‘TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS’ CONQUERS ‘SPIDER-VERSE’ WITH $60M+ OPENING, BUT ANIMATED PIC’S SECOND WEEKEND HOLD STRONG – BOX OFFICE

UPDATED Sunday AM: After a Saturday of $19.3M, -25% from Friday, Paramount/Skydance/Hasbro’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has taken the weekend with $60.5M. This despite Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse winning Saturday with $21.2M, +26% over Friday, for a second weekend of $55.4M.

With a running cume of $225.5M, the sequel has already beaten the domestic take of the original 2018 Oscar-winning animated pic, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which did $190.2M. Still, at a -54% second weekend hold, that’s fantastic for a Marvel movie, after you consider a bulk of the Disney MCU titles have tumbled -60% to -70% in the post-pandemic era (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the exception of late with a -48% second weekend hold).

More from Deadline

Working in Rise of the Beasts’ favor to dominate over Across the Spider-Verse were those $8.8M previews, which were from Wednesday and Thursday showtimes.

What about the air quality in the Northeast? Did that throw a monkey-wrench into business? Possibly. The good news is that no theaters were forced to close. Rise of the Beasts overperformed in the West, South-central and Southeast, but under-indexed in the Northeast (the pic takes place in New York City). Canada drove 6.9% of the pic’s business, and the air quality issues there because of the wildfires may have impacted box office here as well. Major markets that over-indexed include L.A., Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Antonio, while major markets that under-indexed include Boston, Denver, and Minneapolis. Top theaters came from L.A., Phoenix, Atlanta, NY, Baltimore, Atlanta, Fresno, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Austin, and Miami.

Global start for Rise of the Beasts at $170.5M, with $40M coming from China.

“Rrrraww — we beat Spider-Man”

“There’s a love for this franchise, that’s why there’s been as many films as there’s been,” said Paramount domestic distribution boss Chris Aronson this AM about the Steven Caple Jr.- directed sequel, “We’ve made a movie that was uber-satisfying for the audience.”

It should also be noted that Bumblebee, though owning the lowest opening in the Transformers franchise at $21.6M, laid the groundwork for introducing a more heartfelt tone to the crash, bang, boom protagonists. It’s part of the reason why we’re seeing a lift here in Rise of the Beasts. It’s important to note that Transformers movies typically open on their own weekend in a summer, and Bumblebee was a Christmas play serving as counter-programming and third fiddle to Warner Bros DC’s Aquaman.

Get this: Box office data firm EntTelligence is calling a tie in regards to admissions between Rise of the Beasts and Across the Spider-Verse with 4.3M apiece. How’s that? The photo-finish ranking vs box office can be attributed to pricing and availability with premium seating: Transformers had an average ticket price of $13.51, and saw 31% premium foot traffic, while Spider-Verse had an average ticket price of $12.49 and premium foot traffic of 9% (this despite Transformers having 399 Imax grossing $6.4M and 700 PLF screens).

EntTelligence also shows:

Both films with a family appeal had similar Saturday foot traffic patterns. 

TRANFORMERSSPIDER-MANPre 1PM14%15%1PM to 5PM31%33%5PM to 8PM31%31%Post 8PM24%21%

There’s a lot to be happy about in the theatrical marketplace: People talk about franchise and superhero fatigue: That didn’t occur this weekend at the box office. A 16-year old cinema franchise based on a near 40-year old toy was able to revive interest in moviegoers and its fanbase after the movie series saw some of its lowest openings in its history.

On the comic book movie side, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is zooming toward a 3x multiple off its $118M opening weekend after we thought summer was off to a slow start, and Spider-Verse is injecting extra adrenaline into the box office, not just with its hold, but in regards to revolutionizing the superhero sub-genre. Yes, true, Warner Bros DC has the long-awaited The Flash next weekend, with its tabloid headline star Ezra Miller (who is not part of the press tour), and that’s only expected to open to $75M. Let’s wait and see where grosses go: the Rotten Tomatoes reviews are at 71% fresh off 117 reviews. Aquaman, the highest-grossing DC movie of all-time at $1.1 billion WW, notched 65% with Rotten Tomatoes critics.

Still, for two movies which are big draws among diverse demos to battle it out is a great thing for the marketplace. And it’s a sign that the summer box office is in full bloom. However, with all films grossing $164M this weekend, -1% from the same frame in pre-pandemic 2019, the question remains how counterprogramming and smaller films can fight their way through. That haggard argument that it’s about product stands tried and true: No one wants to see movies that look like they can be viewed at home on a streaming menu, read The Machine, About My Father (both of which lost north of 1,400 theaters in third weekend), and Kandahar. The arthouse will thrive off of vibrant, edgy, hipster fare like Everything Everywhere All at Once proved after Covid. What about Ticket to Paradise? New Julia Roberts and George Clooney romcoms aren’t available at home; that’s why that worked.

Greta Lee and Teo Yoo in ‘Past Lives’

However, wait a second, talk about filling the void at the box office: A24 did it again this weekend with Past Lives. The Celine Song- directed love story starring Greta Lee had one of the best second weekend expansions in recent memory, definitely of the year, jumping up 22 theaters to 26 for a $520K second weekend take (+124%), or $20K theater average, which is bigger than Rise of the Beasts and Spider-Verse‘s theater average this weekend.

The pic, which counts a running total of $867K through ten days, is one of the best-reviewed of the year (97% Rotten Tomatoes) and will continue its rollout on June 23. A24 had another Asian American and Asian arthouse success back in pre-pandemic July 2019 with the Awkwafina drama, The Farewell, which had a similar launch: The pic bowed to $355K at four theaters in weekend one and moved up to 35 theaters in weekend two earning $1.1M. The Farewell finaled its stateside gross at $17.6M. Remember, the current arthouse space is missing goldmines such as the Hollywood Arclight in LA.

The chart…

1.) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Par) 3,678 theaters, Fri $25.6M, Sat $19.3M Sun $15.5M 3-day $60.5M/Wk 1Final demos on Beasts: 76% general/24% family; 62% male/38% female; 26% 18-24/20% 25-34, 18-34=46%, 31% 35+ and diversity demos are 32% Hispanic and Latino, 31% Caucasian, 21% Black, 11% Asian, and 5% other.

2) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse (Sony) 4,332 (+19) theaters, Fri $16.8M Sat $21.2M Sun $17.4M 3-day $55.4M (-54%)/Total $225.4M/Wk 2

3.) The Little Mermaid (Dis) 4,320 theaters, Fri $6.8M Sat $8.7M Sun $7.1M 3 day $22.7M (-45%) Total $228.8M/Wk 3

4.) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Dis), 3,175 (-405) theaters, Fri $2M Sat $2.85M Sun $2.1M 3-day $7M (-34%) Total $335.4M/ Wk 6

5.) The Boogeyman (20th/Dis) 3,205 theaters, Fri $2.1M, Sat $2.79M Sun $1.9M 3-day $6.9M (-44%)/Total $24.7M/ Wk 2

6.) Fast X (Uni) 2,822 (-645) theaters Fri $1.52M Sat $2.1M Sun $1.58M 3-day $5.2M (-46%) Total $138.1M/ Wk 4

7.) Super Mario Bros (Uni) 1,789 (-555) theaters, Fri $640K Sat $870K Sun $610K 3-day $2.12M (-37%), Total $570.1M/Wk 10

8.) About My Father (LG) 960 theaters (-1,504), Fri $248K, Sat $333K Sun $263K 3-day $845K (-59%), Total $10.7M/Wk 3

9.) The Machine (Sony/Leg) 1,008 (-1,401) theaters, Fri $180K Sat $230K Sun $165K 3 day $575K (-65%) Total $10.1M/ Wk 3

10.) Past Lives (A24) 26 theaters (+22) Fri $202K Sat $178K Sun $140K 3-day $520,7K (+124%) Total $867K/Wk 2

UPDATED Saturday: Paramount/Skydance/Hasbro’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has the edge right now on Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, $60M to $55.88M. But today will still determine whether the latter pulls ahead. Is the difference really a matter of Rise of the Beasts gobbling up all the Imax and PLF screens, which are driving 37% of the gross? Or is it all about the animals like Optimus Primal?

In Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak exits, moviegoers said they went to see Rise of the Beasts because it was part of a franchise they loved (42%), it looked fun and entertaining (41%), genre/type of movie (35%), and the VFX (27%). Big family pull here as well, with 23% adults and 9% kids attending. Moviegoers don’t come for the stars when it comes to these movies. Some 8% are attending for the actors, and 7% for the actresses, per PostTrak.

First, an amazing comeback for Rise of the Beasts. This was a movie that saw its opening projections drop on tracking from a near $70M three weeks ago to as low as $47M-$52M, so to see that the seventhquel has upped its way to $60M is pretty impressive. Spider-Verse is close to where we saw it at $16.6M in its second Friday, and Rise of the Beasts is at a strong $25.6M yesterday (including $8.8M previews).

Rise of the Beasts’ opening weekend is a complete rebound from the 3-days of the previous two franchise installments, Bumblebee ($21.6M) and Transformers: The Last Knight ($44.6M). God knows if this franchise, opening-wise, will ever touch the $100M+ starts of some its other sequels. However, the robots keep trucking, and a majority of that has to do with its overseas and China appeal.

Moviegoers gave Rise of the Beasts an A- CinemaScore, the same grade as Bumblebee, and an upgrade from Last Knight’s B+. Audience exits from PostTrak are at 83% positive and a 68% recommend — not bad. Kids under 12 are more excited about the sequel at 90% positive and a 73% recommend. A huge diverse audience as expected at 30% Black, 28% Latino and Hispanic ( a growth in these first two demos as Bumblebee drew 25% Latino and Hispanic and 14% Black), 25% Caucasian and 17% Asian/other. The 18-34 bunch repped 54% of business, with the biggest demo being 18-24 year olds at 31%. Transformers played strong everywhere, but was strongest in the South, South Central, and West. 

Rise of the Beasts was loud on social media, per RelishMix, with a social media universe that stretched to 895.1M, out-pacing action sci-fi comps by 2.8x across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Hasbro and the sequel’s movie pages are driving 32M alone. The social media wattage here for Rise of the Beasts is ahead of Bumblebee (325.6 SMU), Super Mario Bros (607M SMU), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (723.2M SMU) and Across the Spider-Verse (665.1M SMU). Momentum on the campaign has throttled since the Super Bowl spot in February, which pulled in 43.3M in the 24 hours following the big game online.

Rise of the Beasts‘ social media queen is YouTube personality Liza Koshy, who has pointed her 74.5M fans toward the movie. She provides the voice to the Transformer Acree in the film. Other actors’ social media pull include Ron Pearlman (4.6M), Tobe Nwigwe (3.7M), and Anthony Ramos (2.1M).

The bad and good news on the overall marketplace: all films are grossing an estimated $169M, which is down 21% from the same June weekend a year ago, which did $214.8M — but that’s when Universal had Jurassic World: Dominion opening to $145M. However, we are +2% from the same frame in 2019 ($165.7M), which is when Universal/Illuminaton’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 debuted to $46.6M.

UPDATED, Friday afternoon: Paramount/Skydance/Hasbro’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will easily win Friday with $25 million over Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s second Friday of $16.5M. But as far as the weekend goes at this point, it’s too close to call who will finish No. 1, with both coming in around $58M.

While Rise of the Beasts now has the PLF and Imax screens in its 3,678 theater count, the question remains how big the films’ respective Saturdays are. Some rivals are betting that Spider-Verse could surge 50% on Saturday over Friday, while Rise of the Beasts eases back a third from its combined $8.8M previews + Friday take. All of this hinges on how much walk-up business Spider-Verse gets to Rise of the Beasts’ presales. The Rotten Tomatoes Audience score on Rise of the Beasts is 88%, which is higher than Bumblebee (74%) and way ahead of Transformers: The Last Knight (43%).

A $58M weekend would get Spider-Verse to a 10-day total of $228.5M by Sunday. On Saturday, the Sony Animation title will beat the lifetime cume of the original first movie, 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ($190.2M), in an amazing nine days.

Industry estimates for the third weekend of Disney’s The Little Mermaid in third place is $24M, down 41% after a $6.8M Friday, (-42%), and a running total by Sunday of $230M. That total is just 1% behind Aladdin at the same point in time, with the latter Disney live-action feature take of an animated movie ending its stateside run at $355.5M.

(L-R) Arcee (voice: Liza Koshy) and Wheeljack (voice: Cristo Fernandez) in ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’

PREVIOUSLY, Friday AM: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts grossed $8.8 million in previews from 3,100-plus locations — that’s from a fan event at 7 p.m. Wednesday and previews that began at 3 p.m. Thursday. Sans Wednesday fan grosses, the Paramount/Skydance/Hasbro sequel did $7.6M.

A recent comp is Fast X’s previews at $7.6M, which wound up doing a $28M first Friday and $67M opening weekend last month.

The debate is whether Rise of the Beasts or Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in its second weekend takes No. 1. Both are eyeing $50M+. The latter Amy Pascal-Avi Arad-Chris Miller-Phil Lord-Christina Steinberg production did an estimated $10.1M on Thursday at 4,313 theaters, ending its first week with $170.5M. Among Hollywood movies, not including Japanese anime, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse holds the record for the longest running time for an animated movie at 140 minutes per Comscore — longer than The Incredibles 2 at 118 minutes (in comparison to movies that are purely animated, not hybrid).

Tracking was hot three weeks ago for Rise of the Beasts nearing $70M, but has cooled since. Paramount has strived to reboot the franchise here with a more grounded human storyline and the introduction of the animal Transformers. There’s also a cool, audacious cliffhanger, if this Hasbro franchise can pull it off.

RELATED: ‘Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts’ Trailer: Autobots And Maximals Unite In Fight To Save The World

The previous movie in the franchise, Transformers: The Last Knight, opened on a Wednesday back in 2017 and did $5.5M before posting a $15.6M first day in a weekend that was $44.6M over three days, $68.4M over five. Rise of the Beasts’ preview number also towers over that of the Transformers spinoff movie Bumblebee, which had a pre-Christmas weekend release back in 2018; that pic did $2.85M including both Thursday night and fan sneaks. Bumblebee opened to a three-day of $21.6M.

Rise of the Beasts, co-financed by Skydance, cost a net $195M. The grab here with this long-in-the-tooth feature series is overseas, which is projected at $100M, half of that coming from China where they love the robots in disguise.

The summer box office for the period of May 1-June 4 cleared $1 billion thanks to Spider-Verse, which is 8% ahead of 2022 at the same point in time ($925.1M), but 19% behind the summer of Avengers: Endgame, 2019, which stood at $1.24 billion at that point in time.

The rest of Thursday was as follows:

Disney’s The Little Mermaid did $4M to Spider-Verse‘s $10.1M on Thursday. Little Mermaid, booked at 4,320 theaters, ends Week 2 with $59.5M and a running total of $205.1M.

20th Century Studios/Disney’s The Boogeyman at 3,205 theaters did $1.2M Thursday, -1%, for a first week of $17.7M.

Disney’s fifth week of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 at 2,902 theaters did $15.7M after a $1.1M Thursday, -6% from Wednesday, for a running total of $328.6M.

Universal’s Fast X grossed $816K Thursday, -11% from Wednesday, for a third week of $13.7M and running total of $138.9M.

Best of Deadline
For more stories like this, follow us on MSN by clicking the button at the top of this page.

Click here to read the full article.

2023-06-09T14:59:22Z dg43tfdfdgfd