Spider-Man: No Way Home Breaks Box Records, Everything Else Bombs

Spider-Man: No way home‘s Gangbusters Weekend changed the collective perception of what a movie could do during the tumultuous pandemic moment, with projections showing that the new Marvel / Sony movie made $ 260 million from December 17-19. That’s a lot of money. No way home Now just competing with the pre-pandemic story and pushing past Avengers: Infinity War to become second largest opening any times.

That is well and good for Peter Parker. But what about everyone else?

If all the friendly neighborhood Spider-Men walked out of the box office, the weekend numbers would look really grim. In second place was Disney’s charm, the animated musical with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda that has been in theaters for a few weeks and grossed $ 6.5 million. In addition, Steven Spielberg is still sagging West Side Story Raised $ 3.4 million, down 68 percent from the last few weeks, suggesting word of mouth is helping the highly-rated musical remake.

And then below Ghostbusters: AfterlifeGetting started after its pre-Thanksgiving release is this week’s other new movie: Guillermo del Toros Nightmare Alley at $ 2.9 million. With Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, and No way homeWillem Defoe, del Toro’s noir reinterpretation of a 1947 film about a cheater moving through a carnival and society, was the focus of Oscar buzz.

Photo: Kerry Hayes / 20th Century Studios

But open in wide release against No way home was the real nightmare. Ticket sales were so bad that some theaters reportedly got away with it encountered Nightmare Alley to open more screens for Spider Man. The failure was so blatant that some on twitter claim that Disney owns that nightmare Distributor Searchlight Pictures, and also oversaw the disastrous October release The last duel, set up their films to fail.

According to Frank Rodriquez, SVP General Sales Manager at Searchlight Pictures, they didn’t think about it Spider Man at all. Rodriquez tells meeting that West Side Story was actually believed nightmare‘s main competition and that “nobody thought” Spider Man would be so big. “At his point, The paymentForecasts, an independent website that tracks checkout numbers No way home would hit $ 153 million on the opening weekend. The actual numbers are a 165 percent increase.

“The hope is that after people have seen Spider Man, they can watch a movie like Nightmare Alley“Says Rodriquez. “It’s not just art house, it really is a four-quadrant movie that can be played in upscale multiplexes, mainstream locations, and even urban markets.” Once the awards season is in full swing, a nomination could be for Cooper or del Toro make the rounds.

Del Toro has been here before. During the first week of wide release, 2017 The shape of the water opened with numbers just a little better than Nightmare Alley with $ 3 million. And finally, after the 2018 Oscar nominees weekend on January 23, 2018 where water led all nominations and had the best weekend of its running at $ 5.9 million. (The winner of the best picture would earn over $ 60 million in the US). So a turnaround would be possible, though Shape of waterThe $ 20 million budget was only a third of that Nightmare Alley‘s reported a price of $ 60 million, which makes the situation even clearer.

Men under 25 are by far most comfortable returning to theaters right now, according to Movie Exit Poller data PostTrac. Forty-four percent of them feel comfortable right now when they return to the big screen, and that number doubles among those vaccinated to 88 percent. This is followed by men over 25 who, at 38 percent, are generally happy to return to the cinema and 74 percent are vaccinated. Women under 25 (34 percent, 84 percent) and women over 25 (30 percent, 74 percent) follow suit.

If you look at the age of 25, the older audience is less enthusiastic. Speak with AARP magazine, David Herrin of film tracking data company The Quorum says, “About 44 percent of people over 50 say they feel safe. For the general public, it was closer to 62 percent. ”Those over 50, who are generally more looking for Oscar food, feel less safe in the cinema than those under 25. The box office seems to reflect these realities for now.

The college has issued a study considering how to get the audience back into the theaters and enhanced experiences, such as more space between seats, could be effective. The outlook isn’t hopeless for the non-action theater-goer, but the numbers are certainly bleak right now for anything reminiscent of blockbuster counter-programming.