Paramount and Miramax brought big screens comedies back this weekend as Scary Movie hit a franchise best opening at $105.5M around the globe. Divided up that was a $55M domestic best star for the Wayans brothers starring and written film and another $50.5M overseas bow. Note, the global start here is better than Paramount and Spyglass’ Scream 7 franchise record $97M global bow.
Overseas, Scary Movie’s $50.5M No. 1 at the foreign B.O. across 53 markets (95% of the pic’s footprint) repped the biggest start for the comedy franchise, 75% bigger than Scary Movie 3 which was the previous record holder in the franchise. Europe took in $26M, and Europe was $21.5M.
EntTelligence says that stateside, Scary Movie pulled in 3.76M admissions, with 41% of Saturday’s business being after 8PM.
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Scary Movie was No. 1 and the biggest opening for a Paramount comedy in Mexico ($6.7M at 870 locations, biggest for a Paramount comedy), UK ($5.5M at 576 locations), Brazil ($5.1M with paid previes at 753 sites), and Colombia ($1.8M including previews at 227 sites) and Bolivia ($488k at 22 sites).
The Michael Tiddes directed comedy was also No. 1 in Germany ($5.5M at 507 cinemas), France ($3.2M at 480), Australia ($2.7M at 270), Italy ($2.2M at 385 cinemas), Peru ($2.1M at 109 locations), Argentina ($1.8M at 210 sites), Panama ($1.6M at 151 sites), Poland ($1M at 230 sites), Austria ($89K from 60 cinemas), Chile ($848K at 90 locations), Switzerland ($798K, No. 1 in German region and No. 3 in French region), Ecuador ($736K at 60 sites), Czech ($562K at 90 sites), Belgium ($510K at 65 sites), Ukraine ($400K at 175 sites), Portugal ($400K at 43 sites), Hungary ($334k at 60 sites) and Denmark ($287K at 75 sites).
Spain opened at #2 grossing $1.4M at 301 sites. it was also No. 2 in Netherlands at $615K at 108 locations, Israel with $281K at 34 cinemas, and Sweden where it made $230K at 96 sites.
PLFs in U.S./Canada drove 26% of the weekend with best business in East, South, South Central and West. Top grossing venue was AMC Burbank with $114,5K. The audience was a solid mixture of new and nostalgic fans of the franchise with 88% describing themselves as fans of the franchise and 90% having seen a previous Scary Movie.
Diversity demos from Paramoutn show 37% Latino and Hispanic leading, 36% Caucasian, 21% Black and 6% other. The under 35 set came out at 78%, and as we mentioned, previously, funny enough another under 35 pic took a hit, that being A24’s Backrooms which fell to No. 3 with a second weekend of $25.9M, -68%.
The first trailer for Scary Movie debuted exclusively in theaters ahead of Scream 7, generating more than 300 million views. The official launch delivered more than 410 million views in its first seven days, becoming the second-biggest trailer debut in Paramount history.
Global cume on the $170M Amazon Studios feature production of Masters of the Universe was not good at $54.3M WW. Divided up that was $25M overseas from 86 territories and $29.3M in North America. What didn’t work here? The new generation didn’t show up for this film, but the old men who savored it as kids in the 1980s with 45-54 being the biggest demo at 29%. Kids under 12 repped 5%, and 13-17 was only 6% (and keep in mind it stars Red, White and Royal Blue hunk Nicholas Galitzine). Unfortunately, Masters of the Universe is part of this bad trend of old 1980s properties, which are getting revived now, that aren’t working at the box office post Tron Ares and Running Man. They didn’t work back then, and unfortunately no matter how much umpf is put into them and gloss, they’re not working now.
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