Earlier this summer, Hollywood managed to pull off a major counterprogramming win. Greta Gerwig's hot pink and funny Barbie opened in theaters alongside Christopher Nolan's heavy and serious Oppenheimer, and their powers combined created the record-breaking box office force known as Barbenheimer. It was a rather magical thing to see in the movie world, and this weekend has seen a similar situation play out in vibe with the big wins being Sam Wrench's splashy Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Martin Scorsese's intense historical epic Killers Of The Flower Moon.
Check out the numbers for the films in the domestic Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour | $31,000,000 | $129,788,501 | 1 | 3,855 |
| 2. Killers Of The Flower Moon* | $23,000,000 | $23,000,000 | N/A | 3,628 |
| 3. The Exorcist: Believer | $5,600,000 | $54,161,950 | 2 | 3,323 |
| 4. PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie | $4,450,000 | $56,064,127 | 3 | 3,364 |
| 5. The Nightmare Before Christmas | $4,100,000 | $4,100,000 | N/A | 1,650 |
| 6. Saw X | $3,585,000 | $47,234,877 | 4 | 2,756 |
| 7. The Creator | $2,600,000 | $36,759,287 | 5 | 2,490 |
| 8. A Haunting In Venice | $1,100,000 | $40,908,593 | 7 | 1,600 |
| 9. The Nun II | $887,000 | $85,308,071 | 8 | 1,364 |
| 10. Hocus Pocus | $600,000 | $48,400,350 | 10 | 1,375 |
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Concert Film Takes A Big Dip But Easily Holds The Top Spot At The Box Office
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was the lone new wide release when it hit theaters last weekend, and as expected, it played like gangbusters. Swifties from around the country swarmed in cinemas to watch, and the end result was the movie almost instantly becoming the most successful concert film of all time. When the final figures came in, the film made a shocking $92.8 million (just a little over $7 million less than what Jon M. Chu's Justin Bieber: Never Say Never brought in during its entire theatrical run).
Now, the movie in its second weekend, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour has fully secured its place in the record books... though the ticket sales according to The Numbers suggest there there was definitely a drop off in excitement.
The early box office numbers for the last three days show that the concert recording added another $31 million to its domestic earnings, bringing the overall gross to $129.8 million. That's a 67 percent weekend-to-weekend drop, which is pretty significant considering most movies look for something in the 50-60 percent range.
So what caused this dip? It may just be a regression to the mean after an extremely hyped opening. The release of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was hyped as an event unto itself – like a concert playing around the country simultaneously – and the response was for audiences to go and expect a concert-like experience with the community of Swifties. Because what's still playing on screen is the exact same show, that same kind of atmosphere was always going to be hard to replicate in Week #2, and that explains why there was a steep drop in ticket sales.
What will be interesting to see is if this second weekend box office performance ends up having an impact on the strategies for releasing future concert films – for example, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé. Like the case with Taylor Swift, there is every expectation that the Beyhive will be fully activated when the movie hits theaters in the first weekend of December... but how will AMC Theatres go about getting those fans back for a round two one week later? That will be an interesting situation to monitor as we get closer to it.
Factoring in ticket sales from foreign markets, Taylor: Swift: The Eras Tour has made $142.3 million to date, and as Hollywood shifts its perception on the box office potential of concert movies, we'll have to wait and see how long that record is held.
Martin Scorsese Has His Biggest Opening Weekend Since Shutter Island With Killers Of The Flower Moon
While perhaps not having the biggest impact overall, one also can't forget that Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour had some significant competition in wide release this week. Killers Of The Flower Moon has been hailed as one of the best movies that Martin Scorsese has made, which is saying a hell of a lot considering his filmography, and it would appear that buzz had a significant impact on the release's box office performance.
It was reported this Saturday that Killers Of The Flower Moon would be making an estimated $24 million this weekend, and while the early numbers suggest that it has fallen a tad short of hitting that figure, there is a big positive takeaway available to observe. For starters, the three-and-a-half hour film based on a harrowing true story just had the biggest opening weekend for a Martin Scorsese-directed feature since Shutter Island arrived on the big screen in 2010. That movie ended up making $128 million in the United States and Canada and just short of $300 million worldwide.
There is, of course, a big catch here: the film's budget. As noted by Variety, Killers Of The Flower Moon cost $200 million to make – which was partially due to COVID-19 related delays during production, similar to circumstances faced by James Mangold's Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny and Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part 1. It seems unlikely that the movie will ultimately be seen as profitable during its box office run (especially when publicity and marketing costs are also calculated in), but one must also factor in that Paramount and Apple partnered on the project, which will eventually be getting a release on Apple TV+. It's also very much a clout release that is expected to get a whole lot of attention in the coming months as Best Of The Year lists are put together and awards are handed out.
Spooky Season Box Office Numbers Are Getting A Bit Flat
It's no secret that horror is in a good place box office-wise at the moment, but what's interesting to observe about the Top 10 this weekend is that Hollywood may have jumped the gun when it comes to spooky season 2023. Halloween is now just a little over a week away, and excitement about releases like David Gordon Green's The Exorcist: Believer, Kevin Greutert's Saw X, Kenneth Branagh's A Haunting In Venice and Michael Chaves' The Nun II is already dwindling – as evidenced by the six/seven-figure ticket sales in the last three days.
It makes one wonder if there was a whole lot of potential squandered when films like Danny and Michael Philippou's Talk To Me and Justin Simien's Haunted Mansion were inexplicably released during the summer.
The industry's last big wide release swing at the end-of-the-month holiday will be Emma Tammi's Five Nights at Freddy’s, which is based on the hit video game series and will be in theaters this Friday, October 27. How will it shake up the Top 10? Head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to find out, and learn about all of the big movies heading to the big screen in the weeks and months ahead with our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.
