M3gan

Universal ’s campy R-rated genre pic Cocaine Bear from Elizabeth Banks lifted $2M last night from previews at 3,000 theaters that began at 5 p.m. The $30M-budgeted movie, in a weekend that easily will be dominated by Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with an estimated $40M (-62%), is set to do in the high teens, pulling in guys (62% last night) and the 18-34 crowd (who showed up at 72%) at 3,534 theaters. Any overindexing would be a surprise. The pic already has alright exits with 82% from Rotten Tomatoes’ audiences and four stars on ComScore and Screen Engine’s PostTrak and 72% fresh from critics. Uni/Blumhouse’s winter horror hit M3GAN was 94% certified fresh from Rotten Tomatoes critics, 78% with the aggregator site’s audiences, a B CinemaScore and 3 1/2 stars on PostTrak. Last night’s ticket sales are higher than the $1.1M previews of Universal’s Violent Night (which opened to $13.4M in December and legged out to $49.8M stateside) and … [Read more...] about ‘Cocaine Bear’ Snorts $2M Thursday; ‘Jesus Revolution’ Blessed With $3M+ In Total Previews – Box Office

“‘Nobody likes to watch people getting eaten by lions.” Apparently this was the response by the late Sumner Redstone during his National Amusement exhibition days after he saw a screening of the 1981 Tom Skerritt lion movie, Savage Harvest , relayed to me by an exhibition source who overheard him. As funny as Redstone’s reaction was, it’s an axiom that has rung true: Certain animal-eat-people movies just don’t work. Moviegoers chomp on sharks movies like Jaws and Meg , but other treacherous animal movies aren’t prime to high openings, i.e. Paramount’s alligator movie Crawl ($12M, $39M final domestic) and more recently Universal with its Idris Elba title Beast ($11.5M opening, final US $31.8M) — which was a lion move. However, this weekend Universal proved that everybody likes to watch people get eaten by bears, as their R-rated Elizabeth Banks-directed Cocaine Bear opened to $23M. How did Universal beat the odds and make this work? Multi-genre movies, … [Read more...] about How Universal Made Moviegoers Addicted To ‘Cocaine Bear’: Elizabeth Banks Horror Comedy Opens To $23M

Paul Rudd 's still king of the (ant) hill in movies -- beating out a coked-out CGI bear ... but the weekend win isn't quite what it seems, considering a huge drop-off his flick endured. We're talking about 'Ant-Man: Quantumania' -- which came out last week with windfall box office numbers ($106 million) and which once again secured the top spot these past 3 days with another $32.2 million in domestic ticket sales against newcomer 'Cocaine Bear.' The goofy horror-comedy, directed by Elizabeth Banks, came in 2nd behind PR and co. ... raking in $23.1 mil domestically and $28.4 mil globally -- which is pretty good considering it only cost about $35M to make it. So, it's sure to make its money back and then some. Not quite the hit that 'M3GAN' was for Universal -- but the studio's killing it lately with original ideas and relatively low investment. 'Ant-Man,' however, took a historical plunge. Going from $106M to $32M in just one weekend is actually the biggest dip … [Read more...] about Paul Rudd’s ‘Ant-Man’ Beats ‘Cocaine Bear’ At Box Office, Big Fall-Off

EXCLUSIVE: The cast for Blumhouse Sony’s horror pic They Listen grows louder with the addition of Havana Rose Liu in the Chris Weitz directed and written title. Liu joins John Cho, Katherine Waterstone, Greg Hill, Riki Lindhome, Lukita Maxwell, Keith Carradine, and Ben Youcef in the Depth of Field production. They Listen will open theatrically on August 25. Jason Blum, Andrew Miano and Weitz are producers on the film. Bea Sequeira, Dan Balgoyen, Britta Rowings and Paul Davis are EPs. Liu broke out as the lead in Hulu’s thriller No Exit , from director Damien Power and producer Scott Frank. Next up, she stars opposite Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri in Emma Seligman’s MGM feature, Bottoms, which is making its world premiere at SXSW . Previous credits include A24’s The Sky is Everywhere for director Josephine Decker and a recurring role on Netflix’s The Chair opposite Sandra Oh for producers Benioff and Weiss. Liu is represented by CAA, Anonymous … [Read more...] about ‘They Listen’: Blumhouse & Sony Turn Up Volume On Horror Pic With Havana Rose Liu

The power of a wide theatrical release was realized this weekend by streamer Amazon in their pivot back to the big screen with MGM/ United Artists Releasing ’s Creed III which easily minted the best opening ever for the Seattle-based parent as well as for the Rocky franchise with $58.6M domestic, $100.4M worldwide. While Amazon has snapped up some tentpole movies during the pandemic for the service, i.e. Paramount’s Coming 2 America and Skydance’s The Tomorrow War, Creed III repped a big commitment by them for the big screen following their $8.45 billion purchase of MGM back in May 2021. Talk about downstream revenues here: Creed III was made for $75M before P&A, and is easily poised to profit. Kudos to Prime Video and Amazon Studios SVP Mike Hopkins and Amazon Studios Head Jen Salke for keeping MGM’s distribution boss Erik Lomis and theatrical marketing apparatus of Gerry Rich, MGM Creative Head Mike Pavlic and Stephen Bruno in place who teamed with newly … [Read more...] about How MGM Synergized With Amazon To Make ‘Creed III’ The Streamer’s Biggest Box Office Blockbuster Ever At $100M+

EXCLUSIVE : XYZ Films has claimed North American rights to the sci-fi pic The Artifice Girl , starring Tatum Matthews ( The Waltons: Homecoming ) and Lance Henriksen ( Aliens ), which this past weekend had its U.S. premiere at SXSW after world premiering to critical acclaim at Fantasia Film Festival. The film marking the feature debut of writer-director Franklin Rich — which like Uni’s horror hit M3GAN , looks at the increasingly top-of-mind subject of AI through a genre prism — is slated for a theatrical release in 15+ U.S. Markets, as well as an accompanying digital debut this spring. The Artifice Girl follows a small team of special agents who discover a revolutionary computer program that uses a digital child to catch online predators. After teaming up with the program’s troubled developer, they soon find that the AI’s inevitable advancement is far more rapid and incalculable than they could have imagined, posing unforeseen challenges and unsettling … [Read more...] about AI-Themed Sci-Fi Pic ‘The Artifice Girl’ Starring Lance Henriksen Acquired By XYZ Films