Looks like we're on track for the biggest weekend of the pandemic, thanks to two R-rated niche actioners. Phew.

Arg beat me to it

Such beautiful numbers to see. Demon Slayer will be hella frontloaded but still could get to 20m OW I think.

MK will do at least 25m OW, which frankly would have been what many probably would have expected in normal times. The fact that it’s doing it during COVID plus HBO MAX release shows it probably had 50m OW potential in normal times.

What a weekend. Box office is back and it’s not going anywhere now. Summer is gonnna be lit.

9m for Mortal Kombat at this time is pretty damn great. Without covid I wouldn't see this opening with more than 36m so it doing 20m+ is pretty impressive.

Demon Slayer should outgross Dragon Ball Broly. Crazy.

Deadline projecting $19m for Mortal Kombat from a 9m Friday...
Edit: nevermind they put "over 19m" but still lol

A part of me genuinely wonders if Mortal Kombat would have done much better in normal times, in say February 2019 instead of now. I mean I guess Detective Pikachu and Sonic broke out but the hype on this felt so much lower than those two, and this was a gritty R-rated reboot of a franchise that already had two live-action installments, instead of being a PG-rated first-time live-action adaptation like those two. I really do think people are eager to get into theaters for just about anything at this point.

I guess they think the Mortal Kombat audience will be glued to the TV sets to watch the Academy Awards on Sunday...

It looks like holdovers got less heavily hit by the new competition than they did when GvK debuted. That movie is on track for a sub-50% drop ($1.1M per Forbes), Nobody a sub-40% drop ($490k), and Raya a sub-25% drop ($400k). Another promising sign that things might be returning to normal.

It's really an absurd figure for Demon Slayer. It's really only gained noticeable popularity in the U.S. in deep 2020, about a year-ago tops, so for it to do almost $10 million on Friday, even with previews, is bonkers.

If it comes in above $19.58 million over the weekend, it'll be the biggest OW for a foreign film in the U.S. since 1998 (the first Pokémon movie). And it should go without saying, but it'll become (already is?) the highest grossing R-rated animated film (or just non-G/PG I guess) ever in the U.S.. OF COURSE, that is unless I goofed again and forgot something obvious.

Very good for Mortal Kombat too, just more or less "expected" ahead of opening.

Nice to see two films aiming for $20 million(+) again.

What's interesting is that having a streaming component hasn't really shown to be hitting films, except maybe Raya may have opened a little better with just theaters. GvK and Mortal Kombat probably wouldn't have much higher openings without the HBO Max deal, Nobody and Croods with healthy legs despite being on PVOD after 17 days.

The South Park movie ($52 million) and Sausage Party ($97.7 million) both top it. I think that's basically it though for movies that made over $10 million, both are extreme anomalies.



I think what these hybrid releases have revealed, more than anything, is that theatre/at home viewing habits have been set in stone for a while now, and that these early VOD releases aren't changing viewing habits as much as one might have expected - the patrons theaters were worried about losing to VOD probably haven't been going to the theater for years anyway, so it's not as big of a loss as it might appear, while a large chunk of the public still views $8-15 for a movie ticket as a better deal than a $20 at-home rental.

There was actually one pre-pandemic indication of this divide, I think: Parasite's post-DVD box office run. The movie was released on DVD on January 26 (and on VOD a week or two earlier IIRC), and yet it grossed an additional $22.3 million after that, or over 40% of its total domestic gross, and enjoyed the two biggest weekends of its entire run. After its historic Oscars wins, the public had the easy option to rent it at home on VOD or pick it up from a RedBox, but a couple million people still opted to catch it in theaters.

Brilliant BO weekend. It's gaining good depth again which is great for upcoming summer.

DS surprises with its great Friday numbers. Does anyone know how much it did in previews?

MK also had a great weekend. I think it's over performance is because of lack of competition.

Both these movies could be frontloaded for different reasons.

Great numbers. There's so much untapped box office potential now but most studios seem to be waiting for international markets to open up so are still geared to Q3 and Q4. We'll have a fairly empty spring lighter summer than an overly packed fall and winter.

The original MK made $23,283,887 OW in 1995. This one even with 26 years of inflation looks like it won't be too far off from that.

How do you figure that? The original would adjust to almost 49.3 million OW. Probably over 50 if the prices adjusted accurately, the average hasn't moved from 2019 prices for obvious reasons.

Not to take anything away from the openers, it's great. This could have easily played out like that ridiculous Street Fighter reboot. But props to MK staying popular and moving with the times.

Amazing for both openers, and I'm glad that these releases can co-exist with streaming for the time being, although I don't love the precedent it may set long-term toward the continual erosion of the theatrical window.

Great to see the box office getting back to normal. Hope it keeps it up. Curious how Spiral does. Probably low double digits?

Under normal times Mortal Kombat would probably have a crummy 2.2 multiplier but with no Black Widow and no big competition it should beat Tenet's domestic number.

Two day totals look like $17.75m (MK) and $16m (DS) right now...

Cool

Wait an anime had 9 million opening day?