A Summer Box Office First for Last Weekend

 It’s been a good month for the box office, that no one can doubt. The rapid July upswing in takings has even managed to see a fantastic new first for the post-pandemic period and one that hasn’t been rivaled in the overall box office takings since 2018- and never in summer. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney Los Angeles, Brandon Blake, shares the great news.

                                                      

Summer Box Office First

This past weekend saw four films gross over $28M. It’s a first for the summer box office overall, and we’ve only seen it happen once before, at Thanksgiving 2018. It’s also a bit of a brain twister for studio execs. Typically, they try to avoid this kind of ‘dogpile’ in releases, preferring to stagger new openings and dodge competitive clashes. But we’d go so far as to say no one, no matter how industry-savvy, could have predicted this one. Distribution logic, it seems, has flown right out the window.

 

Barbie, unsurprisingly, clinches the top spot for the third week running at $53M. While that’s a 43$ decline, it’s still a nice chunk of change to add to its $459M domestic takings, with international takings now well over the $1B line. Oppenheimer came third at $28.7M, again in its third week and only 39% down.

Add to that another 2 stellar new releases. Meg 2: The Trench took $30M domestic in its opening weekend. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem takes the last spot at $28M straight up, again in the opening weekend.

Great News for Cinemas

The fact that not one, but four popular competitors could all perform so highly (and without cannibalizing each other’s takings) is undoubtedly fantastic news for the exhibition industry. Especially off the back of a lackluster June. Altogether we see $178M in takings for the weekend. Not a record for August (we see $228M for 2016), but in that weekend one release (Suicide Squad) accounted for over half the gross. Notably, both Meg and TMNT are franchise releases, too, which haven’t been living up to expectations this summer.

We’ve already beaten 2022’s summer season by a comfortable margin despite a rocky start. Let’s hope this momentum continues into the end of the year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Kung Fu Panda 4 the Key to a Reinvigorated 2024 Box Office?

Image
 With Dune: Part Two having finally powered up the 2024 box office, it's time to build on that impetus if the wider box office recovery is to continue. There could be another strong contender lurking in the wings for this weekend’s releases- but it will doubtless surprise you to learn that this hope lies with the fourth installment of the animated Kung Fu Panda saga! Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney Los Angeles , Brandon Blake, has more on this ironic twist for us.                                                                          Brandon Blake Two $40M Grosses on the Cards For the first time since July 2023 and the Barbenheimer dual release, we have a chance at not one, but two, films grossing over $40M this weekend. In fact, those figures may top $50M! While Dune: Part Two has had the benefit of massive hype and anticipation, Kung Fu Panda 4 may well turn out to be the more profitable production. Dune: Part Two has already grossed over $100M globally,
Read more

Netflix Ad Tier Turns in Fantastic Growth

Image
 What a difference half a year can make! With Netflix’s ad-supported subscription tier first launched only 18 months ago, the streamer has managed to nearly double its subscriber base since the start of 2024. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, fills in the details. Brandon Blake Impressive Subscriber Gains Netflix’s total subscribers for the ad-supported tier now number 40 million monthly active users. In January 2024, it was 23 million. The streamer was understandably gleeful to reveal this news at its first in-person Upfronts presentation in New York earlier this month. At its first-ever Upfronts presentation, which was held digitally in 2023, the ad tier had 5 million monthly active users.   Additionally, we were told that 40% of active signups now opt for the ad-supported plan, in countries where it is currently available. Of course, much of this can be attributed to a rather kind price ($7 domestically) for this tier, well below most of the other
Read more

Hulu on Disney+ is Officially Here

Image
While the Hulu on Disney+ Beta bundle has been live since last year, we have officially reached the point of full integration. Intriguingly, much of the executive focus on the new bundle has been around the technical advancements needed to unite the two platforms. You could take a look at entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., looks in more depth at the united offering.                                              Brandon Blake Technical Advancements While few viewers are likely to know (or care, frankly) about the backstage technology that powers their viewing experience, Disney executives have been keen to hammer home the potential for happier, healthier subscriber engagement and retention with the new tech shift. They have gone as far as to call it the “most extensive technical advancement” since launch. At this point, it is clear that they are also hoping a more advertiser-appealing platform with better metrics can be leveraged to boost their highly su
Read more