‘The Woman King’ Takes the Crown With $1.7 Million at Thursday Box Office

Billy Eichner’s Universal-backed comedy “Bros” flopped at the box office during its opening weekend with a $4.8 million bow, about half of the $8 million to $10 million that the studio projected. Eichner, in a now viral tweet, claimed that straight people not showing up to an LGBTQ comedy was a driving force behind “Bros” underperformance. “Even with glowing reviews, great Rotten Tomatoes scores, an A CinemaScore, etc., straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn’t show up for ‘Bros,'” Eichner wrote. “And that’s disappointing but it is what it is.” Eichner is certainly correct that some straight moviegoers weren’t interested in the material, while homophobia about two men falling in love also likely figured in. During a recent trip to a multiplex in Georgia, for instance, this writer saw a group of men being openly homophobic by mocking the “Bros” poster for featuring a guy putting his hand on another guy’s butt. However, the $4.8 million opening for “Bros” is so low that it also means many LGBTQ viewers didn’t show up to see the comedy in theaters either. So why did “Bros” disappoint?

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Hold onto your bucket hats: Sony’s action-thriller “Bullet Train” crossed $100 million at the domestic box office. It’s an impressive milestone (in post-COVID times) for an original movie that doesn’t involve marquee comic book heroes or intergalactic adventures. It helps, of course, that a bankable actor like Brad Pitt stars in the film, as a heavily therapized assassin named Ladybug. “Bullet Train” reached $101 million in domestic ticket sales on Friday, making it only the 14th release this year to hit that benchmark. With another $130 million at the international box office, the film has now earned $231 million in global ticket sales to date.

Clayton Davis After two weeks of solid showings at the box office, excellent reviews and passionate fan responses, “The Woman King” has become one of the year’s standout hits, with plans to be competitive in the awards races for both major and artisan category attention.  One of the film’s standout stars, Thuso Mbedu, who plays the young Nawi, will be campaigning for supporting actress attention, Variety has learned. Academy Award winner Viola Davis (“Fences”) will be the sole actress campaigning for lead actress.  Mbedu, who was the breakout sensation of 2021’s Emmy-nominated series “The Underground Railroad” from director Barry Jenkins, will compete in supporting alongside her co-stars Sheila Atim, Jayme Lawson, Adrienne Warren and most prominent, Lashana Lynch. All of the male actors, including John Boyega, will be competing in supporting actor. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Despite 13 years passing since “Avatar” first hit theaters, moviegoers are apparently still dazzled by the striking world of Pandora. In anticipation of the sequel “The Way of Water,” which opens in December, Disney re-released James Cameron’s original science-fiction epic to promising returns. The film generated $10 million in North America and $20.5 million internationally over the weekend, a huge result for movie that opened more than a decade ago, even if that movie happens to be the highest-grossing global release in history. With this weekend’s returns, “Avatar” widens its lead as the biggest movie of all time with $2.85 billion worldwide.

The thriller directed by Olivia Wilde and starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles was produced on a budget reported to be at around $35 million, so this opening puts the film on track to earn a modest theatrical profit if it gets some help from overseas theaters. The Venice premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling” was beset with constant rumors about animosity between Wilde and Pugh during the film’s production, and reviews from critics during and after the festival didn’t help matters with a 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

projections, the New Line Cinema film will earn $17 million from its opening weekend. Independent projections put that number at $18 million to $20 million. According to reports, its budget falls in the mid-$20 million range.The Florence Pugh and Harry Styles-starring psychological thriller premieres opposite Disney’s re-release of “Avatar” (2009), a few months before its sequel “The Way of Water” hits theaters.

The stars are stepping out during Milan Fashion Week!

The Woman King” star Thuso Mbedu isn’t ruling out a potential sequel for the Sony film, which premiered on Sept. 16. Though Mbedu said director Gina Prince-Bythewood has made it known she doesn’t “believe” in sequels, her co-star John Boyega had an idea that may be too good to pass up. “I texted Gina the other day about it,” Mbedu told Variety at the Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program cocktail celebration on Thursday night, for which she was serving as a juror. “Gina said she doesn’t believe in sequels, but John had a nice idea for the sequel… I told it to Gina and she was like, ‘Ah, actually that could work,’ and then started bouncing ideas and I’m like, ‘Gina, go to sleep!’ And she was like, ‘No my mind is ticking already.’ So, we don’t know. Only Sony will tell us.”

Viola Davis is addressing the controversy surrounding her new film.

Clayton Davis As the filmmaking team for “The Woman King” travels to Brazil to promote the historical epic, Viola Davis and her husband and producing partner Julius Tennon are celebrating the success of the film’s no. 1 debut at the box office, grossing $19 million domestically. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 10, followed by opening in theaters one week later. It’s one of the rare films where critics and general audiences given it a similarly positive reception, with a 95% critics score and 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It even pulled off an “A+” Cinema Score. Davis emphasizes that the story of “The Woman King” can connect to all audiences, not only Black women.

Jon Burlingame editor It took the combined talents of four Grammy winners, a symphony orchestra and a choir of African-American opera singers to make “The Woman King” resonate with the sounds of 19th-century West Africa. “This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime films,” says composer Terence Blanchard of director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s project, for which he wrote a powerful score – the likes of which haven’t been heard in a period African film since Quincy Jones’ “Roots” 45 years ago. “All of your experiences lead you to this moment, to work on something like this,” says the two-time Oscar nominee and five-time Grammy winner. “As soon as I saw it, I was floored. I looked at these characters as the founding DNA of all the strong African-American women I experienced growing up.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s been proven time and time again that Academy Award attention has little to do with box office glory. Just look at recent winners like “Moonlight,” “The Hurt Locker,” or “CODA,” the first streaming movie to land the Oscar’s top prize, all of which were more beloved than seen, at least by the general public. But during a year in which several commercial movies, including “Top Gun: Maverick” ($1.44 billion globally and counting), “Elvis” ($284 million globally) “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (scheduled for Nov. 11) and “Avatar: The Way of Water” (scheduled for Dec. 16), look to find themselves in the awards race, film industry analysts believe the box office may play a part in keeping movies from major studios in the conversation.

Over the weekend, “The Woman King” easily won the box office battle. Better yet, the historical action film was a hit with fans who gave it an A+ CinemaScore.

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.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.Produced by and starring Viola Davis, The Washington Post called the film the actress’ “ultimate flex.” The drama, which cost $50 million to make, is projected to take in anywhere from $13.5 million to $22.5 million during its domestic debut, according to Forbes.Clubbing its way to second place was “Barbarian” which earned over $1.96 million. The horror-thriller, which Vogue said is one of “the best reasons to go to the movies right now,” tells the story of a young woman, played by Georgina Campbell, who discovers the remote home she booked on Airbnb was double-booked by a man, portrayed by Bill Skarsgård.

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.