‘Tis the season to be thinking about holiday movies, but it’s also perfect timing to predict a great start for 2022.
The New Year’s first weekend will get a big boost from Universal/FilmNation’s PG-13 espionage thriller THE 355 and from hit holiday holdovers like Sony/Marvel’s SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME & WB/Village Roadshow’s THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS. 355’s team of spies for global agencies is now charged with recovering a top-secret weapon in mercenaries’ hands. The wrinkle here — and “wrinkle’s” is the wrong word — is that those spies are: Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Bingbing Fan, Diane Kruger & Lupita Nyong’o.
It’s a female-powered action film that’s tracking powerfully. Not surprisingly, its strongest definite interest demo is -25F, which are already 13 points over the norm. There’s also big interest from +25F (6 points over the norm). +25M also wants to see it (equal to the norm). Only -25M don’t care (9 points under norm).
355’s the only major opening 1/7 and is a safe bet to kick off the New Year with some boxoffice sizzle. It also will benefit from its 2nd weekend, the 4 days of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday holiday.