UPDATED FRIDAY AM AFTER EXCLUSIVE: Sony’s 28 Years Later gobbled up $5.8M in previews Thursday night. That’s an excellent preview number for a horror movie, especially in these times, besting the Thursday nights of Final Destination Bloodlines ($5.5M), Sinners ($4.7M), pre-Covid’s A Quiet Place ($4.3M) and even post-Covid’s Scream VI ($5.7M).
The question is whether moviegoers, like the undead themselves, will continue to run to 28 Years Later.
As we saw with the Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 68% last night, PostTrak audiences also were a hard crowd for this Danny Boyle movie, giving it 3 stars and a 54% definite recommend. Men over 25 showed up at 52% and gave the zombie third chapter its best grades at 75%. Women over 25 were next at 27% (72% grade), followed by women under 25 at 13% (65%) and men under 25 at 9% (74%).
Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s Elio in total Wednesday and Thursday previews did $3M. The animated feature is booked in 3,750 theatres including 725 Premium Large Format screens, 2,500+ 3D Screens and 175 D-Box/Motion screens. Elio, 28 Years Later and How to Train Your Dragon are sharing the PLFs, while Imax auditoriums will be held by the latter title.
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Those who watched Elio are loving it with a 60% definite recommend from the general audience and 4½ stars. Kids under 12, a near even split between boys and girls at 51%/49%, also gave it 4½ stars. Parents, mostly dads yesterday at 56%, gave it 4 stars.
With yesterday being Juneteenth, a young federal holiday, distribution sources are mixed on whether it’s a big moviegoing day or not. Kids are already off from school — yeah, but adults are off from work. While not massive, the day did have a pulse, check it out: Eight of the movies in the top 10 saw spikes in their daily grosses over Wednesday, including How to Train Your Dragon (+15%), Materialists (+7%), Lilo & Stitch (+16%), Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (+22%), Ballerina (+10%), The Phoenician Scheme (+6%) and The Life of Chuck (+3%).
The Top 5 from Thursday:
1.) How to Train Your Dragon (Uni) 4,356 theaters, Thu $9.7M, Wk $123.4M/Wk 1
2.) Lilo & Stitch (Dis) 3,675 (-510) theaters, Thu $2.7M Wk $26M (-45%), Total $376.8M/Wk 4
3.) Materialists (A24) 2,844 theaters, Thu $1.6M, Wk $17.5M/Wk 1
4.) Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Par) 2,942 theaters, Thu $1.5M, Wk $15.8M (-27%), Total $171.8M/Wk 4
5.) Ballerina (LG) 3,409 theaters, Thu $1.1M, $14.1M (-56%), Total $46.5M/Wk 2
EXCLUSIVE: Sony’s 28 Years Later is coming in with a preview gross tonight that’s well north of $5M, we are hearing from sources.
But don’t start comping it yet to New Line’s box office surprise sequel Final Destination Bloodlines, which did $5.5M in previews for a franchise-best opening of $51.6M.
Horror films are front-loaded, duh. Rotten Tomatoes audiences are being pretty hard on this Danny Boyle zombie movie at 67%, despite critics giving the installment the best reviews the 23-year-old franchise has ever seen at 92%. Final Destination Bloodlines earned both great reviews and audience exits on Rotten Tomatoes, with with 92% and 87%, respectively. Previews began at noon for 28 Years Later. Tracking spotted this virus-infected undead post-apocalyptic movie at an opening between $28M-$30M. The movie reps a return for Boyle as director and Alex Garland as screenwriter after 2002’s 28 Days Later. That movie opened to $10M back in the day at 1,261 theaters, while 28 Weeks Later, which was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, opened to $9.8M back in 2007 at 2,303 theaters.
Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s Elio is looking to be around $2.5M-$3M after two nights of previews. That’s about the amount of preview cash that Pixar’s summer 2023 movie, Elemental, banked before an $11.7M Friday and $29.6M opening. Elio is hoping to clear a 3-day between $20M-$25M. No RT audience scores yet, but critics enjoyed it at 86% certified fresh. Those reviews are stronger than Elemental at 73% fresh, which wound up with an audience score of 93% and a solid A CinemaScore. As we mentioned, the best advertisement for Elio is the movie itself. In a marketplace where it’s hard to launch original animation, the hope is that the pic directed by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi pulls an Elemental and posts some wild multiple of 5x or more (that pic ended its stateside run at $154.4M).
As we reported previously, Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon is expected to hold the fort at No. 1 with a second weekend of $40M-plus. Through Wednesday, the Dean DeBlois-directed live-action take of his animated movie is up to $113.7M.
