'Shazam!' To Hit $100M Before Friday; 'Little' Mighty With $15M+; 'Hellboy' Extinguished; 'After' Works Overseas
New Line/DC's Shazam! bulked up 74% on Saturday over Friday with $11M, putting its second weekend at $25.1M, -53%, for a 10-day of $94.9M. The DC superhero hero formerly known as Captain Marvel should cross $100M before Good Friday.
The weekend's other comic book franchise, though grittier than Shazam!, Millennium/Lionsgate's Hellboy, arrived on ice to the multiplex with $12M. That's the lowest Hellboy opening through three pics, off 64% from the series' previous opening high of $34.5M, when Universal made Hellboy II a piece of summer 2008 counter-programming. The shame is that after being a niche superhero during its launch with Sony/Revolution in 2004, Universal looked as though they expanded the audience for muscular red, horned guy. Now it's back to square one in regards to rebooting the brand. No one rushed out to see Hellboy because Guillermo del Toro wasn't part of this reboot, plus the film looks like a watered-down version of its predecessors. There's no plus-ing going on here in regards to making a movie that builds on del Toro's.
That said, there was an earnest attempt here to tap Game of Thrones director Neil Marshall, who was behind the "Blackwater" and "The Watchers on the Wall" episodes. But critics have deep-sixed the movie at 15% Rotten (we hear the film wasn't widely available to critics to be screened, so that tells you something right there). Worse, CinemaScore audiences have slapped Hellboy with a 'C' grade, lower than del Toro's first 2004 movie (B-) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (B). PostTrak audience like it less than CinemaScore folks at 2 1/2 stars and a 44% recommend. Men over 25 repped 38% of the crowd, females over 25 were close to a third. Caucasians numbered 47% followed by Hispanic audiences at 23%, Asian at 14% and African American at 11%. Millennium spent $50M to make the movie. "Millennium will be fine, they will always be fine," said an international distribution exec yesterday, "When are they not?" Lionsgate, though, is bound to get the short end of the stick here after acquiring UK and US on the pic and being on the hook for P&A. For a studio that needs more franchises, Hellboy isn't the one.
Universal's Little had the upper hand over the devil throughout the weekend in second place and her estimates are spot on with what we saw yesterday afternoon, with $15.5M this morning after a Saturday of $6.1M, +15% over Friday. That's solid for a pic that cost $20M before P&A, which is a standard budget for a Will Packer production. It's a major win for diversity both at the box office and behind the camera, as Little is a movie directed, starring, written and executive produced by African American women.
CinemaScore audiences, who are typically hard on comedy, gave the movie a B+, while the Marsai Martin film gets four stars on PostTrak and a 62% recommend. Revised exits as of Sunday AM show African Americans repped 43% of the audience, followed by 28% Caucasian, 21% Hispanic, and 4% Asian. Little overperformed in Atlanta, Houston, Washington DC and was generally better across the South and in the Northeast. Little's ticket buyers were comprised of 65% female, 56% under 25 in updated exits.
The UA-released Missing Link is looking at an estimated $5.8M, the lowest opening ever for a Laika production out of its five theatrical releases; Focus Features' Kubo and the Two Strings from 2016 repped a prior low opening of $12.6M. Stop motion animation is increasingly not an easy sell in this CGI era, plus Missing Link was sold younger than the regular hipster Laika fare, which kept the brand's enthusiasts away en masse. Those who showed were 52% Female and 67% under 25 with 54% under 17. The mix was 57% Caucasian, 18% Hispanic, 17% Asian/Other, & 8% African American. Men over 25, who rep a third of the audience, love the pic the most on PostTrak at 81% positive and a 63% definite recommend. Missing Link gets a B+ CinemaScore like Laika's Boxtrolls and Para-norman. Missing Link played best in the West & Mid-West. Seven out of the top 10 runs were from the west coast and 3-D only drew 11% of the weekend's business.
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