The number 1 movie of this weekend was “Zootopia.”
Total for Disney animation is $26.3 million this weekend, with a total of $259 million. That’s a runaway hit. Worldwide, “Zootopia” is in the rare $1 billion club. Yes, international box office was a stunning $758 million.
All of that was accomplished in 3 weeks.
“Wicked for Good” has had one more week than that at the box office. To paraphrase another current movie’s title, their box office is “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t.”
“WFG” has brooms and monkeys but needs legs. As of today, US Box office is $312 million. After a huge opening, “WFG” has been in steady decline. This week was again down 51% from the prior week. Considering Universal must have spent $100 million on promotion, the success here looks limited.
Look, it could be worse. Disney has had a bad time with live action films. “Deliver Me from Nowhere” tanked, and now “Ella McCay” is DOA with a $2.1 million opening weekend. That’s literally HALF of what they expected. No discernible promotion, bad weather, a lead no one ever heard of all contributed to that debacle.
And still it could be worse. There are no fewer than three great foreign films in theaters: “It Was Just An Accident,” “Sentimental Value,” and “The Secret Agent.” All of them have been raved about, are getting molto awards, Oscar nominations, etcetera. Their box office is nil. Is it because people can’t read anymore, so subtitles are useless? Very sad. Plus “Nouvelle Vogue,” a fourth one, is on Netflix. A plus! This is a crisis.
It’s not pretty out there.
The two movies that theater owners are hoping for “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” and “Marty Supreme.” Can they get the juices going? At least they have collectible popcorn buckets!
