Box office: Mark Wahlberg's “King Arthur” in the Kennel

Lionsgate

How could a movie with an A CinemaScore and 4 1/2 PostTrak stars with a big star and a dog underperform at the box office?

Adventure sports charged with the title The Dog with a Heart King Arthur Lionsgate had no chance of taking the crown this weekend with expectations between $8 million and $10 million, however, many were expecting this well-received film to come in at the top of expectations. That didn't happen with a $7.5 million opening.

Also, A CinemaScore, and mid-budget films failing at the box office have become common. Read on.

King ArthurThe film's poor performance had to do with the fact that it seemed ready for broadcast by today's standards, rather than theatrical, right? That's why people didn't show up? Yes, but that's not 100% of the reason.

It's true that stars need to come to Jesus with themselves when they make movies online in conjunction with theatrical titles: are you diluting your high profile by making yourself freely available at home? Wahlberg's working title Family plan It was the most watched movie on AppleTV+ ever. To paraphrase/quote Sidney Poitier's advice to Denzel Washington, “If they see you for free all week, they won't pay to see you on the weekend.” Hollywood stars should get tattoos of that.

However, dog movies are a business on the big screen — and still are, right down to Rin Tin Tin and Benji and Old Yeller. This is despite different genres (such as comedies, romances, and mid-budget films, which… King Arthur It) is eaten up by live streaming, thus conditioning audiences to stay home, avoiding theaters.

Case in point: One of the recent successes of a canine feature is MGM's Channing Tatum film dog Which made for $15 million, opened to $14.9 million and made its way to $61 million in the United States, and $84.8 million worldwide. A nice post-pandemic bow in 2022 at a time when audiences were slowly returning to movie theaters. In reality, dog It was seen as one of the catalysts that brought women back to cinemas, and audiences were some of the most nervous to return post-Covid (dog It was withdrawn by 54% of women, 73% over the age of 25).

Before that dog, As far as non-IP dog movies go, before Covid, there were Warner Bros. movies. the above which opened to $12.1 million and reached $42.6 million domestically in 2015. Back in its pre-streaming blockbuster days in 2008, Disney had Beverly Hills Chihuahua which had a profitable opening of $29.3 million, $94.5 million domestically, and $149.2 million worldwide, and spawned a sequel.

arthur king, Which was jointly financed by pre-sales from Entertainment One (eOne) and Tucker Tooley Entertainment, and had a fantastic bike racing element. Lionsgate in the trailers clearly sold it on the big screen for this. So what gives? Why did you King Arthur falls apart?

Sources close to the studio scream profit King Arthur It's a disingenuous victory lap for the movie's failed CinemaScore, even if it's true. Only Lionsgate had a P&A commitment King Arthur, with an advertising budget of more than $20 million, and no minimum guarantee. This is a very low threshold for them, and it is a possible threshold to make money from. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, the theatrical streaming market for studios has become all about minimum buy-ins and buy-ins to get titles past the theatrical hump into home entertainment where the real money is. The play on these mid-budget titles became an advertising mechanism for home sales. King Arthur Offered in a 31 day (not 17 day) theatrical window.

Lionsgate has primarily targeted its marketing at male sports audiences, not family or religious audiences (Wahlberg himself could appeal to a percentage of that audience), and that's where this film falls short overall, I'm told. She didn't get a typical family bump on Saturday. The studio's choice not to double down on family audiences stems from the fact that the film centers around a troubled, exhausted dog, not a cute one. However, the Belgian Malinois in dog Not only was he the prettiest star in Hollywood, he also played to the meat bun with abs and guns. They did business together. Yesterday's totals for King Arthur At $2.8 million, it was down -6% from Friday's $3 million (which included $825,000 in previews from secret screenings on Thursday and Monday).

“This is such a movie Boys in the boat “This movie could have played in the middle of the country,” says one box office source. Also missing from King ArthurThe total output is Canada. The film was sold exclusively to Prime Video there; The image first appears on the streaming device later. The west and south were the best areas for King ArthurHowever, the Northeast was weak, which I'm told is because spring break wasn't in full force there. So far in March, this weekend featured the highest number of K-12 schools (28%) as well as colleges (40%), and more than Sand Dunes: Part TwoOpening weekend. Interestingly, the Harkins and Phoenix theaters significantly overperformed King Arthur. The film played well at the chain's Monday Secret screenings, while Phoenix faced a cold, rainy front over the weekend that sent moviegoers to theaters. Additionally, the department over-indexes dog-themed films and Wahlberg films. They boasted a nearly 3% stake in Tatum dog.

But there is more King Arthur. Despite Lionsgate targeting the one-shot sports spectacle, the film has always been a fish with feathers. I was told that the real cost of the film before pre-sale was $40 million. This was too high a price to pay for a movie for this vanity. It's one of the reasons Paramount moved away from the title as well as the film wasn't a major vehicle for Wahlberg's audience to enjoy in action roles. King Arthur On paper it was more like a reality TV show great race With low risk (how exciting is it to stop the race?). Also, to sports-oriented film marketing executives, the film was not a smash hit with family audiences. eOne pre-sale for King Arthur It was $18 million. It was shopped domestically after Paramount dropped the project. I heard that MGM expressed interest, but Lionsgate eventually acquired the film in a deal that took place before the eOne merger. Tooley previously had a deal with eOne.

Some sources also believe that this weekend was not the right weekend for her arthur king, that he would have been better off at Easter or later; That is, if Lionsgate chooses to focus on religious and family themes. There is nothing for families during the Easter holidays outside the home Godzilla x The King: The New Empire. In addition, there are currently a large number of religious titles on the market Ordinary Angels, Cabrini And the to choose Episodes.

Lionsgate recently hasn't been able to deliver another A+ movie this well, ordinary angels, which opened with $6.1 million; We've seen their Kingdom Story fare work a lot better with faith-based. The studio is very frugal when it comes to marketing, reportedly spending less than $40 million by studio P&A standards to acquire John Wick: Chapter 4 to a franchise-record domestic opening of $73.8 million. Reportedly, Lionsgate airplane ($32.1 million domestic, $74.5 million worldwide) made a profit of $35 million, a lot of cash to cover 50% of the studio's $70 million overhead. While the optics of every film's box office take may not show it (see figure), the studio prides itself on maintaining a scrappy business formula with low costs and high profit margins.

According to sources, a $10 million opening King Arthur It would have done a domestic final of between $35 million and $40 million, versus the $20 million+ domestic it's looking at now.

While studios are still embracing the post-Covid theatrical ancillary business model, and making the most of it financially in their attempts to harness distracted moviegoers, unfortunate dilemmas remain for mid-sized films and the filmmakers behind them: Will motion picture studios spend enough money? Again to turn them into compelling events? Or will the audience for smaller films, outside of horror, never return?