The US domestic box office generated just $52.7 million over the weekend, Variety reports, the worst collective result in many months. Sony’s horror thriller ‘The Invitation’ tops the list with a meager 7 million from 3,114 theaters, the lowest first place since May 2021, still with COVID raging. Director George Miller’s R-rated fantasy ‘Three thousand years waiting for you’ (Three Thousand Years of Longing, 2022) has gone to seventh place. A tremendous fact.
A drama for the original cinema
The heist drama starring John Boyega ‘Breaking’ also opened in theaters with mediocre results in thirteenth place, but the case of Miller’s film has fabric. Despite strong reviews, the film, which co-stars Idris Elba as the Djinn and Tilda Swinton as the scholar who receives three wishes, It made its debut with 2.87 million on 2,436 screens. It’s a terrible result for a film that plays in thousands of theaters across the country. To get an idea, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ has achieved almost twice as much in 4th place, with 14 weeks behind it and being available on streaming, with the piracy that entails.
The industry experts blame poor participation on minimal promotional efforts, as well as the decision to open on a large scale. A limited release, in which an arthouse film plays in select theaters before expanding across the country, would have allowed ‘Three Thousand Years’ to benefit from positive word of mouth. Thus the blow is stronger and implies not only a drop in the number of rooms which will make your box office shrink even more.
given his $60 million production budgetWith ‘Three Thousand Years Waiting for You’ from MGM and United Artists Releasing shaping up to be one of the biggest hits of the year, it’s highly unlikely the film will break out of the doom zone. MGM only has the domestic rights to the movie and didn’t produce it, so the losses are bound to wash over you. According to David A. Gross, who runs the film consultancy Franchise Entertainment Research:
“This is a weak opening for an original adventure film. At a cost of about $60 million, it will end up in the red, even with a good auxiliary distribution. Not all movies go as planned, this one didn’t go well.”