‘A Quiet Place’ Still Noisy With $47M+ Opening; ‘Blockers’ Eyes $19M+ – Late Night Update

April 7, 2018

Friday 11:42PM: Chart to follow, extended writethru of middayParamount’s horror-thriller A Quiet Place is shocking many inside and outside Paramount. While there was some fantastic buzz coming out of SXSW with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, there was a feeling that the movie would do well, but no one anticipated a $47M+ debut of this size for this net-budgeted $17M title. Tracking had this genre title sitting in the low-to-mid $20Ms and just yesterday, many jumped their average forecast for this John Krasinski-directed-and-written title to low $30Ms.

A Quiet Place‘s 3-day blows away the openings of Jordan Peele’s horror surprise Get Out ($33.3M), M. Night Shyamalan’s Split ($40M), and even the FSS portions of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One ($41.7M) and Paramount’s summer tentpole of Transformers: The Last Knight ($44.7M).

Indeed, a very long-awaited win for Paramount, which has been hit-starved following the Brad Grey-Rob Moore era (though previous highs have included Daddy’s Home 2 $104M domestic, The Last Knight‘s $130.1M domestic and $605.4M global, and going way back, the 2016 Oscar-winning Arrival at$100.5M).

Close to 90% of all moviegoers bought their tickets on the day rather than in advance according to ComScore/ScreenEngine’s PostTrak. What that means is that word of mouth and social media buzz is through the roof. Updated exit polls show audiences giving the Krasinski-Emily Blunt combo 4 out of 5 stars with a 50/50 split between males and females attending.PostTrak stats also show men 25+ at 29% enjoying the film the most with an 89% overall positive. Definite recommend is a massive 63%. All are great signs that sync well with its 96% Rotten Tomatoes score. CinemaScore crowds graded the movie like a horror title with a B+ which is what It and Split earned, and near Get Out‘s A-. There’s too much momentum here with A Quiet Place for that grade to be any kind of hurdle at the B.O.

Coming out of SXSW where the Krasinski pic was the opening night film, RelishMix reports that the social media universe for A Quiet Place across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter grew to 100M, with Twitter hashtags #AQuietPlace and @QuietPlaceMovie building a 11k per day and 40.3k over the last month, topping all openers (though behind #ReadyPlayerOne and @ReadyPlayerOne which counted 23.2k hashtags/tags per day and 402k over the month).

Reports RelishMix about the social chatter, “The film is even reaching fans who are not typical horror Fans, much like last year’s It and Split were able to. Many social moviegoers have jumped to the comment threads to discuss Friday night plans and have expressed how intrigued they are with the cast. Touching on the originality of the plot, the birth scene in particular seems to be a source of much chatter as fans are curious about how it will take place.”

Paramount wasted no time in getting this film into production as it was announced just a little over a year ago. Insiders close to production credit former Paramount motion picture group president Marc Evans for being an internal champion at greenlight, with the current Jim Gianopulos administration and marketing department ensuring that this pic would open. Paramount knew A Quiet Place transcended horror and so the marketing department made bold/big moves to show that this movie was for more than just the horror audience, and eventized the movie with a teaser trailer that ran before Justice League and Star Wars: The Last Jedi in theaters, followed by a sport during the Super Bowl pre-show. RelishMix reports that trailers and clips for A Quiet Place have been passed around at a viral rate of 21:1 which bests the speed of other horror trailers (which average 13:1).

Platinum Dunes’ Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller walked Bryan Woods and Scott Beck’s dialogue-less script into Paramount. Childhood friends, the duo drew their inspiration from the silence that surrounded them growing up on the Iowa plains. An intriguing part of the script: the sound effects were a riveting supporting cast. Woods told us at SXSW “Michael Bay called the head of the studio saying ‘You have to make this movie! Why aren’t we making this movie?’” The duo were gobsmacked about how fast the greenlight process was having had other projects languish over at other studios. Krasinski was already in business with Platinum Dunes having starred in Bay’s 13 Hours and their upcoming Amazon Prime series Jack Reacher. The former The Office alum already had a few directing credits with some episodes on the NBC comedy series, plus two features that premiere at Sundance, 2009’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Man and 2016’s The Hollars. Platinum approached Krasinski to direct, but horror was his wheelhouse, that is until he heard the pitch: “About a family who can’t make any noise and you have to figure out why.” Having just had their second child, Blunt was drawn to A Quiet Place as it dialed into her fears as a mother and protecting her children.

After A Quiet Place, it’s a triple play for titles that launched at SXSW with Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s Ready Player One currently holding well, (-46% for a $22.4M second weekend, and 12-day total by Sunday of $94.2M) and Universal’s R-rated teen comedy Blockers turning in a solid $19.1M in 3rd. Though Thursday, the Steven Spielberg directed take on Ernest Cline’s YA novel has grossed $300M WW, $143M of that coming from China. That’s the biggest haul ever for the studio in the Middle Kingdom. Close to 60% of the pic’s global ticket sales are being driven by 3D with $47.2M made in RealD locations.

Universal’s Blockers is landing within the range $18M-$22M where tracking saw it. Boy, it would be sweet if this R-rated raunchy comedy crosses $20M, and some believe it might do that. It would rep a bit of a resuscitation for this genre at the box office which has largely failed to open (2016’s Bad Moms $23M and last year’s Girls Trip $31.2M being rare notable starts). Blockers is a completely different spin on raunch, doting on their parents’ fears of their kids having sex, plus those red and green trailers captured and sold the spirit of the film, and were hands down hysterical. The pic played the Saturday night spot at SXSW, and following grew a social media universe of 158M which bests the average for an R-rated comedy (123M). Females under 25 are enjoying it the most at 82% overall positive on PostTrak. Females turned out the most at 57% giving the pic an overall 77% positive. The under 25 crowd overall are giving the movie an 80% positive, but A Quiet Place is stealing that demo, 44% to Blockers’ 29%.

This SMU is ahead of the genre average of 123M. The pic’s viral rate of 53:1 is strong compared to the genre’s 12:1 and that’s coming off of two official clips plus John Cena’s 65M+ social media followers. He’s the social media champ towering over stars Hannibal Buress, Ike Barinhotlz and Leslie Mann all of who are activated. RelishMix says overall social chatter is positive bolstered by Cena’s involvement. “Many Fans feel that John Cena is in the best shape when doing comedy roles like Daddy’s Home 2 – and this is another fitting one. Also, as discussed in notables, the Beer-Butt-Chugging gag has piqued some comedy Fans’ funny bones.”

Some notable digital pushes for Blockers per RelishMix include spotlighting Emojis, which play into the pic’s plot with an Instagram triva post by Barinholtz, Mann and Cena. Also, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show did a segment on Butt-Chugging.

Entertainment Studios’ Chappaquiddick is slightly above its $2M-$4M tracking with $5.6M, but that’s not a big enough start for a movie that the distributor shelled out $4M on at TIFF plus an estimated $16M P&A commitment. For the most part, political movies about the inner controversies of former presidents or politicians are a very hard sell at the box office and don’t make that much, read Nixon (total B.O. $13.6M) and W. ($25.5M total B.O.), and RelishMix noticed the social chatter on this one mixed given how polarizing people’s views on Ted Kennedy are. Couple this with the fact that those under 40 probably don’t even know what Chappaquiddick is. If you’re a Kennedy lover, you’re apt to hate Ted Kennedy even more after you watch this movie, not to mention it doesn’t provide a good feeling in this Trump era on the privileges and sway of the wealthy. Friday’s ‘B’ CinemaScore indicates a big divide for this drama between moviegoers and critics who gave the pic an 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite having similar critical scores and CinemaScores as Blockers, these grades mean significantly different outcomes for a drama than for an R-rated comedy, not to mention that Chappaquiddick‘s RT score is based off of 57 reviews, not 132 like Blockers. Entertainment Studios boss Byron Allen has been upfront about the controversy surrounding this movie; how powerful people tried to squash its release. His response was increasing the ad budget and keeping the pic’s content intact to reflect the truth. Entertainment Studios pulled ads from Laura Ingram’s show on Fox News Channel and there was some backlash from the right over that. Tracking had Chappaquiddick at a low $2M-$4M level for the last four weeks.

Mirror/LD’s faith-based sports movie The Miracle Season off a 36% Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t wowing with a $4M three-day after taking in $160K in Thursday previews.

By Sunday, Fox Searchlight’s The Isle of Dogs in its third weekend will have a running total of $11.1M, which is $1.9M behind Wes Anderson’s highest grossing movie The Grand Budapest Hotel at the same point in time ($12.99M in week three; that pic topped out at $59.3M).

In three runs between New York and L.A., Amazon’s Lynne Ramsay cop noir You Were Never Really Here has an estimated $16,4K theater average for a $49K opening weekend.

1st Update, 7:38AM: Paramount’s near silent horror film A Quiet Place grossed a great $4.3M on Thursday night at 2,740 locations.

The PG-13 title directed by and starring John Krasinski and wife Emily Blunt churned out a figure that blasts away its nearest comp, 10 Cloverfield Lane, which earned $1.8M on Thursday before a $8.9M Friday and a $24.7M opening. At this level, there’s a very good shot A Quiet Place will cross $30M for the weekend. A Quiet Place‘s Thursday night is also above Get Out‘s $1.8M. Back in August, Annabelle: Creation turned in a $4M Thursday night before a $15M Friday, $35M start. A Quiet Place, produced by Platinum Dunes, was made for a net $17M before P&A.

A Quiet Place bowed at the SXSW film festival last month, triggering an enormous response with a current certified fresh rating of 96%.

Universal’s R-rated teen comedy Blockers,another SXSW premiere,took in $1.5M last night, which is $500K more than Game Night, the year’s previous R-rated comedy and higher than the Melissa McCarthy 2016 comedy The Boss ($985K) and just under Trainwreck ($1.8m). Game Night took in $5.5M on its opening day and $17M while The Boss made $8M on its first Friday and $23.5M over the weekend. Like that Jason Bateman title, Blockers has an 82% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. While Game Night attracted men and women over 25 equally at 35%, there’s interest from the younger demos on Blockers.

Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’sReady Player One won the week with $59.9M over seven days, a $71.9M running total. Forecasts for weekend two are in the low $20M range.

Entertainment Studios’ Chappaquiddick about Ted Kennedy’s 1969 car accident which killed his presidential campaign strategist Mary Jo Kopechne is playing at 1,560 locations. The pic made $175K at 1,146 from previews and hopes that its glowing 81% fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating will drive adult moviegoers. Chappaquiddick was originally scheduled to open during Thanksgiving, but Entertainment Studios opted to push their other TIFF acquisition Hostiles during awards season due to Christian Bale, and settled on opening this Jason Clarke-Kate Mara movie here.

Fox Searchlight’s Isle of Dogs is expanding from 165 to 547 sites. Amazon Studios has Lynn Ramsey’s Cannes Film Festival premiere from last year You Were Never Really Here at LA’s Hollywood Arclight and New York’s Lincoln Square and the Angelika. Next week the movie will expand to the top 12 markets. The trippy cop noir starring Joaquin Phoenix has a 86% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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