Weekend Box Office Hits Near Annual Low Of $58M In ‘Dune’-Less Frame As Strike Continues; ‘Freddy’s Leads With $17M+

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Maryam Touzani‘s “The Blue Caftan,” a drama revolving around the love between a closeted man and his wife, has sold more than 500,000 tickets around the world. The Arabic-language movie, which world premiered at Cannes in 2022 and won the Fipresci prize, has become the Moroccan film that sold the most admissions overseas in recent history, according to French promotion org Unifrance. Produced by veteran Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch (“Casablanca Beats,” “Much Loved”), “The Blue Caftan” stars Lubna Azabal (“Incendies”) and Saleh Bakri (“Costa Brava, Lebanon”).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mystery-horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s” landed on top of the South Korean cinema box office. But fellow new release title “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songs and Snakes” managed only a fourth placed start. “Five Nights” earned $1.78 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Local crime drama film “Last Suspect” returned to the top spot at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend, as “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opened quietly in third place. Narrowly beaten last week by “The Marvels,” “Last Suspect” climbed one place while “The Marvels” fell out of the top five in China. In its third weekend of release, “Last Suspect” recorded $10.1 million (RMB76 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is on top!

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alibaba, China’s e-commerce and entertainment giant, revealed a 9% revenue improvement and a return to profits in the three months to the end of September, the second quarter of its financial year. The group, which is in the process of breaking itself up into six separate businesses, had revenue of RMB225 billion ($30.8 billion). Net income of RMB26.7 billion ($3.66 billion) compared with a net loss of RMB22.5 billion in the same period last year.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is expected to emerge victorious in this weekend’s box office battle royale. It’s competing against two fellow newcomers, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s threequel “Trolls Band Together” and Sony’s gory thriller “Thanksgiving,” in this crowded pre-Turkey Day corridor.

Reviews weren’t strong (62% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and neither was audience reaction. “The Marvels” is only the third MCU release to receive a “B” CinemaScore from moviegoers, following “Eternals” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania.”“The Marvels,” which added $63.3 million in overseas ticket sales, may go down as a turning point in the MCU. Over the years, the franchise has collected $33 billion globally — a point Disney noted in reporting its grosses Sunday.But with movie screens and streaming platforms increasingly crowded with superhero films and series, some analysts have detected a new fatigue setting in for audiences.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Disney‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe is no longer a bulletproof box office franchise. That much is clear after “The Marvels” misfired with $47 million in its opening weekend to land the worst debut in MCU history. Initial tracking was closer to $75 million to $80 million, but those projections shrank dramatically in recent weeks to $60 million to $65 million.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Yes, SAG-AFTRA talks with the AMPTP are ongoing, but there’s still an awards season to track. Honoring the best achievements in film and television, the guild’s highest honor has become a critical bellwether during the awards season. The union has made it clear submitting for awards consideration is not considered a “promotion” under the current strike order.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Apple’s first major theatrical release, has generated $120 million globally after three weekends of release. Is that a good result for a movie backed by a streaming service? A terrible outcome for a glowingly received, $200 million crime epic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro? Or somewhere in between? Everyone who follows the movie business has a different take, so parsing these ticket sales could take longer than the film’s daunting three-hour-and-26-minute run time.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s “Trolls Band Together” has reclaimed the top spot at the U.K. and Ireland box office from stablemate “Five Nights At Freddy’s.” In its third weekend, “Trolls Band Together” collected £1.8 million ($2.2 million) for a total of £12.7 million ($15.7 million). In the process it won back the pole position it had ceded to Universal’s “Five Nights At Freddy’s,” which in its second weekend took in £1.2 million in second place for a total of £8.7 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Boy and the Heron” supposedly the final feature film by Japanese animation maestro Miyazaki Hayao, placed on top of the south Korean box office for a second weekend. It held off challenges from a clutch of new releases, including “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Talk to Me.” “The Boy and the Heron” collected $2.49 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, from Apple, Paramount and Imperative Entertainment, has set a milestone, crossing the $100M mark at the global box office through Thursday. As it heads into its third frame, the epic western crime saga is at $102.1M worldwide, including $45.3M domestic and $56.8M from the international box office. 

Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble said Apple and Amazon, two behemoths of the tech world but newcomers to the wide-release movie business, are so far “very pleased” with their results.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Five Nights at Freddy’s” scared up $80 million at the domestic box office in its first weekend of release, above Sunday’s already-huge estimate of $78 million. Universal and Blumhouse released the film, which landed simultaneously on the parent company’s streaming service Peacock. With Monday’s final figures, “Five Nights” has tied Disney’s 2021 Marvel adventure “Black Widow” ($80 million in theaters and $60 million on Disney+) as the biggest opening weekend for a day-and-date streaming release.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” Universal and Blumhouse‘s terrifying adaptation of the popular video game, made a killing in its box office debut with $78 million in North America and $130 million globally. For a $20 million-budgeted horror film that landed simultaneously on streaming (in this case, the NBCUniversal-owned service Peacock), these ticket sales would have been significant by the end of its theatrical run. In just three days of release, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” has already surpassed the entire global haul of 2022’s “Halloween Ends” ($104 million) and will soon overtake 2021’s “Halloween Kills” ($133 million) — which previously ranked as the biggest hybrid releases from Universal and Peacock.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate and Francis Lawrence’s return to the Suzanne Collins franchise with a pic based on her prequel novel is looking like a $50M start on Nov. 17, which is in the vicinity of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($54.8M). While women 17-34 are indeed the hot demo for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it’s not excessively female as there is interest from males as well. The pic cost around $100M.

There were two major new entries this weekend at the international box office, one local (Tamil thriller Leo: Bloody Sweet) and one from Hollywood. Starting with the latter, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon from Apple, Paramount and Imperative Entertainment, had a big opening with $21M in 63 offshore markets and No. 1s in 24 of those, including France, Germany, Australia, Spain, Netherlands and Switzerland. The global bow, factoring in its strong domestic opening, was $44M; great for a period movie with a long running time and at a moment when talent could not promote it due to the actors strike.

Naman Ramachandran Lokesh Kanagaraj‘s Tamil-language “Leo: Bloody Sweet,” starring Vijay, debuted in third position at the global box office over the latest weekend, with $31.2 million planetwide, according to estimates released on Sunday by Comscore. The weekend was won by Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, with $44 million, followed by “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” with $41.5 million. However, in terms of worldwide cumulative among new releases, “Leo” scored $48.5 million (after four days) compared with the $44 million earned by “Killers of the Flower Moon.” An homage to David Cronenberg’s 2005 film “A History of Violence,” “Leo” released on Oct.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Only the River Flows,” a pitch-black crime noir from auteur Wei Shujun, comfortably topped the mainland China box office on a quietish weekend. The film, ostensibly a murder mystery, but one concerned more with atmosphere than linear plotting, earned $12.6 million (RMB90.8 million) in its opening three days, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, or close to a third of the market. The film had its premiere in Cannes where Variety gave it a rave review, calling it an “inventive riff on Asian-noir” and making comparisons with films by Park Chan-wook and Diao Yinan. “Only the River Flows” has since played at a succession of festivals ever since, including New Zealand, BFI London, Vancouver, Adelaide and last week’s Pingyao event in China. Falling to second place at the box office after three weeks on top was Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light,” which earned $6.9 million for a four-weekend cumulative of $176 million. Chen Kaige’s war, propaganda film “The Volunteers: To the War” earned $5.3 million in third place.