At a time when IP is a Holy Gail at the box office, and mass appealing auteur-driven fare a consistent gamble, kudos for Sony in their support and passion to re-energize a dormant cult British zombie franchise in Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later and Disney/Pixar in their relentless attempts to try and breakthrough with expensive original fare, that being the $150M Elio.
However, like all things at the box office, nuance remains the greatest enemy. Nuance in a marketing campaign, and nuance in a movie itself.
Sony’s 28 Years Later was frontloaded, which is no surprise for a horror movie, though more severe than others. Saturday came in with $8.8M, a -38% drop against Friday+previews’ $14M. 2022’s Scream saw a Friday-Saturday decline of -24% (granted, it was MLK weekend), while Longlegs was down -28% over its first two days/previews, Final Destination: Bloodlines -14%, and Smile a remarkable +4.6% between its Friday/previews and Saturday.
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