LOS ANGELES -- Five new movies arrived in wide release last weekend, and not one managed more than $5.1 million in ticket sales, giving Hollywood fresh evidence that U.S. moviegoing habits are changing rapidly.
The top five movies at the North American box office were all holdovers. The Fate of the Furious collected about $38.4 million, for a two-week worldwide total of $908.4 million. The Boss Baby was second, taking in about $12.7 million. Beauty and the Beast chugged along in third place, generating about $10 million in ticket sales.
All of those movies share a common DNA. They are glossy, big-budget extravaganzas stuffed with elements to hook global audiences: extreme stunts, Alec Baldwin as a talking infant, boundary-pushing visual effects, song and dance.
On the other hand, the five new films vying for attention seemed shipped in from another era. They included a modestly budgeted, star-driven thriller; a nature documentary; and a period drama with romantic overtones. But consumers continued to send a message with their feet: These are the kinds of movies we now watch at home, either on streaming services like Netflix, HBO Go and Amazon Prime or through the vast on-demand platforms operated by cable and satellite providers.
Warner Bros., for instance, put forward the suspense film Unforgettable in 2,417 domestic theaters over the weekend, backing its release with tens of millions of dollars worth of billboards, television ads and posters at shopping malls -- tried and true marketing tools that used to compel crowds into theaters. But Unforgettable only managed about $4.8 million in ticket sales. (Memo to studios: Perhaps retire the title Unforgettable. There have now been three films and a television series with that name over the last two decades. Can you identify one?)
The directorial debut of longtime producer Denise Di Novi cost only $12 million to make, but the meager result still disappointed.
"Unfortunately, the movie just missed the intended audience," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.' president of domestic distribution. "We had higher expectations, and we're disappointed we didn't achieve them."
Warner has suffered a string of these middle-market misfires, including CHiPS, Fist Fight, Live by Night, War Dogs and The Nice Guys. Almost none were financial wipeouts. But they nonetheless have drained the studio of resources, particularly in marketing.
There is a silver lining for Warner Bros. The buddy comedy remake Going in Style, starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin, is chugging along after three weeks in theaters, taking fourth place with about $5 million.
The other weekend arrivals included The Promise, a period drama that cost nearly $100 million to make. It bombed at No. 9 with a catastrophic $4 million take, according to comScore, which compiles box office data. The nature documentary Born in China had about $4.8 million in ticket sales. A low-budget horror film, Phoenix Forgotten, took in about $2 million, while the art-house action picture Free Fire played to mostly empty theaters, generating about $994,000.
The Promise touches on the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey that many countries and most historians call genocide. Turkey still denies the genocide, saying the deaths stemmed from civil unrest and war.
"It's not a surprise the film, which was estimated to cost around $100 million to make, failed to gain traction," comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said.
"It didn't really jump out as anything that would be a surprising box-office hit," Dergarabedian said. "But it wasn't really about the box office."
Made outside the studio system and distributed by Open Road Films, the point of The Promise was to "raise awareness around a global event that many know nothing about," he said.
"It was a tough weekend in general for the newcomers," Dergarabedian said, noting that many moviegoers are likely saving up for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which hits theaters May 5.
"It's a quiet period," he added. "This is the interlude between the spring movie season and what promises to be the biggest summer movie season ever."
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:
The Fate of the Furious, Universal, $38,408,415, 4,329 locations, $8,872 average, $163,304,635, two weeks.
The Boss Baby, 20th Century Fox, $12,712,144, 3,697 locations, $3,439 average, $136,954,014, four weeks.
Beauty and the Beast, Disney, $9,662,645, 3,315 locations, $2,915 average, $470,787,029, six weeks.
Going in Style, Warner Bros., $4,910,895, 3,038 locations, $1,616 average, $31,671,738, three weeks.
Smurfs: The Lost Village, Sony, $4,880,377, 2,737 locations, $1,783 average, $33,418,362, three weeks.
Born in China, Disney, $4,790,367, 1,508 locations, $3,177 average, $4,790,367, one week.
Unforgettable, Warner Bros., $4,785,431, 2,417 locations, $1,980 average, $4,785,431, one week.
Gifted, Fox Searchlight, $4,558,508, 1,986 locations, $2,295 average, $10,773,300, three weeks.
The Promise, Open Road, $4,095,718, 2,251 locations, $1,820 average, $4,095,718, one week.
The Lost City of Z, Bleecker Street, $2,121,540, 614 locations, $3,455 average, $2,270,953, two weeks.
Phoenix Forgotten, Entertainment Studios MP, $1,816,499, 1,633 locations, $1,112 average, $1,816,499, one week.
Get Out, Universal, $1,668,555, 965 locations, $1,729 average, $170,306,700, nine weeks.
The Case for Christ, Pure Flix, $1,584,587, 1,247 locations, $1,271 average, $11,361,296, three weeks.
Kong: Skull Island, Warner Bros., $1,491,445, 1,203 locations, $1,240 average, $163,915,391, seven weeks.
The Zookeeper's Wife, Focus Features, $1,398,325, 1,033 locations, $1,354 average, $13,162,475, four weeks.
Power Rangers, Lionsgate, $1,365,550, 1,292 locations, $1,057 average, $83,052,602, five weeks.
Free Fire, A24, $994,430, 1,070 locations, $929 average, $994,430, one week.
Logan, 20th Century Fox, $972,143, 754 locations, $1,289 average, $223,400,405, eight weeks.
Ghost in the Shell, Paramount, $883,253, 913 locations, $967 average, $39,114,757, four weeks.
Colossal, Neon Rated, $579,389, 224 locations, $2,587 average, $1,352,493, three weeks.
MovieStyle on 04/28/2017