SATURDAY AM: It’s still a close call between New Line’s Mortal Kombat II, and 20th Century Studios’ second weekend of The Devil Wears Prada 2 with $40M-$42M apiece. Today will provide clarity, but Mother’s Day Sunday will provide resolution and it’s ultimate swing factor as to who will win. Also bound for a boost is Lionsgate’s Michael with $35M (maybe more).
It’s the most suspenseful Mother’s Day weekend in memory and the industry should learn from this: Make more female skewing movies for this weekend. Disney knows to never leave Father’s Day weekend bare, and typically has a Pixar movie booked on that weekend. The entire weekend is shaping up to do $161M which is up 92% over last year. While other distributors have attempted with female fare in the past (i.e. 2016’s Jennifer Aniston-Julia Roberts-Kate Hudson comedy Mother’s Day), this weekend is a perfect storm of female films with Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft at 81% ($8M opening), Sheep Detectives at 56% female ($14.9M opening), Devil Wears Prada 2 at 76%, and Michael.
Note, it’s not the highest grossing Mother’s Day weekend at the B.O. for quite often in the past, a big Marvel movie would often coincide with the holiday weekend. Post Covid, this is the second-highest grossing Mother’s Day weekend at the B.O. behind 2022 ($222.3M for all pics) when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness kicked off summer.
Box office sources are estimating that Devil Wears Prada 2 will see a 10-15% spike on Sunday over Saturday, Sheep Detectives could be as high as +30% over those two days, with Michael potentially dipping -5%. Phenomenal holds for the day.
New Line’s Mortal Kombat II led Friday with $17M. An additional $8.9M has been grossed from 30,000 screens abroad for a current running global cume of $25.9M. CinemaScore is a B, which is lower than the previous 2021’s installment’s B+. However, Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak definite recommend is quite high at 72%. Nonetheless, a solid start for the $80M production. Guy leaning as expected at 75%, with 18-34 repping 44% of the audience. The 25-34 demo were the biggest at 30%. Strong turnout from Latino and Hispanic moviegoers at 29% and a great reach overall in diversity demos with Caucasian 27%, Black 26% and 10% Asian American.
Imax and PLFs are delivering close to half the weekend opening for Mortal Kombat II which is playing best in the South Central and West where 43% of the gross is coming from versus 39% for all other titles. AMC Burbank in LA is the top grossing venue for the sequel with close to $59K.
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FRIDAY PM UPDATE: The moms and their daughters will decide who reigns supreme at this weekend’s box office with 20th Century Studios’ heavily female-skewing The Devil Wears Prada 2 and the dude-dominant New Line/Atomic Monster/Broken Road/Fireside Films sequel Mortal Kombat II vying for No. 1 with around $40M-$42M apiece.
For Devil Wears Prada 2, that’s a 45%-48% decline, which is fantastic and not far from the -46% hold the 2006 original movie had. We already told you that globally, the sequel is surpassing the original film’s $326M-plus reported global gross. Ten-day domestic by Sunday for Prada 2 is $143.8M on the high end.
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Mother’s Day Sunday isn’t expected to be big just for Devil Wears Prada 2 but also The Sheep Detectives, Michael and Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D).
New Line’s $80M Mortal Kombat II is seeing a Friday and previews of $17.5M at 3,503 theaters, with Devil Wears Prada 2 eyeing $10M-$11M at 4,200. Kombat II has all the premium formats.
Lionsgate’s Michael remains mutliplatinum with a third weekend around $35M at 3,550 theaters after a third Friday of $9M.
Fourth place goes to Amazon MGM Studios’ Hugh Jackman comedy, The Sheep Detectives, with $3.7M today including previews, and $13.6M over three days at 3,457 theaters.
FRIDAY AM: New Line’s Mortal Kombat II stepped into the ring Thursday night and rang up $5.2M in previews, which isn’t that far from the amount the studio clocked a year ago in previews from Final Destination Bloodlines ($5.5M). That highly anticipated horror film opened to $51.6M.
And fifth is Paramount and Interscope’s $20M acquisition, Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft at 2,613 theaters with $4.2M Friday/previews and a 3-day of $7.5M.
All of Mortal Kombat II‘s cash is from Thursday. Showtimes began at 3 p.m.
Forecasts for the R-rated Mortal Kombat II came down into the $40Ms, and the question remains whether the second weekend of The Devil Wears Prada 2 will beat it, with that sequel expected to get a big boost from Mother’s Day. Lionsgate’s Michael is expected to bring in a female crowd on Sunday as well. Disney has pushed out extra spots this week for Devil Wears Prada 2 targeting Mother’s Day moviegoers.
Devil Wears Prada 2 ended the week with $101.8M, with the movie already past $300M worldwide.
Still, a $40M+ start for the Simon McQuoid-directed sequel based on the Midway video game is a great start for Mortal Kombat II, considering the previous 2021 installment saw its opening and grosses siphoned from a Covid-era theatrical day-and-date release on HBO Max with $23.3M. That movie finaled at $42.3M domestic, and the opening for its sequel could outstrip that entire gross alone.
Paramount’s Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) brought in $2.2M in overall previews including Thursday night and April 29 early-access shows at 2,350 locations. The pic directed by Eilish and James Cameron is expected to bring in $6M-$9M.
Amazon MGM Studios’ Sheep Detectives held previews Thursday night starting at 2 p.m. as well as earlier previews. All in, it was $1M. The pic is expected to open to around $12M.
Rest of the week:
1. The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th) 4,150 theaters, Wk $101.8M/Wk 1
2. Michael (LG) 3,955 theaters, Wk $74.1M (-43%), Total $203.9M/Wk 2
3. Project Hail Mary (AMZ) 3,017 theaters, Wk $11.9M (-32%), Total $321.7M/Wk 7
4. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Uni) 3,419 theaters, Wk $14.9M (-41%), Total $405.5M/Wk 5
5. Hokum (Neon) 1,885 theaters, Wk $9.1M/Wk 1
