Disney's live-action Snow White, which was only released ten days ago, was squeezed out of the top spot in the North American weekend box office chart in its second weekend, which is a bit surprising, but also reasonable. It's surprising because this is Disney's flagship IP, and a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and the new film released this weekend has limited competitiveness; as for the reasonableness, it's because Snow White's reputation is really bad, and most North American audiences who are willing to pay have already entered the theaters in the first weekend, so it is very difficult to attract more people to pay.
Snow White poster
This weekend, the film is still showing in 4,200 North American theaters, and the number of screens is exactly the same as the opening week, but it only received $14.2 million in box office in three days, a 66% decrease from last weekend. In contrast, the live-action version of "The Little Mermaid", which was released at the end of May 2023, also caused controversy due to the casting, and it could only lead the weekend box office chart once, but the year-on-year decline in the second weekend was 56%, which is still slightly better than "Snow White". At present, it seems that this blockbuster, which cost between $240 million and $270 million (not including its high marketing costs), should not exceed $100 million in North American box office, and will not exceed $200 million in global box office. Disney is bound to suffer a big loss.
The film that replaced Snow White as the box office champion over the weekend was A Working Man, a new film by Hollywood action actor Jason Statham. The film opened in 3,262 North American theaters last weekend and eventually earned $15.21 million in weekend box office, slightly lower than the $16.57 million North American opening box office of The Beekeeper, which director David Ayer collaborated with Jason Statham last year. The film also opened simultaneously in China and other places around the world last weekend. The domestic box office over the three days of the weekend was suppressed by Ne Zha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King, which earned 23.83 million yuan. Due to poor word of mouth, it is expected that it will not improve during the Qingming Festival.
Poster of "Revolution"
The Beekeeper eventually earned $66.2 million in North American box office and $162 million worldwide. The final box office performance of Amazon MGM's "The Last Airbender" is expected to be similar. Looking back, this director, who started out as a screenwriter, shot "Fury" 11 years ago, which earned $23.7 million in North American opening box office ($85.81 million in North American total box office and $211 million in global box office), making it his most successful work besides the superhero comic adaptation "Suicide Squad" ($175 million in North American opening box office, $325 million in North American total box office, and $749 million in global box office).
The third place on the weekend box office list is another Catholic gospel film that mainly targets audiences in the central and southern United States. The Chosen: The Last Supper Part 1 was released in 2,235 theaters and earned $11.49 million at the box office. The average performance per screen even exceeded that of The Rise of Skyfall and Snow White, showing that this part of the American people with devout faith have great enthusiasm for such relatively scarce film works.
Of course, the "Chosen: The Last Supper" released this time is actually just the first two episodes of the latest season of the TV series called "Chosen". The series was born in 2019 and tells the story of Jesus and other biblical characters. The first season was made by collective fundraising by the public. Since then, due to the growing number of viewers, it has been unstoppable. Not only has it been filmed to the fifth season, but also some of its content has been extracted for short-term screening in thousands of theaters in North America in the past few years. For its devout audience, being able to go out of the house and watch "Chosen" in the cinema with a large group of like-minded people is undoubtedly a huge attraction.
The fourth place in the weekend box office list is also a new film, the thriller "The Woman In The Yard" produced by Blumhouse and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was released in 2,842 North American theaters over the weekend and only earned $9.45 million in the opening box office. Currently, the film has only a 39% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is an absolute bad movie in the eyes of the media. Considering that its director Jaume Collet-Serra has directed high-scoring horror films such as "Orphan", it is really regrettable.
Poster of "Woman in the Yard"
The fifth place is also a new film, Death of a Unicorn from A24 Films. It was released in 3,050 theaters in North America over the weekend, which is quite a large scale, but it only earned $5.78 million in the opening box office. The film tells the story of a father and daughter played by Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega, who hit a unicorn with their car and triggered a series of thriller events. The film was directed by newcomer Alex Scharfman and took the route of comedy and horror film, but failed to gain recognition from the media, with only 56% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes.
Stills from Death of a Unicorn
It seems that, except for "Snow White", all the top five films this weekend are new films. The argument that the poor North American box office is due to the lack of new films is definitely not true. However, it is difficult for such new films to attract a large number of audiences. In the past, Blumhouse, which specializes in horror films, and A24 Films, an independent film producer, were both well-known brands, and many people were willing to buy tickets just for their names. But recently, the box office performance of many works of these two labels has become lackluster.
The sixth place in the weekend box office list is an old film with a long history, that is "Princess Mononoke" from Studio Ghibli. This time, its North American distributor Gkids sent the new 4K restored version to 330 IMAX theaters in North America for re-screening, earning $4 million in weekend box office. In comparison, in 1999, the film was introduced to the United States by Miramax and the box office revenue at that time was only $2.37 million.
"Princess Mononoke" 4K restored version poster
Last week, OpenAI released an AI application in the style of Ghibli, which immediately caused a sensation on the global Internet. However, many people in the animation and film industries have expressed opposition to the fact that the time-consuming and laborious art has been copied and replaced by automated anonymous technology, and the practice of ignoring the copyright of the creation. On the occasion of the re-screening of "Princess Mononoke", Chance Huskey, vice president of GKids Distribution, also said in a statement over the weekend: "In an era when technology attempts to replicate human nature, we are pleased to see that there are still a large number of audiences who know how to respect Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's hand-painted masterpieces and are willing to enjoy this work in theaters."
