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Disney’s reboot Tron: Ares malfunctioned badly in its box office debut, coming in well behind expectations with a domestic opening of $33.5 million from 4,000 theaters. Unless it can solve its problem quickly, it will once and for all end hopes of rebooting a storied, yet troubled, sci-fi franchise that began more than four decades ago when the first film became a cult classic.
Overseas — where the sci-fi genre is an even harder sell — Ares also disappointed with a debut of $27 million for a global start of $60.5 million. It unfurled everywhere except for China, where it opens next weekend.
Heading into the weekend, the big-budget event pic had been tracking to open to $40 million to $45 million domestically (at one point, $50 million was even a possibility) against a hefty net production budget of $180 million after tens of millions in tax breaks and production incentives.
The Tron film franchise has always been challenged, resulting in terms of long gaps between installments. It took 33 years for the sequel, Tron: Legacy, to hit the big screen. Debuting in 2015, Legacy opened to $44 million domestically on its way to earning $409.9 million globally, not adjusted for inflation. Ares was in development for a decade, but former Disney exec Sean Bailey refused to give up and shepherded the project when serving as head of Disney’s live-action studio.
Disney insiders were well aware that Tron: Ares might encounter trouble in its box office debut. The hope now is that solid audience scores can make up for decidedly mixed reviews. Its current critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes is 57 percent, while the audience ranking is much better at 87 percent. And it got four out of five stars on PostTrak. Also, it has little competition coming up and will retain Imax, Dolby Cinema and other premium large-format screens, which combined accounted for an unheard of 67 percent of opening weekend earnings.
Norwegian Disney vet Joachim Rønning directs the third film, which stars Jared Leto as the eponymous program, Ares, Greta Lee as Eve Kim, CEO of ENCOM, the tech corporation at the center of the series since the start, and Evan Peters as baddie Julian Dillinger.
Another new major studio offering this weekend is Miramax and Paramount’s romantic crime-caper comedy Roofman, starring Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst. Derek Cianfrance directed the pic, which co-stars LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple and Peter Dinklage.
Roofman came in on the low end of expectations with an estimated $8 million from 3,362 theaters, but who is counting when the film’s net production budget is a modest $19 million (tracking had it debuting at $8 million to $10 million). Miramax produced and financed the film, which hoped to serve as counter-programming for females not interested in Tron or the myriad of male-skewing films dominating the marquee. So far, however, more males than females are showing up to see the film, even if by a slim margin.
Unlike Tron, Roofman boasts strong reviews, although moviegoer reaction is relatively similar. Roofman‘s Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score is 85 percent, while the audience score is 84 percent. Both films received a B+ from polling service CinemaScore, as well as four out of five stars on PostTrak.
Based on a true story, Roofman follows the adventures of an Army veteran and struggling father who turns to robbing McDonald’s restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname Roofman. After escaping prison, he secretly lives inside a Toys “R” Us for six months, surviving undetected while planning his next move, but his double life begins to unravel when he falls in love.
Another new nationwide offering is Soul of Fire, from Sony’s faith-based Affirm label. The movie opened to $3 million from 1,730 locations for a sixth-place finish. The good news: the movie reportedly cost a net $3 million to produce and earned an A CinemaScore. It is doing best in America’s heartland and the South.
At the specialty box office, A24 launched its Rose Byrne-starrer If I Had Legs I’d Kick You in four theaters for an estimated per-location north of $27,000, the best of the weekend.
Amazon MGM Studios is also going the platform route with Luca Guadagnino’s specialty psychological thriller After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts. It’s paying off so far; the #MeToo movie opened in six theaters for a promising per-location average of $25,745. The awards contender, which also stars Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny, made the rounds at the fall film festivals and is about a sexual assault accusation that tears apart Yale’s philosophy department.
The score for After the Hunt is from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who are on double duty, having also done the score for Tron: Ares (in the latter, they are credited by their band’s name, Nine Inch Nails).
Among holdovers, Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, came in third with an estimated weekend gross of $6.7 from 3,127 sites, a drop of 39 percent. Some box office pundits are stumped that the high-profile awards contender from Warner Bros. isn’t holding in stronger after earning a coveted A+ CinemaScore, but the film’s fate is far from being decided (it is only in its third outing). Overseas, it took in another $15 million for a global tally of $83.5 million and $138 million globally.
New Line and Warner Bros.’ The Conjuring: Last Rites achieved a major milestone in screaming past the $300 million mark internationally. In North America, it rounded out the top five with $3 million from 2,334 cinemas for a domestic tally of $233.4 million and a profit-popping $473 million.
Japanese manga blockbuster Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle also notched a major milestone this weekend in passing up Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to become the top-grossing international film of all time at the domestic box office with a cume of $128.6 million, not adjusted for inflation (it came in seventh for the frame with $3 million from 1,834 sites. Sony’s Crunchyroll is handling the blockbuster both domestically and in numerous foreign territories outside of Japan; its share of the film’s global total of $648 million is $336 million.)
Dwayne Johnson-starrer The Smashing Machine appeared to collapse in its second weekend after getting snubbed by audiences, despite solid reviews. The A24 pic dropped nearly 70 percent to $1.7 million from 3,321 theaters for a paltry 10-day domestic total of $9.8 million and an eighth-place finish. The movie, which kicked off its awards campaign with a splashy world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, marks Johnson’s first foray into Oscar territory. The Benny Safdie-directed pic cost $50 million to produce before marketing, a high price tag for an indie pic, although Johnson himself took a far lower fee than he usually commands.
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