Elsewhere, Japanese pic ‘Godzilla Minus One’ is a surprise win for cinema owners in opening to $11 million.
With its largest opening at the early December box office in two decades, Beyoncé’s latest concert film was a tremendous hit at the North American box office.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, which the diva wrote, directed, and produced, made a better-than-expected $21 million from 2,536 sites in its nationwide premiere. The film received positive reviews and the highly sought-after A+ CinemaScore from viewers. AMC Theaters is being more conservative and staying with $21 million until weekend actuals are determined. Rival studios predict the picture will gross $22 million.
However, the concert film had a terrible opening weekend abroad, grossing an estimated $6.4 million from 94 markets, far less than the $20 million that was anticipated. For instance, it ranked No. 4 in the United Kingdom and No. 6 in Australia.
The concert film is the second release from AMC, a chain of mega-theaters that is also home to the critically acclaimed Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
More over 70% of American moviegoers who purchased tickets for Renaissance were female, and 52% of them were Black, marking a victory for diversity programming. 43 percent of ticket buyers were between the ages of 25 and 34, making up over 70 percent of the total.
Since the weekend following Thanksgiving is usually slow, Renaissance is a much-needed gift for exhibitors. Without accounting for inflation, Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai has received the largest opening for the first weekend of December to date, grossing $24.3 million. As an example, domestic box office revenues for the Dec. 1-3 frame increased by 7 percent in 2019 and by 76% in comparison to the same frame in 2018.
Renaissance, which follows Beyoncé’s last global tour, will be distributed by AMC Theatres. Like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and her team made the decision to forego Hollywood studios and include behind-the-scenes video that reveals the concert’s preparation and execution.
When Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour debuted to an astounding $92.8 million domestically in October, it was the highest launch ever for a concert film, and Swift and AMC created history. Given that Renaissance’s audience is older, no one anticipated that she would do the same kind of business.
Prior to Eras Tour, the record for the highest domestic opening for a concert film was held by Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana: The Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour (2008), with $31.1 million, without accounting for inflation. 2011’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, which debuted at $29.5 million, came next.
In its third weekend, Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which has held in well, finished second with $14.5 million from 3,691 theaters for a $121.2 million domestic total. It has accrued $122.7 million abroad, for a total cume of $243.9 million worldwide.
Renaissance wasn’t the only unusual gift for exhibitors this weekend. Toho’s Japanese film Godzilla Minus One came in third with a resounding $11 million from 2,308 theaters, thanks to younger men. Males made up 77 percent of ticket buyers on Friday, with 63 percent of all ticket buyers between the ages of 18 and 34.
This weekend saw The Shift launch nationwide as well; it debuted in ninth place with a meager $4.2 million from 2,405 locations. Angel Studios is the production company behind the sci-fi, religious film, Sound of Freedom. The action-thriller Silent Night from Lionsgate and filmmaker John Woo came in ninth place with an opening weekend gross of $3 million (the company emphasized that this is a strong result for a movie that will soon be available on Premium VOD).
In other circumstances, there was bad news about Disney Animation’s Wish and Apple Original Films’ Napoleon for Thanksgiving.
Band of Trolls Wish and Napoleon found themselves tied for fourth place together. The three movies are expected to bring in around $7 million over the course of a weekend.
With $7.6 million from 3,616 theaters for a domestic total of $74.8 million through its third weekend and $85.8 million worldwide for a global total of $160.6 million, Illumination and Universal’s Trolls threequel emerged victorious.
Disney Animation’s Wish had a significant decline of 62 percent, which is terrible news for Disney. With an estimated $7.4 million from 3,900 sites, the family movie came in fifth place with $42 million in domestic sales. With China excluded, the music-infused movie earned an additional $18.8 million overseas, giving its early international total of $39.6 million and $81.6 million worldwide a 44 percent hold.
Napoleon, which debuted ahead of schedule over Thanksgiving, is in even worse shape from Apple Original Films and Sony, dropping 66 percent to $7.1 million from 2,500 cinemas on its second trip. Hollywood experts aren’t surprised by the dramatic drop, given that the biographical epic received a B- CinemaScore from viewers and had low PostTrak departure rates. As of Sunday, the domestic tally for the big-budget film is anticipated to be $45.7 million.
The Apple drama performed much better abroad, bringing in $28.6 million for a total of $90.9 million and $136.6 million worldwide. Similar to most Hollywood productions, it did not succeed in China, earning a meager $2.8 million.
On the other hand, Wish had an A CinemaScore and solid exits, suggesting that good word-of-mouth might help it continue to gain momentum throughout the year-end holidays.
Additionally showing in cinemas is Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, an Apple Original Film. It provided full funding for both big-budget pictures, but unlike a traditional Hollywood studio, it is not subjected to the same criteria regarding the box office performance of its productions (Disney, for instance, is now receiving a lot of flak for its big-budget flops). Killers of the Flower Moon made an estimated $148.8 million worldwide through Sunday when it concluded its theatrical run and moved onto streaming. Given that the film cost $200 million before marketing, this would be a serious issue in any other case.
Dream Scenario, a black comedy film from A24 starring Nicolas Cage, saw significant growth at the specialty box office during its fourth weekend, landing at position No. 12. With $1.7 million from 1,578 venues, the movie brought in $3.5 million domestically.
MGM/Amazon’s Saltburn, which grew into 1,566 theaters for a U.S. total of $6.2 million, came in second among Oscar specialty contenders with $1.7 million. In its sixth weekend, Focus Features’ The Holdovers brought in a total of $15.1 million, earning $1.1 million from 1,311 venues.
Dec. 3, 7:35 AM : Weekend projections have been updated.
Dec. 2, 10 AM : The position of The Shift on the box office chart was misstated in an earlier version of this article.
Originally published on December 2, at 7:55 a.m.