The North American film market last weekend welcomed the release of several new films such as "Priscilla", but none of them was a major production, and there was no challenger that could challenge the dominance of "Five Nights at Freddy's". On the other hand, the awards season and the Christmas season are getting closer, but the strike by the Screen Actors Guild does not seem to be ending soon. Whether it is the presentation of annual awards or the box office this year, it will bring a lot of losses. Influence.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" hits a niche audience
In the second weekend after "Five Nights at Freddy's" was released, the three-day box office dropped to $19.4 million, a staggering 76% drop. However, for such a horror film that emphasizes a specific schedule, such a decline occurred This is also normal. It seems relatively abnormal, but such results can continue to dominate the box office list, highlighting the problem of Hollywood's lack of new films.
Overall, this weekend's North American box office total was only $65 million. Originally, Warner's blockbuster "Dune 2" was supposed to be released grandly at this time. However, due to the impact of the actors' strike, the film was postponed to March next year. The impact on the total box office in North America last weekend was at least 50 million US dollars. The current situation is that Hollywood's big-name actors are completely unable to promote new films, causing the American theater industry to be full of deep anxiety about the upcoming Christmas period. In addition to "Dune 2", there were several previous blockbusters such as "Ghostbusters 2" and "Kraven the Hunter", but they all chose to withdraw due to the above reasons.
As of the end of October, this year's North American movie box office total has reached 7.5 billion US dollars, 17% behind 2019, but 25.6% higher than last year. At present, it seems that this year's total box office in North America is likely to fall around 9 billion US dollars, but whether it can ultimately reach the target depends on the production of "Aquaman 2", "Wonka", "Captain Marvel 2" and "Captain Marvel 2" in the last two months of this year. Will commercial blockbusters such as "The Hunger Games Prequel", "Trolls 3" and "Star Wish" achieve ideal box office results?
Stills from "Five Nights at Freddy's"
Talking back to "Five Nights at Freddy's", which ranked first, the film's current North American box office total has reached 113 million US dollars. This film, which was produced with a production cost of only US$20 million, exceeded the US$100 million mark at the North American box office eight days after its release. It has become the first film released in theaters and streaming media on the same day, following the release of "The Dark Knight" in July 2021. After "The Widow", it is the second fastest film to achieve this feat.
Now it seems that the reason why Universal Pictures decided to release the film simultaneously on streaming media is not because they lack confidence in it. On the contrary, they know that its original video game has a strong fan base, so even if it is released simultaneously, it will not It will hurt the actual box office of the film. Moreover, according to data provided by Universal, the film is also the most watched movie or TV show in the history of its streaming platform Peacock within the first five days, surpassing "Moonlight: Endgame" and "Super Mario Bros. Movie" "wait.
The commercial success of "Five Nights at Freddy's" is really surprising. The film currently only has a 29% freshness rating on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes", and the audience score on IMDb, the world's largest film information network, is only 5.5 points. At that time, few people could have expected that such a work would become a dark horse at the box office, surpassing "Scream 6" and "Megan" to become the highest-grossing horror film this year.
Looking back, the industry found that the commercial success of the film was largely due to the successful promotion on social media. On the one hand, the film itself invited six Internet celebrities who are very popular among American teenagers to perform as guest stars - for example, Corey Williams, who plays a taxi driver in the film, has 17.3 million YouTube subscribers. The promotional video for "Five Nights at Freddy's" he produced at the end of June has nearly 10 million views.
In addition, because of its PG-13 rating, "Five Nights at Freddy's" has also successfully attracted a large number of viewers between the ages of 13 and 17. This group of people, due to age restrictions, usually cannot attend restricted horror films such as "Scream 6" and "Saw 10", but in fact they love horror films no less than those who are slightly younger than them. Longer young man. In the words of the Hollywood media, during Halloween every year, it is precisely the age of these people that is most embarrassing: they are obviously too old to participate in "trick-or-treating" activities, and many people have lost interest in it; But they are not of adult age, so they cannot watch R-rated movies or participate in adult Halloween activities such as alcohol parties.
As a result, "Five Nights at Freddy's" released in theaters has created an opportunity for this group to participate together and have a wild carnival. It is also in line with the emphasis on experience in Hollywood movies since 2023, and is willing to increase theater viewing. A trend to the level of an "event". Universal Pictures, which produced "Five Nights at Freddy's", has previously successfully created two "event" movie-watching crazes through "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Oppenheimer", which is undoubtedly the case. One of the most successful Hollywood studios this year.
New low- and medium-cost films struggle to boost box office
In terms of new films, the biographical film "Priscilla" directed by Sofia Coppola and produced by A24 also expanded its screening scale from the previous 4 theaters to 1,344 theaters last weekend, and finally received US$5.08 million. Ranked fourth on the box office list, behind "Five Nights at Freddy's", "Taylor Swift: Time Tour" and "Killers of the Flower Moon".
What can be compared is the box office performance of Sofia Coppola's past works: 2006's "Marie Marie" was released in 859 theaters and received an opening box office of US$5.3 million; 2017's "Marie Marie" produced by Focus Features "Under the Peonies" was released in 674 theaters and earned an opening box office of US$3.2 million; the total North American box office of "Bejeweled" in 2013 was US$5.8 million.
"Priscilla" stills
"Priscilla" is based on Priscilla Breasley's memoirs about her marriage to "Elvis" Elvis Breasley, with a production budget of approximately $20 million. The film had its world premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival and received good reviews. The lead actor, Cailee Spaeny, even won the Best Actress Award.
"What Happens Later" starring former romantic comedy goddesses Meg Ryan and David Duchovny was originally scheduled to be released in mid-October, but in order to avoid Taylor Swift's attention, it was It was postponed to November 3 before meeting the audience. Brick Street Films, the film's distributor, has average strength and has never invested much in publicity and distribution. Fortunately, the company does not belong to the Hollywood Film and Television Producers Alliance, so it is not affected by the strike. The two leading actors can Promote it boldly and confidently.
In the end, the film was released in 1,492 theaters over the weekend and only earned US$1.56 million at the box office, ranking ninth. Fortunately, the production cost of the film was only US$3 million. However, the current decline of romantic comedies has long been an indisputable fact. The reasons behind it are complicated. I am afraid that this is not a general trend that can be changed just by the filmmakers themselves. . Moreover, the film itself is of average quality, with a current rating of only 54% on Rotten Tomatoes.
"What Happened Then" poster
Meg Ryan, 61, rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, starring in "When Harry Met Sally", "Sleepless in Seattle", "When Men Fall in Love with Women", "Electronic Love Letters" and "City of Angels" " and other films, all of which were well-received. She has won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress three times. She is the first American romantic comedy. However, as she gets older, it is inevitable to change her acting career. For this reason, she has also tried different runways such as the thriller "Nude Cut" and the sports film "The Net", but most of them were not successful.
After the age of 45, Meg Ryan took on fewer and fewer roles, mostly in independent films. In 2009, she even won the Golden Raspberry Award. In 2015, she went behind the scenes for the first time, turned into a director, and made a reasonably qualified feature film "Ithaca". However, she chose to fade away from the screen and has not made any films for eight years. For eight years, Meg Ryan was said to have spent most of her time with her family. "For me, movies have always been just a job, not everything in life," she explained.
In addition, Lionsgate's new film "The Marsh King's Daughter" starring Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn was originally planned to be released on October 6, but it also turned out to avoid Taylor Swift, which was temporarily rescheduled to last weekend, earned $850,000 in 1,055 theaters, but failed to rank among the top ten at the box office.
Continued strike takes its toll on awards season
The Screen Actors Guild strike has been dragging on for more than 100 days. Although many so-called positive signals have been sent out last week, the labor and management sides have not yet reached a complete consensus. Moreover, even if the two parties can reach an agreement soon, taking into account the time required for various procedures, I am afraid that the entire industry will have to wait until January next year to return to normal.
The longer the strike lasts, the more damaging it will be to Hollywood. Since the Writers Guild of America strike began in May, the production shutdown has caused an estimated $5 billion in economic losses to California, where Hollywood is located. Last week, Fran Andreas, president of the Screen Actors Guild, mentioned that she has always wondered why several big Hollywood bosses lacked a sense of urgency when faced with the shutdown issue: "We are confused by the Producers Union's negotiating strategy. , what on earth are they thinking?”
One explanation is that the big bosses are really not in a hurry. Because according to the good wishes of the outside world, if the strike can be ended in October, Hollywood can resume film and television production at the end of the year. However, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year are coming one after another at this time. Shooting during the holidays will require overtime pay. The salary is a considerable additional cost, and the travel expenses at this time are also higher than usual. In addition, the weather conditions in winter are not suitable for outdoor shooting, so instead of doing this, it doesn't hurt to simply wait a little longer.
However, for ordinary actors and even Hollywood practitioners below, if the situation continues, survival may become a problem. In those days when Hollywood was shut down due to the epidemic, everyone at least still had relief funds from governments at all levels to receive, and the government at that time also introduced welfare policies in terms of rent, water and electricity expenses, etc., which provided everyone with basic living needs. , can be satisfied. But this time there is no government support for the strike crisis. For ordinary Hollywood employees, it depends on how much their savings are and whether they can survive the crisis.
Affected are not only actors, screenwriters, directors, and front-line practitioners in the film and television industry, but also various suppliers behind the scenes, such as prop companies, catering companies, equipment manufacturers, etc. They are not eligible to apply for the strike relief fund provided by the Actors Union, and the owners of these small businesses are not eligible to apply for government-level unemployment benefits.
Considering that the end date of the strike is still unclear, the Writers Guild of America decided last week to postpone the next Writers Guild Awards ceremony to April 14, 2024, which is currently scheduled to be held on March 10, 2024. The Oscars are still more than a month away. In the past, the Writers Guild Awards have always been announced before the Oscars and are one of the important indicators for judging Oscar results. Of course, although the Screenwriters Guild Awards award date has changed, the nomination announcement date on February 21 next year has not changed, so it will still have a certain impact on the Oscar competition. As for whether other awards will follow suit to postpone the award date, it is difficult to judge at this time.
