SATURDAY AM: Warner Bros and Plan B Entertainment’s Mickey 17 is coming in at $19M-$20M after a $7.7M Friday 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 with its well north of $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. At the end of the day, Mickey 17 in its Byzantine isn’t the sharp-twisty-and-turny social commentary surprise that Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite was.
The only fault here is the cost of the movie, which I’m being told by some is an extra $10M with reshoots on top of that $118M. 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.
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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
