LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE opening | AMSTERDAM opening | October 7 to 9, 2022 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: October 7 to 9, 2022
1) Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile opening
- This is a weak opening, at below average levels for a family animation/live-action hybrid. Reviews and audience scores are good. The film was not designed to be in the league of the big Disney/Pixar/Illumination family juggernauts. At a cost of only $50m, there’s room for this kind of mid-range production. Family titles have been thin this year; it’s an under-served market. But moviegoers are not excited about this crocodile:
- Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile aside, animation/live-action hybrids are a good idea. The hybrid technique heightens the fantasy and tickles the imagination. Half of the 16 movies in the average above have gone on to a second episode. The phenomenon started in 1988, when Who Framed Roger Rabbit? broke through and made $330m worldwide at $4.11 a ticket — around $800m today. In recent years, Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Jam and Peter the Rabbit have had good runs. Lyle, Lyle is not on that level.
2) Amsterdam opening
- This is a weak opening. The weekend figure is below average for a crime mystery, and reviews are poor. Amsterdam has an impressive collection of talent in front of and behind the camera, and an $80m budget. When they work, crime mysteries feature a razor-sharp story and a mix of well-drawn characters. That didn’t happen here, and the humor is muddling the tension. The genre still performs — we’ll see it with Knives Out 2 in December — but this production missed:
- As noted, the recent hole in the schedule has been big franchise film releases, and that will start to change over the next couple of weeks.