Saturday, October 5, 2024

Sad Box Office: “The Invitation” Will Set a Low Record, United Artists Releasing Dumps George Miller Movie

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We’re in the Dead Zone of the annual box office. The summer hits are lingering and whatever’s new, no one wants to see.

“The Invitation” is a panned horror film from Sony that will make far less than $10 million this weekend. It will still be number 1, but will set a record low for films that opened at the top of the box office. Sad!

Even sadder is the MGM-United Artists Release of George Miller’s new film. “Three Thousand Years of Longing” isn’t even reporting Friday numbers because they were so embarrassing.

This was a Cannes film with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba but UAR, which has the worst publicity department in 120 countries, just dumped it out the window. It’s in a lot of theaters but no one’s going to see it consequently. This follows the UAR strategy of blowing movie after movie from “Respect” to “Licorice Pizza” to “Flag Day” to “Cyrano.” The list is long. If UAR hadn’t been handed the last James Bond movie on a platter, they’d be dead. As it is, they screwed that up, too, with just $160 million total. The last Daniel Craig as 007 movie should have done $200 million.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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