After months and months of “controversy” including rumored infidelity, on set screaming matches and a potential sit down spitting, Don’t Worry Darling was finally released in theaters this weekend. The Olivia Wilde directed film opened with a reported $19.2 Million. Coming in ahead of our Thursday predictions, it seems I just slightly underestimated the actual curiosity of the average Joe Blow (pun intended) moviegoer and the true power that all press is good press. Of course, the B- Cinemascore indicates that general audiences weren’t leaving the theaters fully impressed with what they saw and that will mean big drop offs in the weeks to come as already indicated in the dip in Saturday’s numbers. However, when you look at this films modest budget of just $35 Million before marketing, a $19 Million start really isn’t all that bad and the film should ultimately be able to recoup its costs by the end of its theatrical run.
Second place belongs to The Woman King with an estimated $11.1 Million representing a 42% drop off from its opening weekend. The film held strong throughout the week and is proving to be another solid word of mouth hit. I think a lot of this boils down to the public’s general love for star Viola Davis. Her films tend to do well because audiences know that when she puts her time and effort into a project, it’s going to be worth it.
Coming in third place is the re-release of the highest grossing film of all time: Avatar with $10 Million. An estimated 93% of that coming from 3D screenings shows that audiences are still willing to spend the money on that extra dimension if it is done right. It is a shame that in the wake of Avatar’s original release, so many movies used 3D as a throwaway tool instead of truly investing in the immersive experience great 3D can create and in doing so, completely watered down the wonder of the format to where now most films released theatrically in 3D don’t ever see a 3D Blu Ray home video release while 3D TV’s are basically a thing of the past.
I think James Cameron has done what he can to show the true value of the format and I think this successful re-release of the original bodes well for the upcoming sequel Avatar: The Way of Water.
Coming in fourth and fifth place is the horror one two punch of Barbarian and Pearl with $4.8 Million and $1.9 Million respectively. Having seen both of these films I can say that I am glad they are finding an audience as they both represent truly original, and vastly different, visions of terror. Pearl is the prequel to X and tells a slow build story of a woman on the verge of insanity. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, then you should go see it just for Mia Goth’s truly Oscar caliber performance with one of the best one take monologues I have ever seen in a film. It is a shame the Academy doesn’t reward the horror genre because if they did, Mia Goth would surely be on this years short list.
Barbarian is a film I can not say enough, or really anything, about! To say anything about this film would ruin it and this is a movie that should not be ruined. In a time when trailers tend to give away everything there is to know about a movie, it is refreshing that the trailers for Barbarian only scratched the surface of what this movie is about and allowed the audience to experience it for themselves, and the audience should definitely get to a theater and experience this movie for themselves!
Expect both films to have small week to week drop offs as audiences seek out scary movies in the run up to Halloween (both the Holiday and the new movie coming out on October 14!)
Sixth Place belongs to See How They Run with $1.9 Million, losing 37% of its already lackluster first week audience. Seventh place goes to Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train with $1.81 Million as it inches ever closer to that $100 Million domestic mark. Rounding out the top ten are your summer holdovers DC’s League of Super Pets, Top Gun: Maverick and Minions: The Rise of Gru with $1.76 Million, $1.56 Million and $1.04 Million respectively.
Did you make it to theaters this weekend? If so, what did you see? If not, what are you looking forward to seeing? And don’t forget to check out our poll where we ask what your favorite 3D film was.