The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
Last weekend, the long-awaited "Dune" finally unveiled, opening slightly better at the box office than the industry expected, while independent films and art theaters also rebounded strongly, adding confidence to the recovering North American film market.
"Dune" managed to win $40 million at the box office, surpassing Godzilla vs. King Kong's $31.7 million, making it the best-grossing of any movie that Warner released in 2021. Moreover, for a work that is released online and offline simultaneously, this is also a good thing.
Stills from Dune
In terms of the work of director Dennis Villeneuve, this achievement exceeded the $34 million of "Blade Runner 2049" released before the epidemic, setting a new record for his personal best opening, which fully shows that his decision not to take the brain-burning film route this time is quite effective. Although the film's professional film critics on the film review collection website "Rotten Tomatoes" scored slightly inferior to "Blade Runner 2049", it won the favor of more general audiences and young audiences, and in this regard, the influence of the male protagonist "Sweet Tea" Timothy Chalemet may not be underestimated.
As of the end of the article, the global box office of "Dune", which was simultaneously released in Chinese mainland, North America and other places last weekend, has accumulated 220 million US dollars, which is not very successful. In particular, the film grossed $21 million in the first weekend of Chinese mainland, although much higher than Villeneuve's previous works, but with the debut of "007: No Time to Die" this weekend, people do not have too high expectations for its subsequent development in the Chinese market.
In fact, the reason why "Blade Runner 2049" was not ideal at the box office was largely because it was coldly received by Chinese audiences. When the film was released on the mainland at the end of October 2017, it could only rank fourth at the weekend at the box office; in contrast, Chinese audiences preferred another sci-fi film that was released on the same day as it, "Geostorm", starring Gerald Butler, even though the latter had a Douban rating of just 5.9, far below the 8.3 points of "Blade Runner 2049".
Given the $165 million production cost of Dune, plus the cost of publicity, it is estimated that the global box office will have to fetch at least $400 million to avoid losses. The crux of the matter is that the story of "Dune" has not yet been finished, according to the plan, at least another one will be made to form a complete story, and many materials have been filmed on location at the same time. But whether Warner and Legendary Pictures are still willing to invest, and how much money they will invest, to a large extent, depends on whether the first film will eventually lose money after it comes out. Fortunately, Warner Chairman Ann Sarnoff clearly responded in an interview with the media last week that "Dune" is not only a loss at the box office, but also depends on whether it will help the development of the HBO Max streaming platform, so at present, there is a lot of hope for the completion of the film. "Will you make a second film?" If you've watched the movie and seen the way this one ends, you should have already guessed the answer. She said.
According to statistics, 54% of the North American audience in the first weekend of "Dune" was between the ages of 18 and 35, which partly explained the reason why the horror film "Moonlight Panic: Killing" that had been well-drawn last weekend only grossed $14.5 million. Compared to the premiere weekend, this 71% year-on-year box office decline means that "Dune" has taken away many of its potential audiences.
Stills from Moonlight Panic: Killing
Another new film last weekend was the animated film Ron's Gone Wrong from Disney. The film is actually an old twentieth-century Fox, which was acquired by Disney along with its old owners. As a result, the film was not released online in order to respect the agreement, but it was released in 3,560 theaters last weekend for only $7.3 million, which puzzled professional critics who admired it — the film was 80% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.
"Divine Providence" received 80% praise on Rotten Tomatoes
In addition to commercial blockbusters, the independent film and art theater market also ushered in a big positive news last weekend. Wes Anderson's new film "The French Dispatch," which also features "Sweet Tea," was released in 52 theaters in 14 cities across the United States and grossed $1.3 million at the weekend box office, with each theater averaging about $25,000, the best record since the outbreak of the pandemic, surpassing the $21,300 score of "Venom 2" at the beginning of the film.
The "Rotten Tomatoes" professional film critic of "French Pie" currently has a score of 73%
In the context of the media's less than expected reputation (the "Rotten Tomatoes" professional film critic score is currently 73%, lower than most of Wes Anderson's past works), "French Pie" can get such box office results, but also let the industry really breathe a sigh of relief. After all, as hollywood awards season approaches, more art works will be released in the future, but in the past period of time, the middle-aged and elderly audiences who favored such works were obviously less enthusiastic than young people to return to the theater to watch movies collectively. A spokesman for the searchlight film company responsible for the distribution of "France" said: "The film's first weekend box office data shows that after a year and a half, the art theater line and independent theaters finally have their own superhero: his name is Wes Anderson! ”
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Ding Xiao