While another quiet weekend was drifting by the box office, exhibitors turned their attention to next weekend’s much-anticipated opening of AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. The film is expected to generate $150M – $175M in its opening weekend in North America, which will provide a much-needed windfall to exhibitors. But even with that boost, theatre owners are anxious about the relative lack of other supporting movies that will appear this Christmas and in the early months of 2023.
On the bright side, both PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH from DreamWorks Animation and I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY from TriStar Pictures will open on December 23rd and are tracking well with prospective moviegoers. This season’s other major release will be Damien Chazelle’s BABYLON starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, which has not fared as well on the tracking.
“Usually at Christmas, we have a limited number of screens, and we have to pick and choose which movie to go with,” says Jeff Logan, owner of South Dakota-based Logan Luxury Theatres. “This year, we weren’t faced with that problem.”
This year, another complicating factor is the profound lack of interest moviegoers have shown in shelling out to see awards-focused films. TÁR, THE FABELMANS, BONES AND ALL, and now EMPIRE OF LIGHT have all fallen flat at the box office, sounding alarms for exhibitors and distributors alike.
New York Times film journalist Brooks Barnes contacted execs at ten independent distributors to get their input on why these titles have not drawn more interest. They reported various theories, including the World Cup, a continued chill on moviegoing from COVID, and competition from streaming. But the most important factor may lie with the content itself.
Dour dramas such as TÁR and BONES AND ALL were box office duds, whereas films with a more upbeat tone, such as THE WOMAN KING and ELVIS, did much better. Perhaps the trauma of the past two and half years has dampened interest in spending two hours watching “serious” (depressing) stories.
See also: Highbrow Films Aimed at Winning Oscars Are Losing Audiences (New York Times)
