ELVIS opening | THE BLACK PHONE opening | Blumhouse | June 24 to 26, 2022 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: June 24 to 26, 2022
1) Elvis opening
- This is an excellent opening for a musical biography, nearly double the average for the genre, and the #3 opening of its kind, behind Straight Outta Compton ($60.2m) and Bohemian Rhapsody ($51.1m). Elvis was a risky proposition: the music is dated, the character is not directly familiar, and the lead actor is unproven on the big screen. But critics and audiences are responding. This is the Baz Luhrmann show, a music, dance and sex appeal spectacular — it’s a hit.
- Depending on how well the music travels, international can be inconsistent for these movies. Elvis was primarily an American phenomenon at a time when foreign culture did not mix as freely as it does now, and that will limit business in some international markets.
- The film was very expensive to make (approx. $85m — Bohemian Rhapsody cost $51m, Rocketman $40m, Straight Outta $39m), with a pricey marketing campaign to match, but Elvis should cover costs and be reasonably profitable after all ancillary money is counted:
- Coming soon: Whitney Houston, the Bee Gees, and Bob Marley.
2) The Black Phone opening and Blumhouse
- This is another strong Blumhouse horror opening, above average for a Blumhouse series launch, which is an impressive number to hit. Reviews are excellent. By keeping costs low, including efficient, targeted marketing, Blumhouse rarely misses (this one cost approx. $18m to make).
- Jason Blum has talked about the benefits of trading lower upfront costs for creative freedom and profit participation, and how it makes for better, more creative, and more interesting movies (NY Times). The streamers have avoided that kind of deal structure because it would require sharing the viewing metrics that define their success and failure. Instead, streamers buy out talent in advance, for fees that guarantee success, which results in expensive and often mediocre movies (Apple is experimenting with a hybrid model).
- The Black Phone is the kind of film that streamers have not been able to make — high-profile, exciting, profitable on its own terms, and cheap:
- This is another very good weekend, with two successful new stories pulling very different audiences, in addition to strong holdover business, and we’re headed for a long holiday weekend. Next week we'll have June and 2022 year-to-date moviegoing figures compared with 2019 — the June numbers are looking extremely good.