SATURDAY AM WRITETHRU after Friday afternoon post: Refresh for chart and more It’s Spidey’s world, and Jacob Elordi and Wile E. Coyote are just living in it. But let’s not ignore the pace we’re seeing on Ketchup Entertainment theatrical release of the abandoned Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes title, Coyote Vs. Acme, which is eyeing third place with now $14M. Coyote vs. Acme received an awesome A CinemaScore, as well as a 93% positive and 82% definite recommend on Screen Engine/Rentak’s PostTrak.
That’s a record domestic start for indie Ketchup Entertainment, whose previous opening high was Warner’s other discarded Looney Tunes pic, 2024’s Porky Pig-Daffy Duck feature The Day the Earth Blew Up ($3.1M). Coyote vs. Acme is booked at 3,575 theaters.
Keep in mind the following: this is an indie distributor, not a major studio, so the spend was very thrifty I hear around $10M. For Coyote vs. Acme to make something of an impression here and outstrip the marketing wattage and box office of a Jacob Elordi starring, Ridley Scott directed movie in Dog Stars which is opening to $8M in 5th place (ala another starry $60M starry auteur project, Darren Aronofsky’s Austin Butler starring Caught Stealing from a year ago, which began with $7.8M and died at $19M). Dog Stars gets a C+ CinemaScore, a 65% positive and not good 51% definite recommend on PostTrak which is better than the D of Scott’s 2013 dramatic disaster, The Counselor. That starry vehicle with Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Michael Fassbender opened to $7.8M and ended its run at $16.9M.
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If families find Coyote vs. Acme today, then the Will Forte, Lana Condor, John Cena movie has a shot at being No. 2 with potentially $15M ahead of Universal’s The Odyssey which right now refuses to let go of second, with a seventh frame of $14.6M, -26%, and a running cume of $564.1M by Sunday.
Despite the all the noise that fans created on social about Warner Bros axing of Coyote vs. Acme for tax write down purposes, social media analytics firm RelishMix measures its followers across TikTok, YouTube, X, Instagram and Facebook at 115.5M, which is under another Warner Bros live-action animation hybrid movie from February 2021, Tom & Jerry which counted a social media reach of 159M. That pic opened to $14.1M and finaled at $46.5M. While Ketchup Entertainment took the world on Coyote vs. Acme for $50M, note that they sold off foreign for around $20M. V10 Entertainment sold the pay-1 window and downstream rights to Coyote vs. Acme in addition to other Ketchup titles.
Reports RelishMix on Coyote vs. Acme, “What’s obviously missing on this film is the social heft of a major studio, which would drive reach and engagement — as the film lines-up with stats like an indy platform release. Otherwise, as we’ve been tracking, the pre-release social media universe SMU stats on Coyote v Acme are running 68% below family live genre norms across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram combined — while fan KPI key performance indicators are building and convo has hit full positive.”
RelishMix adds though “conversation runs positive for Coyote vs. Acme, with audiences treating the film less like another release and more like a long-overdue rescue mission. The campaign benefits from years of pent-up goodwill, creating an unusually passionate community that wants to reward the movie simply for surviving. Nostalgia works because viewers consistently compare it favorably to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Space Jam, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, and The Day the Earth Blew Up, while arguing it finally gives Wile E. Coyote the justice he has deserved for decades. Fans also embrace the contemporary entertainment legal premise, imagining Acme finally answering for generations of defective products, while John Cena clicks positive reactions as an over-the-top corporate villain. The convo shifts from passive interest to advocacy, encouraging fans to buy tickets and support the theatrical release. ‘Roger Rabbit meets The Road Runner. I’m here for it.’ to ‘I can’t believe they wanted to write this film off. It looks freaking amazing.’” Cena has been pumping the pic to his 83M fans.
Coyote vs. Acme has some PLFs which are driving 6% of the weekend with an even play across the country, but best in East, Midwest and West. The AMC Burbank is the top grossing location with $47K.
Demos at this point are 82% general, 8% parents and 10 kids under 12. Male leaning at 57%. The 25-34 quad is the biggest at a huge 38%. Under 35 is very notable at 66%. Diversity demos are 51% Caucasian, 29% Latino and Hispanic, 9% Black, 7% Asian American and 4% Native American/other.
The slow-paced, looks like The Last of Us, Dog Stars, has 27% of its weekend being generated by PLFs. Best area of play is the West where close to a third of the pic’s money is coming from versus the norm of 25%. AMC Burbank is the top grossing location with $19K through Friday.
Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day posted a fifth Friday of $5.5M and fifth weekend at $21M in 1st at 3,678 theaters, which would get the movie to less than $10M’s breath away from $900M by Sunday. Again, a great No. 1 hold for a title this late in the summer, post-Covid. A year ago at this time, New Line’s Weapons led with $10.4M in its fourth sesh.
Fourth is Sony’s second weekend of Screen Gems/Stage 6/Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s Insidious: Out of the Further at 3,303 sites with a Friday of $3M and 3-day of $9.3M, -63%, with a 10-day cume by Sunday of $42.8M.
Outside the top five there’s Roadside Attractions and Saban’s R-rated Buddy with an eye on a first Friday plus previews of $2.1M and 3-day around $4.65M. Critics are at 88% certified fresh while the audience likes it at 81%.
The penultimate weekend of summer is racing up an estimated $100M from all titles per sources, +55% from a year ago which did $64.4M per Box Office Mojo.
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FRIDAY AM: Ketchup Entertainment’s dog rescue of Warner Bros Animation’s Coyote vs. Acme was solid in previews with $1.7M. That includes not only Thursday money from showtimes that began at 3 p.m. but also $446K from last weekend’s sneaks in U.S. and Canada. The Dave Green-directed PG live-action/animated hybrid is expected to do plus-or-minus $15M this weekend.
Funny enough, and keep an asterisk in this comp, that’s the same amount of money that Disney 2016’s Zootopia made in preview cash. But that was a different time, and that tentpole was backed by a mega marketing budget. We hear that the P&A spend on Coyote vs. Acme is around $10M after Ketchup’s $50M global acquisition.
A good post-Covid animation comp here is Universal/Illumination’s 2023 Migration, which did $1.5M in previews (granted, during a pre-Christmas weekend) en route to a $5.7M Friday and $12.4M 3-day. For those counting, Warner Bros’ previous Looney Tunes movie, Space Jam 2: A New Legacy, didn’t hold previews when it hit theaters and HBO Max at the same time back in July 2021.
Coyote vs. Acme is 95% certified fresh with critics and 92% with audiences, which will only help the pic. Now the question is whether it expands beyond its core fervent social media fanbase.
Ridley’s Scott’s dystopian-future thriller The Dog Stars, led by Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin, began with $850K on Thursday. The hope is that this feature could make it to a $12M-$14M start. The comp going into the weekend was the Rami Malek-starring 20th Century Studios thriller The Amateur from last year, but that did $2M in previews for a near-$6M Friday and a $14.8M start. Dog Stars is, of course, way lower in previews. Thursday’s shows began at 2 p.m. for the R-rated feature take on the Peter Heller novel. Critics weren’t yipping for Dog Stars at 40% Rotten. The pic is sharing Imax theaters with The Odyssey and PLFs with Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day ends Week 4 for with $53.3M and a running cume of $869.2M. That’s $30.8M from crossing the nine-century mark at the domestic box office, which would make it only the second title to hit that milestone. At its current running cume level, the pic is 5% ahead of Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the same point in time, which finaled at $936.6M. Weekend 5 is expected to be around $18M, -54%.
Roadside Attractions and Saban’s Sundance pickup Buddy did $777K in previews, which includes Thursday night’s $527K in addition to $250K in mystery movie screenings. The Casper Kelly’s R-rated dark comedy is booked in 1,258 theaters. Starring Cristin Milioti, Topher Grace and the voice of Patton Oswalt, it follows a brave girl and her friends who must escape a kids TV show and its murderous main character.
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Week’s top 5:
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Sony) 4,006 theaters, Wk $53.3M (-47%), Total $869.2M/Wk 4
- Insidious: Out of the Further (Sony) 3,303 theaters, Wk $33.5M/Wk 1
- The Odyssey (Uni) 3,091 theaters, $29.9M (-21%), Total $549.5M/Wk 6
- PAW Patrol: Dino Movie (Par) 3,609 theaters, Wk $12.12M (-54%), Total $38.4M/Wk 2
- The End of Oak Street (WB) 3,478 theaters, $12.11M (-58%), Total $41M/Wk 2 (yes, a near tie with Dino)
- Mutiny (LG) 2,703 theaters, Wk $10.4M/Wk 1