From Gaius Bolling

Mixed in with the great news for Sony Pictures that Gran Turismo won the box office crown last weekend, was a bit of snark from Warner Bros. regarding a bit of fluffing of the numbers. Barbie had to settle for second during its sixth record-breaking weekend and the studio was non too happy when they realized that the $17.4 million earned by Gran Turismo wasn't the true opening weekend number and that the $15.1 million earned by Barbie should've allowed it to reclaim the top spot. A crunching of the numbers will be explored and after reading this you might find yourself thinking like me and wondering why any of this even matters.

Since actors can't promote films right now due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Sony came up with a marketing strategy that would allow the fans to promote Gran Turismo ahead of release through a couple of weeks of pre-show screenings. Essentially after the screenings the social media embargo would be lifted and casual moviegoers exploring social media could possibly see glowing early reactions to the film. This is nothing really new as studios have done this a lot to build interest so there is no real controversy around the strategy but Warner Bros. finds some regarding the money earned during those screenings.

So the $17.4 million grossed during Gran Turismo's opening weekend includes $1.4 million from Thursday previews the day before the true opening day. This is a studio standard and Warner Bros. isn't disputing that figure. What they are disputing is the $3.9 million earned during those pre-show screenings being included in the opening weekend numbers. Without those figures, Gran Turismo opens to $13.4 million and would've placed second behind Barbie's $15.1 million, allowing our pink girl and her Kens to jump back to number one after six weeks. While I can see Warner Bros.' frustration on some level, it really does feel like a childish thing to complain about since that money was earned legitimately from paying customers that saw the film early.

The frustration I can see on their part is regarding headlines. It looks good on Sunday to wake up as a studio to say your film jumped back to number one after relinquishing the top spot for one week to Blue Beetle. Barbie, prior to the DC release, spent four weeks at number one and has been breaking records left and right ever since. Even this weekend, while placing second, the film became the highest-grossing domestic release of 2023 and it also became the biggest global hit for Warner Bros., topping the last Harry Potter movie. When you're breaking records like that, doesn't it seem silly as a studio to try to take the number one crown from a smaller film that won't come close to achieving the level of success they've seen with Barbie?

Sony isn't the first studio to pull this move. Paramount Pictures did it earlier this year with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. That film grossed $5.6 million in preview screenings held a week before the film's official opening and that figure was added to the movie's $37.2 million opening weekend.  Not to mention Warner Bros. has also done this but they'll make excuses that it was done during a much darker time for cinema. The studio rolled in grosses from 11 preview screenings for Tenet into that film's $20 million opening weekend. As you remember, Tenet opened during the pandemic when theaters were mostly shuttered and not completely open to full capacity so I'm sure they think those were special circumstances but it's interesting a studio that has done this already, is crying foul about another studio doing it today.

At the end of the day, Gran Turismo would have that $3.9 million in the bank no matter what. When box office was reported by Deadline this week, they stressed that all the other major studios had no issue with what Sony did because they know they might be in a position to do the same one day. Only Warner Bros. took them to task and I just have to say, calm down, count your Barbie money, and leave poor Gran Turismo alone.

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