UPDATED, FRIDAY PM: Well, it is clear the weekdays showed how much of a driving force Universal’s The Odyssey would be, and the feature take of Homer’s epic poem is headed for a second frame of $84.5 million, the best a Christopher Nolan film has ever seen. If that estimate holds, it will top his previous second-weekend high, for 2008’s The Dark Knight ($75.1M). Some rivals today believe the movie can even hit $90M.
Among R-rated movies, The Odyssey is currently bound for the second-best second weekend ever behind Deadpool & Wolverine‘s $96.8M in 2024.
The theater count for The Odyssey moves to 3,942, +23, with a second frame dip of -32%. Pic’s second Friday is $26M.
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In second place, is Disney’s Moana with a third Friday of $3M, third weekend around $10M, -44%, at 4,015 sites which will get the Dwayne Johnson live-action take of the 2016 animated pic across the century mark by end of Sunday.
Third is Disney/Pixar’s sixth weekend of Toy Story 5 with around $9.4M at 3,375, -31%, and running cume of $447.9M by Sunday. Today is looking like $2.8M.
Fourth goes to Minions & Monsters from Illumination/Universal at 3,386 theaters which is looking at a Friday of $2.7M, fourth frame of $9M, -34%, for a running total of $154.7M.
Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk and LD Entertainment’s Hadestown is in fifth with about $3.5M and an opening between $7.5M-$9M at 1,949 locations. These event movies are known to be front-loaded.
We’ll have more updates for you tomorrow.
L-R: ‘The Odyssey,’ ‘Hadestown,’ ‘Her Private Hell‘ and ‘Motor City‘
Everett Collection
PREVIOUSLY, FRIDAY AM: It’s been double-digit millions every day for Universal’s Christopher Nolan movie The Odyssey, which after a $17.6 million Thursday — a remarkably slim 3% dip from Wednesday’s $18M — ends its first week at the North American box office with $199.3M at 3,919 theaters.
Among Nolan movies in their first week, The Odyssey (similar to its $123.5M weekend opening) is third behind The Dark Knight ($238.6M) and The Dark Knight Rises ($225M) and ahead of Oppenheimer ($127.8M) and Inception ($100.1M). The second-weekend outlook for Odyssey is between $61M-$74M, but it’s clear from the weekday grosses that this Matt Damon movie has momentum. Nolan’s biggest second weekend at the domestic box office to date belongs to Dark Knight ($75.1M).
Specialty titles are serving as counterprogramming this weekend, with the Broadway live feature capture of Hadestown from Bleecker Street’s event cinema division Crosswalk and LD Entertainment making $1.5M in previews Thursday. Very good. Opening range for the event pic is $8M-$10M, and critics are currently 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with audiences at 99%.
The movie is on track to have the second-highest opening weekend for a Broadway capture behind only Disney’s Hamilton ($10.1M), which was released following its Disney+ debut during Covid on September 5 last year.
‘Motor City’
IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
IFC’s Potsy Ponciroli’s gritty, R-rated dialogue-less crime noir Motor City revved up with $475,000 in overall previews that include Thursday night screenings and Monday mystery screenings. That’s a great number for IFC, right there in between the previews for Late Night With the Devil ($317K previews, $2.8M opening) and Clown in a Cornfield ($600K previews, $3.6M opening). The hope is for walk-up business on this pic starring Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley and Ben Foster, which was great last night at 65%. Critics are at 65% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Neon’s Nicolas Winding Refn-directed fashionista genre kung-fu noir Her Private Hell starring Sophie Thatcher and Beef Emmy nominee Charles Melton grossed $125K in previews. Refn is in L.A. all weekend doing Q&As for the film, as well as following a 10 p.m. show tonight at the American Cinematheque for the 15th anniversary of Drive; there was an L.A. premiere on Tuesday night with Thatcher, Melton and Havana Rose Liu.
Following the movie’s out-of-competition premiere in Cannes, Refn took the movie on the road for advance screenings in L.A., NYC and Chicago. It’s the third time he’s teamed with Neon’s Tom Quinn, who handled Refn’s Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling at Radius as well as the Pusher movies at Magnolia. Critical score on Her Private Hell is 45% rotten. Mubi has a majority of overseas on the pic which cost in the mid-single-digits before P&A.
Kristine Froseth in ‘Her Private Hell’
