peter and other notes must be taken with a grain of salt while noticing that key studio fed videos have comments turned off as do Disney and Universal family films.
‘Conjuring 3’ Out-Scaring ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ At Weekend B.O.
New Line’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is beating Paramount’s second weekend of A Quiet Place Part II, with an estimated $23.5M to $22M but there shouldn’t be any doubts: It’s a solid weekend at the box office, especially as the pandemic calms. Even No. 3 title, Disney’s Cruella is doing well, on its way toward a $11.4M second weekend, -47%, after a $3.28M Friday, -57%.
THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Social media analytics corp RelishMix notes that Conjuring 3 began dropping materials on April 20 giving it seven week runway with ten trailers and videos on WB and HBOMax YouTube channels, accumulating over 58.2M views and a very strong viral reposting rate of 40:1. Materials on Facebook are posted across the Warner Media social network of 62.4M which included 4.5M connected fans on Facebook for the franchise and a total 131.1M social media universe at 31% above the horror norm.
Chatter for Conjuring 3 was mixed according to RelishMix: “Conversation from early screenings and trailers are positive leaning with kudos to jump scares, overall cinematic quality with expected horror skepticism. Chatter references the ‘CCU: the Conjuring Cinematic Universe’, call-outs for a Conjuring TV series as well as threads about how many installments will be produced, and which order to see: ‘Conjuring 3vs Quiet Place 2 first?.'”
The threequel’s stars Patrick Wilson and Farmiga pushed the pic’s release in Imax:
SPIRIT UNTAMED: Social media metrics per RelishMix on this part 2 to an animated film that came out 19 years ago (but has rallied on TV and Netflix streaming in spinoff series) are low with the Spirit YouTube channel counting 743K subscribers before opening. This number is fed into the Peacock Kids YouTube channel with 8.8M subs. Spirit Untamed‘s buzz is tame says RelishMix: “Convo swings mixed with frustrations about the general storyline and repetition and with many kids titles while the studio trailers and materials have comments turned off.”
FULL STORY: https://deadline.com/2021/06/conjuring-3-a-quiet-place-part-ii-weekend-box-office-1234769966/
‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Screaming To $57M+; ‘Cruella’ Set To Dazzle $27M+: The Box Office Is Back
RelishMix reports that A Quiet Place Part II had a social media universe reach of 173.3M before the weekend, “well above horror genre norms, and in comparison to A Quiet Place, which had a SMU of 103.2M.” Added to this number is the new Paramount+ social network and trailers and materials that have been in rotation for 17 months; the sequel’s materials dropped on Jan. 1, 2020 with the first trailer at 30.1M views.
Overall, the social media universe for the franchise has grown 2.6x since 2018. Krasinski has, natch, been pushing the sequel to his near 10M social media followers, and he’s been flying around the country doing in-theatre appearances in NYC, Cleveland and more.
Reports RelishMix on the A Quiet Place Part II chatter on social: “Convo swings mixed from hot enthusiasm for the sequel and long anticipation of a big screen horror event, to questions about where and when it will stream on Paramount+ or other VOD platforms windows. A Quiet Place as a franchise is a breakthrough for the horror genre, as fans discuss how they never see horror in theaters (too scared). But this film became one of a fav movies, starring Emily Blunt.”
As far as Cruella‘s wattage on social, RelishMix says that the Emma Stone movie “is benefitting from the recently extended Disney SMU Social Media Universe and day/date promotions, with an overall social media universe of 446.7M, which is 25% over the norm and includes Disney+ at 95.2M — noting that without the Disney+ lift, SMU stats are on par for the genre.”
Cruella is tracking strong next to comp Beauty And The Beast, which had an exceptional 934M SMU and $174.7M opening weekend B.O., and Mary Poppins Returns, which was below the norm at 229M social media universe and opened at $23.5M 3-day and $49.9M over the 7-day Christmas 2018 stretch.
RelishMix says that the hottest touch point is the official Crulla de Vil Facebook page, with 830K fans and adding 1K new fans per day. The FB page was launched 11 years ago in 2010, as an early Disney social character page, long after the pre-social media live-action 101 Dalmatians in 1996. The page is now fully loaded to promote Cruella with FB views for the 26 videos posted for this campaign at a strong 158.1M. The best video has 20.2M views. In addition there’s another 92.1M views on YouTube for Cruella with an exceptional viral rate of 26.1 for 17 official trailers and spots. Stone and fellow star Emma Thompson are off the social media grid.
In regards to the buzz pre-weekend, RelishMix says, “Chatter spins on the Cruellacharacter’s qualities and the outrageous peril of puppies, as well as cranky mentions about the $30 added fee within Disney+. Fans are buzzing about the soundtrack, stacked with mega-classics including ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ by Connie Francis, ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’ by Nancy Sinatra, ‘Blood Well Right’ by Supertramp and many more, selected by music supervisor Susan Jacobs.”
FULL STORY: https://deadline.com/2021/05/a-quiet-place-part-ii-cruella-memorial-day-weekend-box-office-1234766021/
Jason Statham & Guy Ritchie Reteam ‘Wrath Of Man’ Leads Weekend With $8M & A- CinemaScore As Exhibition Looks Forward To Summer
WRATH OF MAN: By the calendar’s measure of recent box office years, it is the first weekend of summer. But because movie theaters are still closed in most of Europe and Brazil because of the pandemic, Disney decided to move Marvel’s Black Widow to July 9.
The good news is that we will finally have a semblance of a summer box office season, unlike last year, and United Artists Releasing is filling the vacancy left by Disney this weekend with the Miramax/MGM production of Guy Ritchie’s R-rated Jason Statham action title, Wrath of Man, which had a solid Friday at the B.O. during the pandemic with $3M (including $500K Thursday previews), then continued on to make the same amount of cash yesterday, and will see a 3-day opening of $8M at 2,875 theaters.
The Wrath of Man trailer launch on March 29 received 22M views and over 48K conversations in its first day. It trended on Twitter and reddit movies, and on YouTube for over 24 hours after launch. The pic’s red band trailer was dropped on April 29 with IGN and Reddit. RelishMix further reports that the viral rate was a solid 9:1, with close to 38M views on YouTube, another 18.2M on Facebook for 27 videos with high posting frequency.
RelishMix is very impressed with the social media on Wrath of Man, reporting “social star power is driving the movie’s social media universe, with 69% of its entire 209.4M footprint. The cast which counts 146M total followers spurred a strong launch over a shortened marketing runway.”
Wrath Of Man’s social media star was, natch, Jason Statham, who counts 100M fans, but Instagram is his preferred outlet at 26.4M. The pic’s other star, Scott Eastwood, counts 5.1M across social media, and he, too, is also posting on Instagram. In his film debut, Post Malone is partially activated on Twitter and Facebook with close to 40M followers, and credited as Austin Post as Robber #6. This behind-the-scenes piece below on Statham’s Instagram has clocked over 4M views:
HERE TODAY: Social media was very light here, considering how the pic was aimed at older audiences. RelishMix noticed before Friday, “With the late re-date pivot into a one-week-ramp-up, the Here Today trailer was dropped on the Sony YouTube channel and another five videos on the Sony studio Facebook. Clearly, making unique pages for the film was skipped with a full Zoom blitz of the cast onto morning and late night talk shows. Trailers on both YouTube and Facebook are equally boosted and quickly approaching 2M views on each platform.”
“Convo from the trailer, theme and casting are mixed-positive-leaning, interwoven with extreme anticipation from Sony YouTube subscribers to the Venon 2 trailer plus,Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Spiderman: No Way Home in their alerts from the Sony YouTube channel (4.6M subs) as movies get back to normal scheduling,” RelishMix adds.
Haddish retweeted to her 559K followers (not so much to her 6.6M Instagram followers) while Crystal has been actively pushing the movie to his 664K Twitter followers.
‘Mortal Kombat’ & ‘Demon Slayer’ Overperform On Sunday After Intense Box Office Brawl; Anime Pic Busts Past $21M
According to RelishMix, Demon Slayer videos on YouTube have clocked 62M views off of Funimation’s earned and owned materials, along with many reviews and reaction spots in Japanese and English, some of which are dubbed, and some with English voiceover on the anime trailer. Funimation’s Facebook boasts 2.3 million fans, with the Aniplex Facebook page contributing 3.2M views for the trailer. Funimation spent for TV spots on Adult Swim, earning 5.3M ad impressions running during such shows as Rick and Morty, Family Guy, Boondocks, Birdgirl and Family Guy.
Mortal Kombat‘s social media universe across YouTube Views, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter grew from 134M last week to close to 150M this week per RelishMix.
‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Leading Quiet Weekend, MORTAL KOMBAT PREVIEW, Town Grapples With Arclight & Cinerama Dome Closures
In regards to GvK, RelishMix updates that on social media, “The main studio owned trailer of the two videos posted on Youtube for the film has hit 86M views and up 10.5M since opening on March 31st, and has a continuously strong viral reposting rate of 48:1. Fan chatter debates whose team they are on, from Godzilla and flipping over to Kong and back — plus, in ripped videos from the film, fans debate the fight scenes as proof of who truly rules the world.”
Looking ahead to the social media buzz on Mortal Kombat next weekend, as we first told you, the red-band trailer scored a massive 116M views, the second-best for a trailer drop of that type after Warner Bros.’ James Gunn R-rated The Suicide Squad. RelishMix is spotting a lot of heat here on this videogame feature adaptation reboot.
“Intermixed with trailers and clips from previous Mortal Kombat movies, TV series, game play materials, plus picture-in-picture posting over more than 10 years — and views for the top ten videos at 452M on top of the social media universe specific to this film at 141.2M, the general awareness for the brand is exceptional. Activity on the meter is strong for fresh materials, given a shortened runway of six weeks. The film has an added advantage of the momentum of Warners releases in the social quadrangulated cross-promotion across Warner Pictures 54.7M, HBO Max 2.5M, Warner Games 1.1M and New Line Cinema social at 355K feeding the movie’s social network at 328K,” reports the analytics corp.
In regards to chatter, RelishMix adds, “Super fan expectations are high and they’re calling out references to characters and other incarnations of the franchise — and how Godzilla vs. Kong is a good lead-up to Mortal Combat,plus positive chatter about the Snyder cut of Justice League in the HBO Max ecosystem too.”
In regards to the social media star in the cast, that’s Joe Taslim who plays Bi-Han/Sub-zero in the film. He counts 2.2M fans across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
In regards to notable materials on social, RelishMix applauds the fan reaction trailer which dropped on Feb. 25 and is clocking north of 206K views on YouTube.
Bob Odenkirk Movie ‘Nobody’ Takes No. 1 With $6.7M; Los Angeles Market Leads B.O. Again With $1.1M
Universal’s action genre-defying feature Nobody starring Bob Odenkirk took the top box office spot with $6.7M in a theatrical marketplace which is in the throes of trying to come back.
The good news is that Los Angeles is maintaining its stamina as the No. 1 box office market, with currently $1.1M in its second weekend back, +5% from the same Friday and Saturday period last week. L.A. finaled last weekend with $1.55M.
Across social media, according to RelishMix, Nobody “brings some normalcy back to the digital marketplace with a social media universe of 90.2M, which is on par for the drama action thriller norm — with the majority of power in YouTube views at 21.9M and viral reposting rate at 25:1 for three videos, which is strong. Keep in mind that Nobody ran a pre-game Big Game spot back on Feb. 5 which fueled awareness, with 5M cumulative views in 24 hours.”
Nobody filmmaker Ilya Naischuller told us that Uni has been a big champion of this movie from the onset, trying to find a good place for it on the calendar, investing in a Super Bowl spot, and above all, not sending it directly into homes as a PVOD or streaming title.
RelishMix points out that Odenkirk punches the campaign with 1.41m social media followers across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, while co-star Christopher Lloyd has 2M. RelishMix says the social media chatter “pushes on repeated comparisons to the John Wick franchise, plus punctuations on the ‘give me the kitty cat bracelet’ as a new iconic catch-phrase. The volume of comments is strong, along with overall positive leaning toward Odenkirk and Better Call Saul mentions; a good level of intent with few Covid references in social threads.”
L.A. Box Office Blasts Off To $1.55M; Raya, The Courier
Updated weekend box office figures for how spectacular Los Angeles did in its first weekend back after a year of shutdown during Covid: $1.55Mfrom 75 theaters, which reps 8.8% of the $17.6M weekend box office. That figure is based off 75 theaters polled in Comscore, and reps a 743% explosion from the market last weekend when largely drive-ins fueled business.
L.A. was easily the No. 1 box office market this past weekend with out of the top 10 theaters in the nation being from the DMA, i.e. AMC Burbank, AMC Dine-in DisneySprings in Orlando, AMC Citywalk in LA, AMC Century City, the Van Buren 3 Drive-In, AMC Orange, AMC Empire in NYC, AMC Dine-In in Ontario Mills, the Mission Tiki Drive-in in LA, and Mountain Grove 16 in the DMA as well.
Roadside Attractions’ The Courier wound up taking 3rd place with $2M. The Cold War spy thriller, as we mentioned, had great reviews and exits (scroll down). Benedict Cumberbatch has been pushing the pic on social media, with RelishMix observing a gushing online for the former Sherlock star in a 007 kind of role.
“Fans amuse themselves with spins — Benadryl Crumplebatch, Agent Cucumberpatch, Benedict’s Cumber-stache, Bumblesnatch Cummerbund, and many, many more. And with 007 re-dating to Fall 2021, fans are shouting that Benedict is readying himself to be the next Bond. We also see conspicuous mentions coming from Russian translated posts, who, while distrusting everything, question the historical authenticity of the Cold War story which is now coming to the big screen. Overall, convo see fans ‘friend-tagging’ each other and ready for a real life spy thriller, along with a large order of fresh popped popcorn,” reports RelishMix.
RelishMix noticed that The Courier entered the weekend with a rapidly growing Social Media Universe just crossing 30M, with strong engagement on Facebook from 25 videos and 12.5M views — plus another five video spots and trailers, with 9.6M owned and earned views on the Roadside Attractions YouTube channels. Virtual rate on video materials was 14:1 which is close to the spy genre norm, with support of Roadside (114K SMU) and Lionsgate (9.3M) owned pages.
‘Raya And The Last Dragon’ Lacks Fire With $8.6M Debut As Pic Hits Disney+ & NYC Reopens
While Disney’s animated release of Raya and the Last Dragon led the weekend box office with $8.6M at 2,045 theaters, the movie’s less than stellar result has left agita in the bellies of many exhibition and studio executives. Read on.
Raya‘s start is 41% below last weekend’s $14.1M opening for Warner Bros.’ Tom & Jerry, and that movie was available for free on HBO Max, versus Disney’s $30 to Disney+ subscribers to watch the film. Raya‘s sour B.O. can largely be attributed to No. 3 exhibitor Cinemark, as well as Harkins, and Canada’s Cineplex blocking the title over Disney’s refusal to budge on terms give the title’s availability on Disney+. Raya‘s opening was also less than Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Croods: A New Age’s $9.7M 3-day take during its Thanksgiving stretch. There’s also the notion that Croods: A New Age may have been more of a four-quadrant title than Raya, which leans mostly female.
There was chatter among rivals heading into the weekend that Tom & Jerry could possibly steal No. 1 away from Raya, given how that film didn’t have Cinemark. That wasn’t the case. What’s clear here is that the second weekend drop on these theatrical-HBO Max titles are steeper than expected. Remember, Wonder Woman 1984 dropped 67% in weekend 2, and that was over a New Year’s Weekend, typically a big time for moviegoing.
The social media chatter for Raya was mixed-to-positive according to RelishMix. This despite the fact that Disney’s online marketing machine was in full operation here during the pandemic for the release. Says RelishMix: “Rayais benefiting from the social Mouse House expansion over the year with addition of the Disney+ 9.6M SMU, plugging in Disney Animation 25.1M, big Walt Disney’s 79.4M social media universe and a unique social page for Raya which is clocking 100K. Since the Super Bowl spot drop, the two key Disney big game spots are at 8.2M views, with 81M YouTube owned and earned views. There’s also 25 videos on Facebook with 14.8M views. The overall social media universe for the Disney animated feature counts 259.1 million which is at 86% of the norm for family animated. All things considered by pandemic stats, that’s good.”
CHAOS WALKING
From what I hear, the movie is collateral damage in Lionsgate’s executive shuffle between former Motion Picture Group co-President Erik Feig, who left in February 2018, and returning Motion Picture Group Co-Chair Joe Drake. The first cut of the Liman film was quite rough, however, Feig is known to turn such frogs into princes. Essentially after his departure, the film had the stain of being part of the former regime and there wasn’t any heart left at the studio to get it into greater shape beyond the reshoots.
Lionsgate, of course, is known for its YA streak with Hunger Games and Divergent, however, what a wasted opportunity here to not get a feature like this in better form. The movie had a social media star in its marketing with Holland who pulls in close to 48M on his social media and co-star Nick Jonas who has a social media universe of 58.3M followers. Those two rep 75% of the pic’s overall 139.5M SMU.
Warner Bros’ ‘Tom & Jerry’ Opening Higher In Monday Actuals; Still Second-Best Debut During Pandemic
Updated Monday AM: Warner Bros is reporting this morning that Tim Story’s Tom & Jerry didn’t do $13.7M for the weekend, rather $14.1M. That’s a very good indication that an upbeat vibe is developing among moviegoer confidence as this pandemic slowly starts to draw its curtains. Rival studio estimates as of yesterday AM had Tom & Jerry at $13.55M for the weekend.
In regards to the social media wattage on Tom & Jerry, RelishMix reports, “During this experimental phase of re-dating and day/dating, we’re seeing titles that run quick campaigns and streamline their marketing spends knowing the move to VOD and streaming will trigger quickly. But on Tom & Jerry, there’s an element that stands out. Tom & Jerry playlists on YouTube, which are perfect for parental- managed kids viewing, have viewing metrics that are usually only seen on Vevo music video channels.
The top Tom & Jerry compilation video has clocked 546M views for one video. And the top ten Tom & Jerry videos combined, most all on the Warner Bros Kids YouTube channels, have more than 2.1 billion views (yes, billion). Note, the WB Pictures YouTube channel with 15 years of marketing materials has 9.5M subscribers, and the Warner Bros Kids channel has 16.3M subscribers. The target for HBO Max is crystal clear.”
Tom & Jerry counted a social media footprint across YouTube views, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter just under 42M heading into the weekend. Over on TikTok, videos and posts around Tom & Jerry are “moderate and scattered,” per RelishMix, “without significant stand-outs”. Note, Warner Bros, used TikTok greatly with the HBO Max debut of Scoob back in May, a result that yielded 4 billion global views; that movie originally dated to go theatrical before Covid.
Star Chloe Grace Moretz counts 20.3M followers on Twitter and Instagram, clearly the pic’s social media star. She interviewed Tom the cat and posted the video on Instagram:
Over 500M Views on YT.