Last weekend's North American film market finally ushered in a real visual effects blockbuster. "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," produced by Disney's 20th Century Pictures, opened in 4,075 theaters and grossed $56.5 million, slightly higher than industry expectations.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: New World poster
The film is another redevelopment of the classic sci-fi IP "Planet of the Apes", the last one was "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 3: The Ultimate Battle" released seven years ago, and the producer at that time was still 20th Century Fox Pictures, which had not yet been acquired by Disney. After the IP was rebooted in 2011 with the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" series, the best opening results in North America were "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2: Dawn of War" in 2014 with $72 million, and the other two films opened with $54.8 million and $56.26 million respectively. Therefore, judging from the opening results, the performance of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: New World" is still quite good.
In terms of reviews, the freshness and popcorn index of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: New World" on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes" reached 81% and 79% respectively, but the audience's post-screening score was only B, which may affect the later development of the box office.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes: New World" opened at the global box office of $129 million, and its largest contribution of the $72.5 million won in overseas markets came from Chinese mainland 81.61 million yuan. However, compared with the opening box office of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2: Dawn of War" of nearly 300 million yuan and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 3: Ultimate Battle" of more than 400 million yuan, there is still a big regression. Considering its production cost of up to $160 million, the pressure to recoup the cost still exists.
The box office of "Stunt Maniac," which was released the week before, fell by 51% year-on-year in the second weekend, and it now seems that the total box office in North America can reach $80 million, which is a good result. Originally, Universal Pictures had high hopes for it, and the industry also counted on it to fill the gap left by the absence of Marvel movies from the opening of the summer season. As a result, although it is also a remake of the ancient drama of the same name, it is actually more of an original "Stunt Maniac", and it has not been sought after by the audience, but it is "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: New World" that will be released a week later that can be regarded as the prelude to the summer file. This also shows from the side that in the current recession environment, high-quality IP and series of movies have an innate dominant position, no matter what, American audiences just eat this set.
Stunt Maniac poster
In the face of the sluggish film market, in order to save itself, the theater industry is also trying its best. Last year, AMC Cinemas tasted a lot of sweetness by exclusively releasing Taylor Swift's concert movie. This year, the company plans to continue with such projects, with the latest event being a new song listening session by Billie Eilish. That's right, just sitting in the cinema and listening to music. The latter's latest album, "Hit Me Hard & Soft," is about to be released, and a concert tour of the same name will follow, so AMC Cinemas has partnered with Apple Music to invite fans to buy tickets to the theater and listen to the new album under the screen. It is said that some music videos and specially produced visual effects will be shown on the big screen. However, it is not a work like Taylor Swift's concert after all, and it is still unknown how many people can be persuaded to buy tickets to enter just to sit in the movie theater with their friends and listen to their idols' new songs.
Bili's new album "Hit Me Hard & Soft" will launch a concert of the same name, and AMC Cinemas will collaborate with Apple Music.