Here’s a new equation for the box office.
A huge opening night followed by two nights that equaled the first.
In regular box office, you’d hope for three days in a row that are roughly similar.
But “It Ends with Us” had a $24 million Thurs-Friday, followed by a $13 million Saturday and $12 million Sunday.
The $50 million total is nevertheless a bonanza for director Justin Baldoni and Sony, and star Blake Lively. “It Ends with Us” is the “Deadpool and Wolverine” of domestic abuse movies. Still, the latter finished first for the weekend, narrowly, with $54 million.
But doesn’t this make Lively and Ryan Reynolds the homecoming queen and king of the summer? They’re a real life Barbenheimer! Weeks and weeks of intense publicity, worth at least $50 million, culminated in this astonishing feat.
What’s left PR wise? Hugh Jackman, at least, will show up at the Monday night premiere for “Once Upon a Mattress” starring his “Music Man” leading lady Sutton Foster. Maybe he’ll bring Ryan along, too. That will pretty much squeeze the orange dry for summer 2024.
Let’s see if the negative publicity about Baldoni vs. Lively has an impact this week. “It Ends with Us” should have a productive Monday and Tuesday, but you never know. There’s not much else to see in the adult category.
Not much else in new showing except for “Borderlands.” The Eli Roth-directed video game adaptation starring Cate Blanchett took in $8.8 million. This was very wide release, so the game is over. It’s Blanchett’s lowest open, but also Kevin Hart’s. (Did you ever think those two would be in the same movie?) The comedy star must be having a Hart Attack looking at those numbers!
