‘Fire Of Love’ To Pass $1 Million At Global Box Office, Becoming Year’s Top-Grossing Documentary

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Is it true that, as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity? “Don’t Worry Darling,” a movie that’s been largely overshadowed in recent weeks by relentless off-screen controversies, will test that adage as it debuts in 4,000-plus North American theaters over the weekend. The Warner Bros. film, directed by Olivia Wilde and starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, is expected to generate $18 million to $20 million in its opening weekend, suggesting that behind-the-scenes drama isn’t dinging initial ticket sales. It may even be lifting them. Some independent tracking services indicate that inaugural returns could reach as high as $25 million, but anywhere in the high teens would be a solid start for “Don’t Worry Darling,” which cost $35 million to produce.

After a near month of mudslinging behind the scenes drama for Don’t Worry Darling which hovered around its Venice Film Festival world premiere, the sophomore feature directorial from Olivia Wilde finally opens in 4,000 theaters.

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s “See How They Run” occupied the top spot for the second weekend in a row at the U.K. and Ireland box office, with £984,779 ($1.1 million), per numbers released by Comscore. The film now has a total of £2.8 million. In its seventh weekend, Sony’s “Bullet Train,” starring Brad Pitt, collected £325,252 in second place for a total of £10.3 million. In third position with £321,746 was Universal’s “Minions: The Rise Of Gru,” which now has a total of £45.1 million after 12 weekends. Paramount’s Tom Cruise vehicle “Top Gun: Maverick” stormed back into the top five with £320,963 in fourth place. With a total of £82.6 million after 17 weekends, the film is the top grossing film of 2022 in the territory and eighth on the all time chart behind “Avengers: Endgame” (£88.7 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief For the second weekend running, comedy action film “Confidential Assignment 2: International” held top spot at the South Korean box office. And it did so with a massive 75% share of the market. But as the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) holiday retreated into the rear-view mirror numbers, both for the sequel film and the nationwide box office, came crashing down. “Confidential Assignment 2” earned $6.89 million over the latest Friday to Sunday period, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That figure was down 57% compared with its opening salvo of $21.0 million a week earlier.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Woman King,” a historical action epic starring Viola Davis, ruled over domestic box office charts in its opening weekend. Bolstered by stellar reviews and positive word-of-mouth, the movie collected $19 million from 3,765 North American cinemas over the weekend, arriving at the higher end of expectations. Independent tracking services projected “The Woman King” would kick off with $15 million to $18 million, while Sony estimated a debut closer to $12 million. Sony is lucky the film exceeded its ultra-conservative forecasts. “The Woman King” cost $50 million to produce, not including the tens of millions in marketing expenses, including a stop at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The next three weekends are favorable for “The Woman King,” with upcoming releases including Warner Bros’ “Don’t Worry Darling,” which has received mixed reviews, Universal’s LGBT comedy “Bros,” and the Sony family film “Lyle Lyle Crocodile.” There won’t be a theatrical release with the sort of action and intensity that “Woman King” offers until “Halloween Ends” on October 14, so it will have plenty of time to build word-of-mouth both as a female-fronted historical film among Black and female audiences and potentially as an exciting action film among crossover demographics. It will need to do so as the film still has to turn a profit against its $50 million production budget, which was co-financed by TriStar and eOne.

That opening weekend would be just a tad higher than the $17.2 million opening for fellow Sony release “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which legged out to an $86 million domestic run thanks to strong word-of-mouth from female audiences. For “The Woman King,” Sony is hoping for a similar long box office run during this sluggish box office period as audience buzz builds.So far, it looks like Sony’s hopes will be fulfilled.

J. Kim Murphy “The Woman King” has found its throne at the box office. The Sony release is drumming up a projected $18 million opening from 3,765 locations, in line with most analysts’ estimates heading into the weekend. The epic also benefited from landing some premium format auditoriums, such as Imax, lending an additional boost to revenue. Though that doesn’t necessarily qualify as a grand opening, it’s a solid start for the action film, which carries a $50 million production budget and has no ties to existing franchises. What’s more, it’s more than enough for “The Woman King” to top box office charts on a slow weekend with few rival releases.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Fresh off its enthusiastic world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, the Viola Davis-led historical epic “The Woman King” will touch down in 3,700 North American movie theaters over the weekend. The domestic box office desperately needs a boost, but will U.S. audiences be as receptive as festival-goers in Canada? Touted as the real-life “Black Panther,” Sony’s “The Woman King” is aiming to collect at least $15 million in its domestic debut. Independent box office observers are optimistic that opening weekend returns could reach $17 million to $20 million. Yet Sony, who co-financed the movie with eOne, is projecting $12 million, in line with 2018’s “Widows,” which also starred Davis. Replicating those ticket sales, even with tempered pandemic-expectations, would be tepid-at-best since “The Woman King” carries a $50 million price tag.

Naman Ramachandran Ayan Mukerji’s Bollywood action fantasy “Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva” was one of the leading films at the global box office over the weekend, grossing $28.2 million, according to its producers, Disney’s Star Studios India and Dharma Productions. The film released in India across 5,019 screens and debuted at No. 1 with a three-day weekend of $18.9 million. The film’s overseas screen count was 3,894. In the U.S., where the film is distributed by Disney, it released in 810 theaters and debuted at No. 2 with $4.4 million. However, the film needs to sustain its momentum to break even, with its budget approximately $51 million.

After Ever Happy, the fourth installment of the popular After romance/drama franchise, will gross circa $1.1 million since its release last Wednesday on 1,085 screens. From Fathom Events, this was the top film in the domestic marketplace Sept. 7-8 for a two-day run before dipping to 200+ screens this weekend. Vertical Entertainment will pick up the film’s U.S. theatrical starting September 16.

The trials and tribulations of being a female heir to the Iron Throne continue to enthrall viewers of HBO’s House of the Dragon. Though the Labor Day holiday delayed folks from watching the third episode on Sunday, the episode has already exceeded 16 million viewers based on a combination of Nielsen and first party data.

Top Gun: Maverick” has reached a milestone it has been projected to hit for months: $700 million in domestic grosses. The film pulled in $7.9 million in ticket sales between Friday and Monday, bringing its total domestic gross to $701 million.In doing so, the Tom Cruise blockbuster now stands among the top 5 highest grossing films ever in North America before inflation adjustment, joining a list led by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($936 million) and also include “Avengers: Endgame,” ($858 million), “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($804 million), and “Avatar” ($760.5 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korea’s cinema box office slipped to its lowest level since mid-May as local film “6/45” took the top spot with just $3.06 million over the weekend in its second week of release. Comedy “6/45” was released a week earlier and scored $2.74 million in its opening weekend, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). The latest weekend, then, represents an 11% improvement for the title. It increased its share of the market to 45% during the latest weekend and advanced its cumulative total to $8.36 million. Depressed by a lack of significant new releases, the nationwide box office over the Friday to Sunday period, however, dropped to $6.75 million. This was the lowest scoring weekend since the first half of May.

record with 10 million viewers in its premiere last month and boosted its viewership by 2% for its second episode. “The Rings of Power” is led by showrunners and executive producers Payne and Patrick McKay.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Amazon broke a long held precedent Saturday by revealing viewership data for a Prime Video series for the first time ever, making the exception on remaining tight-lipped about its internal TV ratings for its big-budget “The Lord of the Rings” TV series. According to the e-commerce giant, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” was viewed by 25 million viewers globally over the initial 24 hours that the TV series’ first two episodes were available for streaming on Prime Video in 240 countries and territories. Amazon’s “The Rings of Power” debuted globally Sept. 1/Sept. 2, depending on what territory and time zone Prime customers were streaming from across the world when the first two episodes dropped at 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET Thursday.

box office, there is a near-term question mark about what will happen next: Will recovery stall due to a paucity of Hollywood tentpole movies? Or will international theatrical decouple and find new drivers to maintain the momentum? The good news is that most of the international market’s top territories are now fully open and operating without significant restrictions on seating capacity. These include the U.K. and Ireland, Japan, France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil. The smaller number of territories still laboring under restrictions nevertheless include some valuable ones: China, Turkey, Argentina, Hong Kong and Russia.

EXCLUSIVE: The Olivia Wilde directed movie doesn’t open until Sept. 23, but on tracking, Don’t Worry Darling is off to a promising start, tracking hot with 17-24 year-old women and also young guys. In sum, Harry Styles fans.