SATURDAY AM: Warner Bros and Plan B Entertainment’s Mickey 17 is coming in at $19M-$20M after a $7.7M Friday (that includes $2.5M previews) and a B CinemaScore. What can we say? Original sci-fi is hard. Typically, we’ll rake a studio across the coals whenever they have a bomb, and this Bong Joon Ho movie was always destined to be one unfortunately with its $118M production cost before P&A.
However, at a time when studios are trying to bring people back to cinemas, and keep the art of cinema alive, one can’t bat Warners over the head for taking a swing at the fences with an original movie, and getting behind a multi-Oscar winning genre-defying filmmaker. It’s a very different thing by the way to make a musical to the highest grossing R-rated DC villain movie of all-time. CinemaScore audiences even deemed Joker: Folie a Deux out of order with a D grade.
Mickey 17 in its Byzantine isn’t the sharp-twisty-and-turny social commentary surprise that Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite was. Also, Mickey 17 by Warner measurements is no Gravity which opened to $55.7M; that Alfonso Cuaron directed, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney starring movie both a popcorn and arthouse epic.
The only fault is that the production cost is $118M. That said Domain has a 10% co-finance stake. Warners did push this movie with a spot during the NFL playoff game. Some sources believe that the global P&A here is at least around $80M, but it’s hard to say with the Zaslav administration nickel and diming costs.
There were reports that when the first trailer hit for Mickey 17, it wasn’t really a stone sending ripples in a pond. However, that’s because it’s original. The campaign was tweaked to make Robert Pattinson‘s protag more relatable in an attempt to expand the audience to women and young men, demos which aren’t the target for sci-fi. However, a finger can be wagged at Warners for not executing a marketing stunt soon after that lackluster first trailer in the five months between the second in order to make-up that delta of awareness. Mickey 17 also skipped fanboy opps such as San Diego and NYC Comic-Con. There’s an argument to be made that Warners didn’t go into overdrive in the promotion on the film after moving the release date several times.
What to do? The Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy administration supported Bong Joon Ho in landing the right ending, which is the most intriguing part of the 2 hour 17 min epic. In the same breath, if Brady Corbet can make a 3 hour-plus epic at a net under $10M (the gross budget I hear on The Brutalist was more in the high teens), why can’t other filmmakers hold the line with their budgets? In the same breath, how does a major motion picture studio compete with the $200M features that streamers like Amazon are greenlighting and being held to a completely different standard at the box office? (“We never bomb at the box office because we’re all about success on the service!”) These pricey auteur gambles at Warners with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled $140M epic, and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride put a lot of pressure on Legendary’s Minecraft and DC’s Superman to make deliver on the Warners 2025 slate to make up for any red ink.
In addition, this opening for Mickey 17 is unfortunately where original sci-fi has lived in recent years with 20th Century Studios/New Regency’s The Creator ($14M; granted impacted by the strikes) and Ad Astra ($19M), which Mickey 17 feels very close to in its deep space chill drama; that Brad Pitt feature getting a B- CinemaScore. Warners has been in this asteroid field before: Remember the $200M Wachowski siblings movie Jupiter Ascending? That was significantly more red ink on that movie which opened to $18.3M domestic. Gotta make sci-fi fun and emotional to work and break out.
More under the hood on Mickey 17: 65% guys showed up with the largest demo being 25-34 at 38% and a third of the audience over 35. Diversity demos were 47% Caucasian, 24% Latino and Hispanic, notable 13% Asian American, 10% Black and 5% Native American. IMAX and PLF are accounting for big business on the movie with 48% of the weekend so far. The movie is playing in the West and the NorthEast which is where auteur original sci-fi plays. It’s an LA and NYC film. AMC’s Lincoln Square is the highest grossing venue with around $70K.
1.) Mickey 17 (WB) 3,807 theaters, Fri $7.7M 3-day $19M-$20M/Wk 1
2.) Captain America: Brave New World (Dis) 3,480 (-320) theaters, Fri $2.1M (-41%), 3-day $8.5M (-43%), Total $176.5M/Wk 4
3.) Last Breath (Foc) 3,090 theaters (+72) Fri $1.16M (-62%), 3-day $4M (-49%), Total $14.4M/Wk 2
4.) The Monkey (NEON) 2,955 (-272) theaters, Fri $1.1M (-39%), 3-day $3.9M (-39%), Total $31M/Wk 3
5.) Paddington in Peru (Sony) 3,085 (-620) theaters, Fri $900K 3-day $3.85M (-16%), Total $36.9M/Wk 4
6.) Dog Man (Uni) 2,753 (-302) theaters, Fri $750K (-13%), 3-day $3.3M (-22%), Total $88.5M/Wk 6
7.) Anora (NEON) 1,938 (+1130) theaters, Fri $540K, 3-day $1.75M (+554%), Total $18.3M/Wk 21
8.) Mufasa (Dis) 1,460 (-245) theaters, Fri $371K, 3-day $1.6M (-19%), Total $250.3M/Wk 12
9.) Rule Breakers (Angel), 2044 theaters, Fri $600K, 3-day $1.3M/Wk 1
10.) In The Lost Lands (Vert) 1,370 theaters, Fri $380K, 3-day $940K/Wk 1
FRIDAY AM: Warner Bros and Plan B Entertainment’s Mickey 17 did $2.5 million in box office previews Thursday night at 3,200 locations. Showtimes began at 3 p.m. for the sci-fi movie adapted and directed by Bong Joon Ho.
Tracking has the pic hoping to do around $20M. The global outlook as we told you is around $45M. It’s an expensive movie given that it’s original sci-fi, with an initial greenlight of $118M before P&A.
How that stacks up to other sci-fi movies: Mickey 17‘s previews are higher than that of Plan B’s other sci-fi movie Ad Astra from pre-Covid September 2019, which did $1.5M on its way to a $19M opening, a final domestic of $50M and $127.4M worldwide. That astronaut movie starring Brad Pitt cost $100M after reshoots. Mickey 17′s previews are also above the $1.45M in previews made by Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival in November 2016, leading to a $24M opening. Yet, it’s below the $3.5M made by Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, which went on to a $32.7M opening.
PostTrak exits last night for Mickey 17 were very good at 4 stars and a 63% definite recommend. Always note, the fans are out first on a Thursday, in this case the Robert Pattinson and Bong followers.
Rotten Tomatoes critics score is at 80% certified fresh, and audience score is at 81%. Hopefully that will give the latest from the multi-Oscar-winning Parasite filmmaker a lift this weekend.
The rest of the week was as follows:
1.) Captain America: Brave New World (Dis) 3,800 theaters, Thur $920K (-10% from Wednesday), Wk $19.3M, Total $168M/Wk 3
2.) Last Breath (Foc) 3,018 theaters, Thur $511k (-8%), Wk $10.4M/Wk 1
3.) The Monkey (Neon) 3,227 theaters, Thur $520K (-8%) Wk $8.8M/Total $27.1M/Wk 2
4.) Paddington in Peru (Sony) 3,705 theaters, Thur $421K (-3%), Wk $6.2M, Total $33.1M/Wk 3
5.) Dog Man (Uni/DWA) 3,055 theaters, Thur $288K (+3%), Wk $5.4M, Total $85.2M/Wk 5