Top 5 Breakdown
- Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge – £5,238,049- NE
Includes £690,697 from previews Thursday and took £2.07m on Bank Holiday Monday increasing its box office to £7.31m for 5 days.
Salazar’s Revenge had the 12th biggest opening of the year behind Beauty and the Beast, Furious 8, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Sing, Logan, The Boss Baby, The Lego Batman Movie, Fifty Shades Darker, La La Land, Kong: Skull Island and Assassin’s Creed. Six years ago At World’s End had one of the biggest openings of 2011 with £11.63m, (including £3.07m from Wednesday and Thursday previews).
In recent years Disney has had strong success as they concentrate on franchise properties and reimaginations which are software to their hardware theme park hardware and merchandise.
But while last year had massive success with Rogue One, The Jungle Book, Finding Dory and Captain America; Civil War but Alice Through the Looking Glass was an unwanted addition to the Alice in Wonderland story as Salazar’s Revenge was always expected to be after the poor reception to the fourth Pirates of The Caribbean film On Stranger Tides 6 years ago.
After having massive success with Beauty and the Beast Salazar’s Revenge and Cars 3 were always expected to be problematic films as they were both sequels to previous films that underperformed at the box office so questionable about why extend their stories.
Salazar’s Revenge opened 55% less than 2011’s On Stranger Tides, 61% less than 2006’s At World’s End, 62% less than 2007’s Dead Man’s Chest but 39% more than 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl. But comparing their admissions was vastly lower than all then including 19% less than The Curse of the Black Pearl.
What was most surprising about Salazar’s Revenge was it received very positive reaction when it was screened to exhibitors in March at CinemaCon showing they are often clueless when it comes to a film being a success Odeon famously slating Mamma Mia and Avatar.
But was no surprise when the embargo ended last week that the film received poor reviews. Going into what was expected to be a hot sunny weekend it was looking like a repeat of May 2012 Bank Holiday weekend when MIB 3 opened over also a hot sunny weekend after receiving mixed reviews with £2.9m over a 3 day weekend this compares similarly to £5.23m of Salazar’s Revenge over a 4 day when you add in the 20% ticket inflation. But while MIB3 picked up after its disappointing opening holding strongly in weeks after release going on to take £21.9m after staying in the top 15 chart for 11 weeks Salazar’s Revenge will likely take a third less and last half that time in the top 10.
Even before the tragic events on Monday in Manchester Disney choose to have their European launch for Salazar’s Revenge in Paris with no talent coming to promote the film in the UK. Normally Disney will bring talent to the UK for their promotion tours as all their films released last year Rogue One, Queen of Katwe, Finding Dory, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Jungle Book and Zootropolis and Beauty and the Beast in March. But it’s a long time since Disney launched a massive franchise without having a UK launch while premieres for Wonder Woman and The Mummy were canceled after Monday’s terrorist attack in Manchester there weren’t any plans to do so before.
Going into the weekend was always likely Salazar’s Revenge would underperform in the UK once the embargo ended and the media was flooded by negative reviews. Always find it strange when is an embargo for a film that could receive poor reviews as instead of reviews coming out ad-hoc the media is flooded with negative reviews which must affect the public far more as are harder to avoid. An embargo for a big film makes t
If watching Salazar’s Revenge was bad enough those who sat during the end credits were faced with a post credit scene setting up more installments. Most watching Salazar’s Revenge will hope part five is the end as most thought while watching Pirates 2 in 2006.
A week before the film released Disney’s Bob Iger strangely revealed that they were hacked and hackers had threatened to release an upcoming film. With only two summer films many speculated it was Salazar’s Revenge which of course generated huge media coverage. On Thursday, the day before the film opened he said that they weren’t hacked making many believe this was being used as an excuse if as many believed the film would underperform at the box office.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul -£1,444,092 – NE
Thanks to the previews last weekend taking £774,587 the reboot opened in second without the previews would have opened fourth. As weekend previews are now a regular addition to family films they must be included with their opening but it does make it much more difficult to compare their openings with previous films.
2010’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid opened 27th August 2010 £671,161 taking £2.52m
2011’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules opened 27th May 2011 £1.76m taking £5.22m
2012’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days opened 3rd August 2012 £1.53m taking £7.35m.
With limited choices, available for younger audiences during half term will overtake the box office of the first film but unlikely to come close to the box office of its sequels as once half term is over it won’t last long in cinemas.
It is surprising the lack of content for the younger audience this half-term with films like The Boss Baby and A Dog’s Purpose played out as half terms are a very lucrative time for younger audiences.
Maybe 20th Century Fox would have been better to open Captain Underpants this weekend rather than holding it over to summer holidays when they have the competition of Despicable Me 3, Cars 3, The Emoji Movie and The Nutty Job 2? But of course, would have thought as most did that Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge and Baywatch would crowd out the market but neither are targeting younger audiences.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 -£885,675 – £37,819,438
Down 54.4% in its fifth weekend having overtaken Iron Man 3 and Captain America: Civil War become the biggest non-Avengers Marvel Cinematic Universe film in the UK.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story as while it might be the biggest by box office it will still come short to 2013’s Iron Man 3 admissions of 5.62m Vs 5.26m. Since 2013 ticket prices have increased by over 16% so its then box office of £36.68m is now £42.75m.
Showing again while Marvel Cinematic Universe films have increased their box office over the last nine years this has more to do with ticket prices increasing by 50% since then more people seeing the films. As the audience for comic-book movies is similarly shown by the performances of DC’s Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad all similar box office totals.
Over the last five weeks Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 has been helped by the poor performances of its competition Alien: Covenant, King Arthur, and Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge faced bigger competition last weekend from the weather. With Baywatch and Wonder Woman it will again drop heavily this weekend.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 will likely end with slightly less than £40m which will probably be enough to make it the biggest comic-book movie of the year despite course Wonder Woman opening this weekend likely to do close to previous DC films. Spider-Man Homecoming in July likely to take £30m+ close to previous Spider-Man films; Spider-Man £28.59m, Spider- Man 2 £26.41m, Spider-Man 3 £33.45m, The Amazing Spider-Man £25.74m and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 £23.64m. Unless it plays like Avengers 2.1 with the addition of Iron Man as Captain America: Civil Wat but its marketing has been confusing including the last trailer and its horrible photoshopped poster. Thor; Ragnarok with the addition of The Hulk is more Avengers than previous Thor films and the teaser was one of the most watched which will see Thor join the £30m club.
- Alien: Covenant – £725,145 – £11,629,455
Down 65.9% in its third weekend compares to Prometheus dropping only 36% in its third weekend taking £2m 64% more and £19.45m total 40.5% more.
After three weeks Prometheus had taken 81.3% of its final box office of £21.91m Alien: Covenant has in comparison taken over 90% of its final box office of £13m+ which will be 45% less than Prometheus. A direct comparison isn’t possible as Prometheus took about 50% of its box office from 3D which would see £3.6m in surcharges but of course, ticket prices are up over 20% since 2012.
When Life opened in March (taking £3.68m) it was described as an Alien rip-off but now many have described Alien: Covenant a rip-off of Life as both films have underperformed they both screwed each other.
Originally Life was due to be released in May to open Memorial Day weekend against Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. But when Alien: Covenant was brought forward from August 5th to May 19th (was brought forward another week a few weeks later) Sony had to move Life away from Alien into March which was already crowded with Logan, Kong: Skull Island, Beauty and the Beast and Power Rangers.
20th Century Fox’s Alien move caused many of the rivals to rearrange their release schedules as they also moved Kingsman: The Golden Circle from June 16 to October 5 leaving War for the Planet of the Apes their only other summer release. While Sony moved Life from May to March. Warner Bros moved CHiPs from August to March and moved Annabelle 2 from May 19 to Aug 12. Paramount then pushed Baywatch back a week to Memorial Day weekend causing Warner to move King Arthur: Legend of the Sword from March to May 12.
There is no word if Alien: Covenant box office performance has changed any of 20th Century Fox’s plans for Ridley Scott to make a third Alien prequel which was expected to film in 2018 for a 2019 release after he completes the Getty kidnap thriller All The Money In The World which starts shooting shortly.
- King Arthur: Legend of the Sword – ££593,777 – £3,814,733
Down 76.2% in its second weekend having the second biggest second-weekend drops for a wide release this year after Underworld: Blood Wars suffering a bigger drop this year 88.3%. After receiving poor reviews and word of mouth this was always expected but still suffered a bigger drop due to the arrival of Salazar’s Revenge and the sunny weather Fri-Sat.
King Arthur is now unlikely to match the total box office 2004’s King Arthur which took £7.05m or match the total of Guy Ritchie’s previous film The Man From U.N.C.L.E. which took £6.4m in 2015.
In recent years Warner Bros were one of the few studios that still willing to make high budget original films alongside their franchises and sequels but while audiences might say they are bored of those films many of their original films have underperformed. Including In the Heart of the Sea, Pan, Jupiter Ascending, and Jack the Giant Slayer, King Arthur will shortly overtake the total 2015’s Jupiter Ascending £4.2m
While The Legend of Tarzan and Edge of Tomorrow weren’t the huge hits they were meant to be and were seen as potential franchises was rumours there could still be an Edge of Tomorrow sequel, the original being one of the best original action films in recent years. But with The Mummy expected to disappoint Tom Cruise is likely to go from Mission Impossible 6 to Top Gun 2.
Warner Bros have had mixed success so far in 2017 with both The Lego Batman Movie and Kong: Skull Island falling a little short of expectations. After the first John Wick, disappointed at the box office due for being delayed and opening so close to Furious 7 the sequel performed well with John Wick 3 expected t start shooting later this year for a release next year.
There great expectations for Wonder Woman which is their best received DC film since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk is expected to be a strong performer if Harry Styles fans come out to see it, will be huge. The Conjuring spinoff sequel Annabelle 2 is likely to scare a few that is until IT opens in September the teaser trailer released in March was the most watched in 24 hours. For October, half-term Ninjago the latest Lego spinoff ad then end the year with Justice League which will do battle with Paddington.
Other box office news
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £9,680,476 up 9.63% from last weekend £8,747,892
The weekend admissions 1,306,407 up 10.6% from last weekend 1,180,552
13 films opened at weekend taking £6,978,861; Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge took 75.01%, Diary of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 20.07% with the remaining 11 films sharing £296,720 (4.98%)
Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge took 54.1% of the top 10 box office
The weekend was up 10.7% from last year (£8,739,604): Alice Through the Looking Glass £2,217,253, Money Monster £816,552, Love and Friendship £260,215, Bobby £1,061.
Down 21.8% from 2015: (£12,383,288): San Andreas £4.63m, Man Up £528,652, Danny Collins £225,000
Next weekend in 2016 (£7,187,384): The Boss £589,768, Mother’s Day £416,000 and Miracles from Heaven £20,000
UK Box Office Top 10
US Box Office Top 10
US Box Office
Disney – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales opened with $62.98m about 30% less than tracking had predicted over the last month which was over $90m; while receiving mixed reviews these films are normally critic-proof seen by it getting A- CinemaScore.
Many box office experts have predicted this summer will be down again on admissions and despite the start of the year starting strongly summer is 10% down from last year with King Arthur, Alien: Covenant and despite Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 opening 56% bigger its final box office will only be slightly higher than the original film.
If Dead Men Tell No Tales holds close to On Stranger Tides will be looking to take $165m the lowest of the film series in the US, its final box office will be 46% lower than the first film released 14 years ago when prices were 30% less while admissions will be 62% lower. This is highlighted by Dead Men Tell No Tales final admissions will probably be lower than Dead Man’s Chest opening weekend admissions.
As with so many films, China will come to the rescue to Dead Men Tell No Tales with its opening bigger than the US but as studios will only get less than half all it does artificially inflate their box office but not add that much to their profits. As with the recent The Fate of the Furious which just crossed $1 billion international due to almost 40% coming from China. This will likely be repeated by many other summer films this year including Dead Men Tell No Tales and Transformers: The Last Knight which is likely to take similarly 30% less than 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction.
With Wonder Woman and Captain Underpants opening, this weekend Dead Men Tell No Tales will drop close to 2011’s On Stranger Tides 55%+ taking $30m dropping down to third when The Hangover Part II and Kung Fu Panda 2 opened.
Marvel – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 dropping 42.6% in its fourth weekend raking $20.90m and $334.23m overtaking the total of the original film $333.17m. But while Guardians of the Galaxy had only taken 75.4% after 4 weeks its sequel has taken about 90% of its final box office of $365m. The sequel held stronger over the last two weeks due to the poor performance of its competition but will be a different story this weekend.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 box office is the fifth biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe film in the US after 24 days. Despite opening 54% bigger than the original the sequel will likely only take 9.5% more showing how front-loaded comic-book movies have become.
Globally Guardians of the Galaxy has taken $793.68m overtaking the first film’s global box office of $773.3m with $453m internationally and $3330m from the US.
Paramount – Baywatch
Opened with a very disappointing $18.5m in the days ahead of its release producers were talking up sequels but as this was after it had received reviews close to Chips this was always very unlikely.
Baywatch should have been critic-proof based on a cult TV show strong marketing and starring Dwayne Johnson after last two summers successes San Andreas and Central Intelligence. Instead, Baywatch has become his first disappointment since 2014’s Hercules putting more pressure on Jumanji reboot opening in December opening only 5 days after Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Baywatch generated strong social media coverage thanks to a strong marketing campaign and Dwayne Johnson who has 11.3m followers but just because people interact with a film on social media doesn’t mean people will see it. Studios make much these days from a number of times trailers are viewed online xXx: The Return of Xander Cage was viewed over 100m times in its first 2 days last November but only opened with $20.1m in January. Similarly, Warner Bros It teaser was viewed over 197m times in March while Star Wars: The Last Jedi teaser was seen 43m times in first 24 hours in April but will open with more than three times the size of It.
Some have blamed the failure of Dead Men Tell No Tales and Baywatch on how Rotten Tomatoes calculate their scorings but this is just an excuse as both should have been critic-proof. But what didn’t help was both films were targeting similar audiences so cannibalized each other.
The problem was more that the film was marketed as a 22 Jump Street clone but had an R-Rating alienating the audience the film was aimed at.
20th Century Fox – Alien: Covenant dropped 70.6% in its second weekend taking $10.61m and $57.43m total; in comparison Prometheus dropped 59.4% in its second weekend taking $20.71m taking $89.37m 70.6% of its final box office of $126.47m if Alien: Covenant was to hold similar would take about $83m 34% less than Prometheus.
Alien: Covenant has taken $160.98m globally to date but unlikely to match the global box office of Prometheus which took $403.35m. While Ridley Scott has plans to make another two prequels which will lead into Alien with diminishing box office for Alien: Covenant from Prometheus will 20th Century Fox be still as keen to do so?
Warner Bros – Everything, Everything dropped 37.3% in its second weekend taking $6.01m and $21.37m total
20th Century Fox’s Snatched dropped 49.2% in its third weekend taking $3.97m and $40.25m total;
20th Century Fox – Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul dropped 37.3% in its weekend taking $4.47m and $13.65m total
Warner Bros’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword dropped 53.9 in its second weekend taking $3.3m and $33.95m;
The Fate of the Furious dropped 53.9% in its seventh weekend taking $1.49m and $222.54m; in comparison, Furious 7 took more than double in its seventh weekend $3.64m and total of $343.78m 97.4% of its final box office of $353m.
The Fate of the Furious is holding close to Fast & Furious 6 which took $2.44m in its sixth weekend with total of $233.35m 97.8% of its final box office of $238.6m; while Fast Five took $3.16m in sixth week $201.97m 96.2% of final box office of $209.83m; The Fate of the Furious will end with $225m holding closer to both 2011’s Fast Five and 2013’s Fast & Furious 6.
The Boss Baby down 39.4% in its ninth weekend taking $1.78m and total of $168.95m; it is currently 20th Century Fox’s #8 biggest animated film and fourth biggest Dreamworks Animation film.
After eight weeks 2015’s Home took $1.75m and similar $168.1m 94.8% of its final box office of $177.3m if The Boss Baby performs similar ($178.6m) should overtake Ice Age, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Home to become 20th Century Fox’s fourth biggest animated film and second biggest Dreamworks Animation film behind The Croods.
Currently, #54 biggest animated film in the US overtaking Kung Fu Panda 2 will shortly overtake Hotel Transylvania 2, Tarzan and The Lego Batman Movie to become the biggest animated film in the US for 2017 until Despicable Me 3 next month.
Opened June 2nd
Opening UK
- Wonder Woman – Warner Bros
The fourth film of the DC Extended Universe starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Lucy Davis, Danny Huston and David Thewlis and directed by Patty Jenkins.
Development of Wonder Woman film started in 1996 with Ivan Reitman attached as producer and possible director; 3 years later Jon Cohen was attached to direct and Sandra Bullock attached to star.
The film went through many drafts before in March 2005 Warner Bros announced Joss Whedon would write and direct but then left the project in 2007. When through much more development over the next few years with many directors attached until February 2014 when Patty Jenkins was attached to be the first summer tentpole superhero film to be directed by a woman featuring a female hero.
There had been 18 comic-book movies previously made by Marvel and DC since 2008 none with female leads the closest were Black Widow who appeared in several Marvel Cinematic Universe films including Iron Man 2 and most recently in Captain America: Civil War been rumours of a spinoff film but still nothing in the pipeline. Marvel’s first will be Captain Marvel in 2019. While at DC after Wonder Woman David Ayer is set to direct Gotham City Sirens and Joss Whedon is currently attached to Batgirl.
Director Patty Jenkins has said she took her inspiration for Wonder Woman from Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman film.
Despite Marvel Cinematic Universe releasing their fifteenth film last month has yet to make their own female solo superhero despite many rumours of a Black Widow film. Captain Marvel will be their first female superhero film starring Brie Larson released in March 2019.
While over the last 9 years the Marvel Cinematic Universe received a positive reaction from fans and at the box office. DC Extended Universe films have been as successful in their early years as Marvel they haven’t been received as positively as Marvel films have by fans or critics. But Wonder Woman has received critical acclaim currently the highest-rated live-action superhero movie on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has currently got a 96% fresh rating higher than any other film in the DC Cinematic Universe Man of Steel was previous highest with 55%; Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad 28% and 25%. Wonder Woman is currently ahead of Marvel Cinematic Universe, where it edges out Iron Man 94%, The Avengers 92% and Guardians of the Galaxy 91%. It is also ahead of every Superman films, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, X-Men and Spider-Man franchises
The film has currently got a 96% fresh rating higher than any other film in the DC Cinematic Universe Man of Steel was previous highest with 55%; Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad 28% and 25%. Wonder Woman is currently ahead of Marvel Cinematic Universe, where it edges out Iron Man 94%, The Avengers 92% and Guardians of the Galaxy 91%. It is also ahead of every Superman films, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, X-Men and Spider-Man franchises
But if you compare the first three Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 with DC’s Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad they have been far bigger successes at the box office taking almost £100m compared with £46.4m for Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The DC Extended Universe films are far more front-loaded than the MCU due to word of mouth not being as strong but saying this despite the negativity surrounding Suicide Squad due to opening during the summer holidays held far stronger than previous two DC films.
While Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice was criticised by many the highlight of the film was the arrival of Wonder Woman which made the stand-alone film a film comic-book fans are eagerly awaiting and was voted by Fandango the most anticipated film of the summer.
While much was written last month about the lack of marketing for Wonder Woman compared with Suicide Squad the difference between them was the awareness for Wonder Woman was much higher and the buzz was much more positive. In the build, up to Suicide Squad as with Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice there was a lot of negativity but whilst there has been some predictable misogyny against Wonder Woman how dare we have a female superhero wearing spandex and tights as spandex and tights are only for men.
If the awareness is high for Wonder Woman there isn’t the same need to spend big on marketing especially in April when it would have been overshadowed by marketing for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. In the UK box office opened April 28th and in the US the week after.
This week was to premiere for Wonder Woman and The Mummy both would have likely received far more media coverage than normal premieres with Wonder Woman being a different superhero film and Tom Cruise always receiving strong media coverage whatever film he stars in. Will not having premieres have any impact on their box office as there have been many successful films that didn’t have premieres and many failures that didn’t.
The other question is where studios right to cancel “out of respect” to the horrific events in Manchester last Monday as since then concerts still happened people still went out to sporting events, theatre, cinema and traveled on public transport. As holding the premieres would have shown were standing up in solidarity and that these ‘evil losers’ won’t change anything would show much more respect hosting them as charity screenings. Both screenings will go ahead but as special previews instead
After the tragic events, last week at the end of the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Warner Bros canceled the UK premiere which was set for May 30th. The following day Universal Pictures canceled the UK premiere of The Mummy. With premieres often arranged months in advance they are occasionally canceled most famously previously in 2001 Bandits premiere at London Film Festival was canceled after Bruce Willis didn’t want to travel to the UK after 9/11 and in 2010 Blind Side premiere was canceled after Sandra Bullock’s marriage broke up.
Wonder Woman opens Thursday, June 1st giving it a four-day opening weekend against Baywatch which opened on Monday, May 29th having a 7-day opening weekend after receiving negative reviews and disappointing in the US will likely open close to last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 £4.8m which is a similar opening to 2013’s 22 Jump Street which only had a three-day opening.
Its 12 years since the last major female superhero film Elektra opened with £791,914 in January 2005 taking only £1.5m
While Catwoman opened a year earlier in August 2004 with £557,583 taking a similar £1.3m.
At the same time, Angelina Jolie starred in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001 (opened with £3,846,592 taking £12,744,662) and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003 (opened with £1,524,676 taking £5,136,809); currently Alicia Vikander is shooting a reboot which is set for release next March.
More recently female action movies The Hunger Games series and 2014’s Lucy have performed strongly along with Resident Evil and Underworld franchises.
After received strong and positive media coverage over the past week should match the openings of Suicide Squad and Man of Steel £11.2m with an extra day play and two days of half-term holidays going into the weekend.
But if it female audiences gets behind it as they should it could go higher being the first female superhero there unlike most other films there aren’t any films to compare it to. As can’t really compare it to films like Twilight, The Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Grey all had a strong female audience but not so strong male audience Wonder Woman should play equally to both sexes if men can get past the fact that it’s a woman wearing spandex and tights.
Will the positive reviews change people’s opinion of Wonder Woman after Paramount Pictures blamed the failure of Baywatch on Rotten Tomatoes reviews but these popcorn films rarely have any impact on what critics say?
Opening in US
- Wonder Woman – Warner Bros
Was predictable “outrage” from men on social media when Alamo Drafthouse announced they would hold women-only screenings of Wonder Woman those screenings sold out quickly and Alamo have added more women-only screenings with proceeds going to Planned Parenthood.
While box office tracking overestimated several films in recent weeks from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales its expected tracking has underestimated Wonder Woman with early tracking of $85m+ which dropped recently to $65m but this was before the positive buzz started and its marketing went through the gears.
After recent films have underperformed at the box office including Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Baywatch, Alien: Covenant, King Arthur. Even Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and The Fate of the Furious failed to match their tracking predictions audiences seem to be waiting for Wonder Woman being the most eagerly awaited film of the summer. As the film should comic-book fan but also a strong female audience something these films have failed to attract in recent years.
But will still likely come short to previous DC Extended Universe openings 2013’s Man of Steel $116.91m and 2016’s Batman Vs Superman: Fawn of Justice $166.1m and Suicide Squad $133.68m but Wonder Woman is likely to be not so front-loaded.
Upcoming DC Extended Universe films include Justice League November 17th, 2017, Aquaman 21st December 2018 and five untitled DC films that include The Batman starring Ben Affleck which is expected to be released in 2019 and Suicide Squad 2.
While the industry is now tracking Wonder Woman to open with $90m+ that is after only a few weeks tracking it at $65m. Warner Bros are still tracking it at $65m+.
Normally with a film, there is historical data to compare the film to but with Wonder Woman there are no other films as the previous two female comic-book movies Elektra and Catwoman released 12 years ago both were poorly received and flopped. Other comic-book movies often didn’t attract a strong female audience but of course, Wonder Woman will do and if it also attracts regular comic-book fans it could open with a Hunger Games size opening. As Wonder Woman is the most anticipated film of the summer and over recent weeks films have underperformed as for many it is similar to Beauty and the Beast it is the film many have been waiting for.
- Captain Underpants – 20th Century Fox
Animated superhero comedy based on the children’s novel series of the same name featuring voices of Ed Helms, Kevin Hart, Nick Kroll, Jordan Peele and Kristen Schaal directed by David Soren.
It is the final Dreamworks Animation film released by 20th Century Fox before distribution rights move to Universal Pictures after they acquired the studios last year.
Currently being tacked to open with $20m but after being trailered with The Boss Baby which opened with $50.19m far bigger than expected especially as with Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul underperforming and The Boss Baby played out there is space in the market for a family film before Cars 3 opens in two weeks.