Box Office Showdown (Feb.19-21) The Witch, Risen, Race

[Chaotic]

The Witch
A24


Risen
Sony/Columbia


Race
Focus

[Foggy]

How wide is The Witch being released?

[The Debts]

Originally Posted by Foggy

How wide is The Witch being released?

The Wall Street Journal says it's going to show up on 1,500 screens. But even if it doesn't make a bunch of money, it'll make it's budget back either way. From what I heard, it only took a million to make.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by Foggy

How wide is The Witch being released?

Hmm. I can't seem to find the numbers. Around me it's going to be in two theaters from what I can gather, but they aren't art house theaters, but big AMC multiplexes. Not sure what that means for the national numbers, though.

EDIT: The Debts seems better at searching these things out than I am.

[Buscemi]

Race $12 million
Risen $8 million (the cancellation of the IMAX run and the PG-13 rating kill it, more or less)
The Witch $4 million

[Monterey Jack]

Looking forward to The VVitch.

[Batman1980]

Witch, Risen, Race, talk about on the nose film titles. Have a feeling Deadpool is going to win next weekend too and it might not even be close.

[Troll2fan]

Deadpool will win the weekend, and it should be by a comfortable margin.

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

Race $12 million
Risen $8 million (the cancellation of the IMAX run and the PG-13 rating kill it, more or less)
The Witch $4 million

Was Risen ever supposed to be in IMAX? Even so, I don't see how a PG-13 kills it or is unexpected, since most faith based movies are PG-13 if not PG.

[MikeScott]

Originally Posted by Batman1980

Witch, Risen, Race, talk about on the nose film titles. Have a feeling Deadpool is going to win next weekend too and it might not even be close.

Isn't Deadpool being #1 next weekend completely obvious? Nothing else has a shot.

I am so excited to see The Witch. But seriously, has anyone been seeing ads for it on TV? I really hope they're advertising it.

[jacobsever]

I've had my tickets for The Witch for 2 weeks now.

Thursday night at 10:30pm.

I've honestly never even heard of Risen or Race. Haven't seen a trailer, ads, or even know what they are about. At least The Witch is getting a LOT of online publicity. I see their trailer and news articles about that film everywhere. I don't think it will win, but I do think it will do fairly well.

[Tony208]

Deadpool will outgross the three newcomers combined.

[Buscemi]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

Was Risen ever supposed to be in IMAX? Even so, I don't see how a PG-13 kills it or is unexpected, since most faith based movies are PG-13 if not PG.

Early posters advertised IMAX but it got pushed back from January and at the new date, Deadpool already had the screens so Sony canceled the IMAX run.

As for the rating, the target audience very rarely attends PG-13 films (the exceptions are The Passion of the Christ and Courageous and there were reasons for those two) so for a film like this one (religious), the PG-13 is the kiss of death.

Now, Noah did make $100 million domestic (and even more internationally) but that was not made for religious audiences.

[Blu Titan]

Deadpool with the easy win...bunch of box office weaklings.

[Kevinicus]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

Early posters advertised IMAX but it got pushed back from January and at the new date, Deadpool already had the screens so Sony canceled the IMAX run.

As for the rating, the target audience very rarely attends PG-13 films (the exceptions are The Passion of the Christ and Courageous and there were reasons for those two) so for a film like this one (religious), the PG-13 is the kiss of death.

Now, Noah did make $100 million domestic (and even more internationally) but that was not made for religious audiences.

I think you are mistaken about the target audience for Risen. Like...big time mistaken. Not only about what they very rarely attend, but on who the actual target audience is.

I'm really looking forward to it. Christian movies tend to suck with horrible dialogue, acting, and production (budget reasons obviously), but this looks like it was competently made. It's not surprising considering the people involved.

Deadpool will easily win the weekend though. No doubts about that.

[Buscemi]

Remember Exodus? Big budget religious film with Hollywood production values (but didn't have the crossover appeal of Noah) and it bombed hard.

True, the Hollywood religious films (though Risen was independently financed by the producers of The Grey) do better at the box office and have higher production values but they are often hit-and-miss at the box office (Noah, War Room, and Heaven is for Real did well, Exodus, Little Boy, and Captive did not). Risen, with its old hat 300-like trailers and its PG-13 rating locking out the audience that most of these films thrive on, looks like a miss.

[Chaotic]

My theater is getting Spectre again. Sony trying to push it above $200M.

[Moleman1138]

Originally Posted by Chaotic

My theater is getting Spectre again. Sony trying to push it above $200M.

Same here. I've already seen it 3X on opening weekend and bought the Blu-ray. But I hope it can pull in that extra $350k to hit $200M. Sony knows it at this point that $200M is a lot better than finishing at $199.7M.

[Chaotic]

Originally Posted by Moleman1138

Same here. I've already seen it 3X on opening weekend and bought the Blu-ray. But I hope it can pull in that extra $350k to hit $200M. Sony knows it at this point that $200M is a lot better than finishing at $199.7M.

Hopefully they don't stop it at $199.9M like Disney did to Gnoemo and Juliet.

[Kevinicus]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

Remember Exodus? Big budget religious film with Hollywood production values (but didn't have the crossover appeal of Noah) and it bombed hard.

True, the Hollywood religious films (though Risen was independently financed by the producers of The Grey) do better at the box office and have higher production values but they are often hit-and-miss at the box office (Noah, War Room, and Heaven is for Real did well, Exodus, Little Boy, and Captive did not). Risen, with its old hat 300-like trailers and its PG-13 rating locking out the audience that most of these films thrive on, looks like a miss.

Pg-13 locks out nobody. Highly religious people still see R rated films. Not a 300-like trailer either.