First, a quick update on the new theatrical release
front. The box office results — new
openings, etc. — run one week behind, so we are looking at results for films
opening during the week ending June 30 and the numbers recorded for their first
weekend (June 30, July 1 and 2).
We got a bump up from 521 to 523 as the projected number of new theatrical releases for 2023. While still nowhere near the pre-pandemic average of 753 films at your local multiplex, it is encouraging that we are holding above 500 consistently since the first week of March … eventually this number will get baked in (so many weekends, so many screens, so many available seats on Friday and Saturday night).
The top box score (films grossing $25 million or more; films with a box office take of $100 million or more) improved from 64 to 66 — pre-pandemic the average was 94 hit films.
Speaking of films in that category, director James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opened to $83.9 million and writer/director Gene Stupnitsky’s romcom starring Jennifer Lawrence, No Hard Feelings, has reached the “winner’s circle” with a current box office haul of $33.1 million.
2023 remains nothing more than a recovery year … modest improvements, but we are not there yet.
The word is: Hopeful. Industry players need to stop throwing high-profile films into the streaming pit and let theatre-going audiences pick and choose the winners if there is to be a return to normal distribution patterns.
Second, the traditional home entertainment packaged media companies — “Hollywood” studios and independents — were on vacation for the July 4th street-date Tuesday with only 19 replicated discs released across all three formats (DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD) … that is truly pitiful.
A slow week, right? On the contrary, there were 755 new releases posted on July 4th.
That’s a preliminary count — which is always wrong — and it is an absolute certainty that “below-the-radar” and stragglers will be ferreted-out and posted, driving the count even higher.
Think about it, 19 traditionally replicated new product offerings across three formats. Let that sink in.
Piracy is running rampant — “helpers” and “void-fillers” are catering to consumer demands — and the “traditional” home entertainment packaged media companies take the extended July 4th holiday period off. That’s an out-and-out indictment of what is wrong these days … put your focus on streaming and see what happens.
To that point, first thing out of the box Monday morning (July 10 was the press release for Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City with the completely out of touch headline reading: “ASTEROID CITY: BE THE FIRST TO WATCH AT HOME WHILE STILL IN THEATERS TOMORROW, JULY 11, 2023 FROM UNIVERSAL PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT.” You don’t thing the “helpers” will be on this like flies on road kill?
On the new release front, Paramount announced the home entertainment package media release dates for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Oct. 10) and Walt Disney locked in on Sept. 19 for the live-action version of The Little Mermaid.
We won’t even get into the “helper” activity this week … your eyes will glaze over. Busy, and let it go at that.
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