Sequelitis Scorches Franchises To Box Office Lows: Secret Life Of Pets 2 $46M+, Dark Phoenix Burnt To A Crisp With $33M+
SATURDAY 7:24 AM UPDATE: Refresh for more analysis Heres a trend: three franchise films in a row this summer —Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Secret Life of Pets 2, and Dark Phoenix — opened to roughly half of what their previous films did. And we may have a fourth title next weekend, if Men in Black International does half of MIB 3s $54.4M.
What does this say? In most cases, franchise fatigue: The previous film was fine, and there was never a reason to make another movie. That, or there was already a complete hatred unseen with the previous installment, and no one wanted to see another chapter in the franchise. But studio development executives sometimes suffer from not being able to see the forest for the trees, and become clouded by the twin delusions of grandeur: Chinese and overseas box office results, and/or not knowing when to put the brakes on sequels, as they could endanger a franchise altogether.
While Dark Phoenix will get singed more this weekend as being the final nail in the Fox/Marvel X-Men franchise, both commercially and story-wise (that is, until Disney/Marvel decides to resuscitate it), we cant let Universal/Illuminations The Secret Life of Pets 2 off the hook. The sequel to the 2016 movie is currently seeing a 3-day of $46.2M, -56% from the originals $104.3M opening, which doubles as the best debut ever for an original piece of IP.
Yes, yes, yes, Pets 2 was made at a responsible $80M production cost before P&A, according to Illumination standards, and film finance experts expect the sequel to turn a profit, as the pic will leg out from its great exits of an A- CinemaScore (same as first movie) and 4 1/2 stars (as of last night) from general audiences, parents and kids under 12. All of this could potentially spike business today and push its 3-day north of $50M, which would be nice.
But did anyone think whats going on here? What was the fire-breathing need for a sequel? More shenanigans from pets while youre not at home? And did the marketing actually distinguish what the difference was between Secret Life of Pets 1 and 2? The slowdown in business here is obvious: No one knows why they should go out of their way to see this sequel. As RelishMix spotted in the social media chatter: “Potential moviegoers ask where the original ideas have gone, why they are over-served on the pics digital ads when theyve already decided after the first trailer or two whether or not they were in or out.”
At least Despicable Me has been clever about each page it turns, from selling each movie very strongly off its new characters and fresh Gru set-ups. The conceit of that series is endless: Hes an evil-like 007, a wisenheimer, a fish out of water, so you can easily parachute him into off-kilter environments, or spin-off the Minions.
Unfortunately, with young animation studios like Illumination, their franchises are few, and original IP is always a challenge to launch at the B.O. So, the knee-jerk reaction after an original movie does well is to just make another one. But best to follow the Pixar rule of thumb: Wait that sequel out, make sure its the best version there is in development, milk out the brand in the meantime and make it a legacy with audiences, then pop it and get stupid rich. Yes, everyone is going to compare Secret Life of Pets 2 to the first film box office wise: its a g.d. sequel. Building a threequel is even more difficult now. Illumination, youve done better.
Secret Life of Pets 2s audience was 62% female to 38% male, and 53% under 25, with 40% under 17 years old. The mix was 48% Caucasian, 25% Hispanic, 14% Asian/Other, and 13% African American. Life of Pets 2 played best in the Mid-West and South but was fairly solid throughout the nation.
Poor, poor Dark Phoenix, flying in with the lowest opening for an X-Men movie ever with $33.9M after being the worst reviewed at 22% Rotten and the worst received with a B- CinemaScore (lowest ever for the franchise) and ComScore/Screen Engine PostTraks of 3 stars among general audiences, 69% positive and a low 49% definite recommend. Despite having better exits than Dark Phoenix with an 81% positive and A- CinemaScore, moviegoers werent amused with technically the last PG-13 X-Men movie, Apocalypse, and they showed that with their wallets: 4-day projections of $100M dropped to $79.8M during its opening, and stateside, the film is the second-lowest grossing X-Men movie at $155.4M, with First Class being the lowest at $146.4M.
Aside from bad reviews and the stink on this film after fanboy outcry over re-shoots and that last minute date change following the September trailer drop (which said Feb 14) to this weekend, RelishMix captures the social media reaction in a bottle: “Fans said goodbye to the 20th Century Fox X-Men films after Logan and/or Apocalypse. There have now been 12 X-Men related films produced by the studio (counting Dark Phoenix), and its fair to say a contingent of fans are ready to hit pause and reset. This side of the fence – which includes more casual moviegoers – are confused by the story and its adaptation from the beloved comics storyline. The casual superhero ticket purchasers are also un-sold by Sophie Turners performance, the hyper action, and the unavoidable comparisons to the MCU entries like Captain Marvel.”
Well be looking at Dark Phoenix more as the weekend goes on, but theres something to be said here about poor dating and poor marketing — and you cant blame Foxs new owner, Disney, on this one. Theres not much the studio could have fixed on this movie after absorbing Fox back in March, and delaying it would only make it worse (Dark Phoenix literally completed shooting in 2017, and was already in post by when news about the Disney-Fox merger began to percolate back in December 2017).
The blood is on the hands of the previous Fox administration. However, Foxs loss here on X-Men is also Disneys gain, as it takes the old studios stable of Marvel characters into its family. Those who showed were 58% male/42% female and 71% under 35 with 56% falling between 18 – 34 years old. The mix was 41% Caucasian, 25% Hispanic, 17% African American, & 17% Asian/Other. Dark Phoenix played best on the coast.
Specialty notables: Amazons Late Night is alive in its four-theater NY and LA release, with an estimated $102K last night and $271K 3-day, for a great per-screen of $67.8K, which is the best to date this year, besting Greenwichs Echo in the Canyon, $58.8K.
Reviews for the $13m Sundance pick-up are at 80% Certified Fresh. Word is that Amazon bought out these houses –Lincoln Square, the Angelika, The Landmark on Pico and Hollywood Arclight– on Wednesday and loaded the gross into Friday night, but the solid numbers are there, so lets see what the drop is today.
A24s Last Black Man in San Francisco, another Sundance Film Festival premiere, played at 7 sites and is poised to make drawing $259K or $37K a theater in LA, NY and San Francisco. Solid numbers at Lincoln SQ, Angelika, ALH, Landmark, ADH SF, Metron, and the Grand Lake Oakland. Rotten Tomatoes is 94% Certfied Fresh. Fridays take was $89K.
Vives Bharat from Ali Abbas Zafar drew $341K yesterday and is looking at $1.1M opening.
CBSs Ron Howard Pavarotti doc played at 24 theaters in 17 markets inlcluding NY, LA, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, DC, Atlanta, Seattle, Phoenix, Miami, Clevaland, Fort Meyers and more posting around $56K yesterday on its way to a $172K opening. The doc had a solid number at the Paris in NY, as well as Century City in LA, but the rest were mediocre.
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UPDATED, 12:31 PM Friday: Right now, Universal/Illuminations The SeRead More – Source
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