Box Office Report for the Week Of May 12

What a wonderful weekend at the box office for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, with the biggest-ever opening for the franchise at $129 million globally and $56.5 million domestically. The movie outpaced its initial projections of $50 million domestically and $90 million internationally and signals that the moviegoing business is alive and well despite the disappointments of the past weekend. Plus any movie starring Kevin Durand will now be getting the Québec boost after he revealed to be speaking French on his Instagram page in the wake of his character from Abigail being Québécois. He will also appear on On jase this week, which is very exciting for anyone who listens to the famous Hockey podcast with seemingly worldwide appeal…

Regarding disappointments, The Fall Guy‘s previous weekend was pretty dire, but it seems to be holding up quite well, despite Planet of the Apes taking all of the IMAX and Premium Large Format screens for the weekend. The film made a pretty decent $13.7 million tally this weekend, with a 51% drop. The positive word of mouth from audiences must’ve worked in its favor, even if its marketing campaign was all over the place. Perhaps it may leg out much better than anticipated, provided Universal does not release the movie on VOD next week.

Speaking of, Challengers is releasing on VOD on May 15, which is quite weird since it’s still holding up well in its third weekend with a $4.6 million domestic tally and only a 38% drop from last week. As much as studios would like to think otherwise, this kills the legs it could gain by prematurely dropping the movie early on video platforms because piracy ultimately prevails.

Of course, if the math lines up and studios see no path to financial success on the big screen, by all means, release your movie on VOD early. However, if a film can leg out and be far more profitable in cinemas than on streaming, why would you release the film early at home? I get that the pandemic has changed viewing abilities, perhaps permanently.

But when demand for large-format entertainment, particularly IMAX, has grown in a post-lockdown environment, the choice should be to keep these high-profile films as long as possible in cinemas so they’re not just “pieces of content” but worldwide events. Oppenheimer showed that having a long theatrical window is still possible, resulting in more success for Universal than all of their previous post-pandemic hits. And what did they do instead? Double down on two-week theatrical windows…

Perhaps one day, they will learn, and Planet of the Apes will leg out (despite the middling CinemaScore) until Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Garfield Movie take a bite out of the box office in two weeks from now! John Krasinski‘s IF is another movie to watch, as it may make a bigger splash in cinemas next week than initially anticipated.

Here is the full list of the top ten movies of the weekend:

1. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Disney): $56.5M – 4,075 theatres
2. The Fall Guy (Universal): $13.7M (-51%) – 4,008 theatres
3. Challengers (Amazon MGM Studios): $4.6M (-38%) – 2,609 theatres
4. Tarot (Sony): $3.4M (-47%) – 3,104 theatres
5. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Warner Bros): $2.5M (-44%) – 2,531 theatres
6. Unsung Hero (Lionsgate): $2.3M (-25%) – 2,272 theatres
7. Kung Fu Panda 4 (Universal): $2.0M (-20%) – 2,111 theatres
8. Civil War (A24): $1.8M (-49%) – 2,204 theatres
9. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (Disney): $1.5M (-83%) – 2,700 theatres
10. Abigail (Universal): $1.1M (-53%) – 1,641 theatres

Source: Comscore