The box office results of North American movies last weekend will look a little special compared to usual. This is because the United States ushered in the second "National Cinema Day" (National Cinema Day) on Sunday. Almost all theaters in the United States have launched a super discount of four dollars a movie ticket, regardless of the number of shows or film titles.

All day last Sunday, the movie tickets of about 3,000 theaters (covering about 30,000 screens) across the United States were uniformly reduced to four dollars a piece, even the IMAX hall was no exception. Last year around this time, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) held the event for the first time, though tickets were $3 a pop. However, due to the insufficient supply of films after the epidemic, there are very few new films. Although everyone thinks that it is cheap to watch movies for only three yuan, there are very few choices, basically only a few such as Tom Cruise's "Top Gun 2" You can see a few of them.

"Gran Turismo: Speed Fury" poster

The situation is quite different this year, with the new film "Gran Turismo: Speed", the hit films "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" and the re-screening of the Korean film "Oldboy", the 3D version of "Jurassic Park", George Lucas' "American Graffiti" and "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig's old work "Miss Bird" are also 4 dollars to watch a show. Compared with the current average ticket price of US$11 to US$12, it is equivalent to the usual price of watching one movie, which can be used to watch three movies in one day.

In the end, "Gran Turismo" produced by Sony Pictures topped the weekend box office rankings with a score of 17.3 million US dollars, slightly better than "Barbie"'s 17.1 million US dollars in the three-day weekend box office. However, the opening box office reported by Sony Pictures itself actually added the $3.9 million box office accumulated by the large number of screenings of "Gran Turismo" in the previous two weekends.

This kind of operation is somewhat suspected of being clever, but it also reflects how eagerly Sony Pictures hopes that "Gran Turismo" can win the title of this weekend's box office champion. After all, in this way, it is of great significance for the subsequent word-of-mouth fermentation of the film and for attracting more neutral audiences to buy tickets. If the box office of nearly 4 million US dollars is excluded, and if the results are reported according to the three-day box office this weekend, it is tantamount to admitting that the opening performance of "Gran Turismo" as a new film is not as good as that of "Barbie", which has been released for a long time. Obviously quite unfavorable.

As mentioned before, this racing movie adapted from the PS video game of the same name was originally planned to be released in full on August 11; but later, because of the actors' union strike, Sony Pictures worried that the lack of celebrity promotional activities would affect the box office, so it will release Its full release date has been pushed back to August 25. However, starting from August 11, "Gran Turismo" has been screened in a few theaters, hoping to use the audience's word of mouth to increase the popularity of the film. The box office of this part of the show, Sony Pictures did not disclose the previous two weekends, it should be considered early in the morning to be included in the opening box office.

"Gran Turismo: Extreme Speed" stills

This method of counting the box office of click-screenings into the box office of opening pictures is of course not a violation of the industry's box office statistics. It's just that such super-long spot screenings of up to two weeks have indeed rarely appeared in the past, usually one or two days in advance. Moreover, not all major Hollywood companies like to include the box office of click screenings in the opening box office. The "Thunder Shazam!" released earlier this year! Wrath of the Gods, Warner is relatively honest, and the box office of the first weekend given does not include the $3.3 million in advance screenings.

As for "Barbie", which ranked second on the weekend box office list, it reached the North American box office milestone of 574.2 million US dollars on August 23, officially surpassing Universal Pictures' "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and becoming the top North American box office from 2023 to now. Box office champion, but whether this laurel crown can last until the end of the year, it will take four months to be announced. It depends on Warner's own "Wonka", "Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom" and Disney's "Captain Marvel 2". "Can it come from behind. The last time Warner Bros. won the first place in the North American film market of the year, it dates back to 2011, when "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2)" won a North American box office of 381 million U.S. dollars that year, beating Paramount. "Transformers 3" head.

Next, "Barbie" will enter the IMAX theaters, and a week-long limited screening will begin on September 22. It is said that the ending part is slightly different from the normal version, suitable for avid fans to experience again. Previously, because "Oppenheimer" had monopolized North American IMAX screening halls for nearly a month, "Barbie" had no plans to arrange IMAX screenings at all.

According to statistics, the IMAX box office accounted for as much as 20% of the US$180 million global premiere box office of "Oppenheimer". A month after its release, "Oppenheimer" in IMAX 70mm format alone has grossed $17 million worldwide. You must know that there are currently only 30 theaters in the world that can show IMAX 70mm film, of which 19 are located in North America. According to director Nolan, IMAX 70mm film is currently the most ideal way to watch movies, because its "image sharpness, clarity and depth are unparalleled." Today, "Barbie" director Gerwig also said that "Barbie" was originally filmed for the big screen. Since IMAX is the largest screen on the planet, it is definitely a great thing to let it enter the IMAX theaters. .

The results of the other two new films that started painting last weekend were not satisfactory. Lionsgate's Liam Neeson-starring action film "Retribution" opened to 1,750 theaters and took in just $3.34 million for the weekend; distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment The sports-themed biopic "The Hill" (The Hill) was released in 1,570 theaters, with an opening box office of only $2.51 million. Both films obviously failed to enjoy much dividends from the upsurge of the "National Film Day" event.

On the other side of the UK, the second "National Film Day" will also be ushered in on September 2. At present, more than 600 theaters have signed up to participate, accounting for about 90% of the total number of theaters in the UK. Mainstream theater chains. At that time, audiences can enter the theater at a flat price of three pounds regardless of the film or the number of sessions. At the first event last year, according to statistics, 1.5 million British people bought tickets to participate, about three times the number of people who watched movies on weekdays, which also contributed to the determination of the British Film Distributors Association to make persistent efforts this year. In fact, the recent British film market has been on the rise with the help of "Pabpenheimer", with the number of admissions reaching the highest level in more than ten years. 12%.