Box Office Report: Freddy And Taylor Swift Get Butts Into Theater Seats
Box Office analysis is provided by Daniel Garris of BoxOfficeReport.com.
Weekend Estimates Update - November 3rd, 2023 to November 5th, 2023:
Universal and Blumhouse's Five Nights at Freddy's experienced a very sharp decline in its second weekend, but was still able to hold onto first place at the box office this weekend with an estimated $19.40 million. The video game based, PG-13 rated horror film declined 75.8 percent from last weekend's break-out performance. The only films that opened with at least $25 million to have larger second weekend declines were 2012's The Devil Inside (-76.2 percent), 2017's All Eyez on Me (-78.0 percent), last year's Halloween Ends (-80.0 percent) and 2009's Friday the 13th (-80.4 percent). Despite Five Nights at Freddy's going over quite well with its younger target audience, the film just wasn't able to avoid the initial built-in front-loading from so many fans of the video game series having rushed out to see the film over opening weekend. The film also being available to stream on Peacock thanks to a day-and-date opening no doubt also contributed towards this weekend's decline (Halloween Ends was also released day-and-date by Universal last year).
When disregarding the percentage decline itself, this weekend's gross for Five Nights at Freddy's still represented a very solid second weekend performance for a modestly budgeted horror film, and obviously in the bigger picture the box office performance of Five Nights at Freddy's remains extremely impressive as a whole thanks in large part to the film's opening weekend take. Five Nights at Freddy's zoomed past the $100 million domestic mark this weekend and has grossed $113.60 million through ten days of domestic release. That already makes Fives Nights at Freddy's the seventh highest grossing video game based film of all-time domestically and the fourth highest grossing film ever for Blumhouse domestically.
Five Nights at Freddy's held up far better internationally this weekend with an estimated $35.6 million from 74 international markets. In holdover markets, Five Nights at Freddy's declined 54 percent from last weekend, and the film opened in eleven additional markets this weekend (including Spain with $5.0 million and Italy with $4.0 million). Respective totals for Five Nights at Freddy's stand at $103.5 million internationally and at $217.1 million globally. Additional totals for totals for Five Nights at Freddy's by international market through Sunday include $16.9 million in Mexico, $10.6 million in the United Kingdom, $7.7 million in Brazil, $6.5 million in Australia, $4.9 million in Germany, $4.0 million in Argentina, $3.6 million in Poland, $3.0 million in Chile and $2.8 million in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, AMC Theatres Distribution's release of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film held up tremendously well this weekend by declining a slim 12.5 percent to hold steady in second place with an estimated $13.50 million. Prior to this weekend, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film had been understandably front-loaded, but the concert film stabilized greatly this weekend. Last weekend's performance for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film was likely deflated by the combination of Halloween weekend festivities and Five Nights at Freddy's entering the marketplace, but the strength of this weekend's hold also suggests that repeat viewings for the concert film may be kicking more into gear now among fans of Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film may have also received an added boost this weekend from moviegoers who wanted to catch the concert film (or catch it again) before Disney's The Marvels enters the marketplace next weekend. With the inclusion of Thursday's $1.54 million performance, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film had a fourth weekend four-day estimated "weekend event" gross of $15.04 million. Through sixteen days of total release, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film has grossed a very impressive $165.93 million to date domestically. It has been announced that Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film will remain in domestic theatres next weekend.
Internationally, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film grossed an estimated $11.6 million this weekend. The concert film received a boost from opening in new international markets this weekend, including Brazil, India, South Korea and the U.A.E. Respective totals for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film stand at $65.1 million internationally and at $231.1 million globally.
Also stabilizing nicely this weekend was Paramount and Apple's Killers of the Flower Moon, which took in an estimated $7.00 million to remain in third place. That represented a decline of just 24.9 percent from last weekend. After last weekend's significantly sharper than expected second weekend decline, it was especially important for the expensive Killers of the Flower Moon to have a much better hold this weekend. In addition to rebounding from last weekend's Halloween frame, Killers of the Flower Moon was helped out this weekend by continuing to play on IMAX screens. However, this coming weekend Killers of the Flower Moon will be losing its IMAX screens to The Marvels. The 17-day domestic total for Killers of the Flower Moon stands at $52.33 million. Internationally, Killers of the Flower Moon grossed an estimated $11.9 million this weekend from 65 international markets. That brings the film's international total to $66.8 million and current global haul to $119.1 million. Estimated totals for Killers of the Flower Moon by international market through Sunday include $9.5 million in the United Kingdom, $8.2 million in France, $5.6 million in Germany, $4.2 million in Spain and $3.7 million in Australia. Killers of the Flower Moon grossed an estimated $1.3 million from global IMAX screens this weekend, which places the film's global IMAX total at $11.2 million.
Upon expanding to wide release in a relatively modest 1,359 locations this weekend, A24's Priscilla placed in fourth with an estimated $5.08 million. Priscilla performed in line with expectations and also had a nice expansion when considering the amount of locations the film played in this weekend. With the addition of a week of platform release in New York and Los Angeles, Priscilla has grossed $5.31 million to date. The film about Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley was directed by Sofia Coppola and stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi. The audience breakdown for Priscilla skewed 75 percent under 35, just 25 percent over 35, 65 percent female and 35 percent male. Priscilla has gone over well with critics and will hope for that critical reception to help holding power going forward. Priscilla is scheduled to receive another expansion next weekend (though the extent of next weekend's expansion is currently unknown).
In moderate release, Pantelion and Participant's Radical was off to a very nice start this weekend with an estimated $2.73 million. That was good enough for fifth place among all films this weekend. Radical was playing in just 419 locations this weekend, which gave the film a healthy per-location average of $6,516 for the frame. The Eugenio Derbez-led film was directed by Christopher Zalla and has gone over very well with critics. While Derbez hasn't had many starring roles more recently, he has proven to be a box office draw domestically in the past (with films such has 2013's Instructions Not Included, 2017's How to Be a Latin Lover and 2018's Overboard), and looks like he could be proving that again with Radical. Radical may have also received a bit of a boost out of the gate this weekend thanks to early word of mouth potentially having already spread from the film opening in Mexico in October. Given the strength of this weekend's start, expect Radical to expand wider and to hold up well going forward.
In international box office news, Universal and DreamWorks Animation's Trolls Band Together grossed an estimated $13.2 million from 54 international markets. In holdover markets, Trolls Band Together declined a slim 14 percent this weekend. After its third weekend of international release, Trolls Band Together has grossed $56.9 million to date internationally. Estimated totals for Trolls Band Together by international market through Sunday include $15.5 million in the United Kingdom, $9.0 million in France, $4.7 million in Germany, $4.3 million in Brazil, $3.5 million in Mexico, $3.1 million in Spain and $2.0 million in the Netherlands. This coming Thursday (November 9), Trolls Band Together will open in Italy. Trolls Band Together will open domestically on November 17.
Read more at BoxOfficeReport.com
