It seems Friday the 13th was truly cursed this weekend, as holdover Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness suffered a very harsh second weekend drop, while Firestarter opened on the low-end of very low expectations.
Doctor Strange was down 67.5% in its second weekend, an identical drop to Spider-Man: No Way Home, and just shy of Black Widow (67.8%). However, Black Widow also opened simultaneously on Disney+, which certainly dampened consumer demand after opening weekend. Word of mouth certainly didn’t help, given the lackluster B+ CinemaScore, yet No Way Home had just as much of a drop, even with much more universally positive reception. What this means is that word of mouth may not have much of an impact on the second weekend drop, but may be more indicative of how the film will perform throughout the rest of its run after opening weekend. At this rate, it’s a 50/50 chance as to whether or not Multiverse of Madness can top the $400 million mark domestically.
The jokes about Universal’s Firestarter write themselves, as the $12 million reboot of the Stephen King property fizzled out with a $3.8 million opening weekend, only good for 4th place. That’s less than the original Firestarter opened to in 1984, even without adjusting for inflation. Both films were produced for $12 million, while this latest version likely won’t even make half of its predecessors $17 million total.
Universal will hope to turn things around next month, as Blumhouse brings their first high-profile original release in quite some time in the form of The Black Phone. While the simultaneous release on Peacock certainly didn’t help, Firestarter will still end up below X amongst other 2022 horror releases. Audiences and critics agreed on this one, with a dismal 12% Rotten Tomatoes score and C- CinemaScore. With A24 bringing another chiller to theaters next weekend in the form of the highly buzzed-about Men, don’t expect Firestarter to do much more than double this opening.
Rounding out the top 5 was Everything Everywhere All at Once, down just 6% in its 8th weekend for a new total of $47.1 million. A domestic total over $50 million is now guaranteed, with the question being how high it can go; a total over $60 million is certainly within reach as well.
Back in the specialty market, Christian comedy Family Camp opened in 854 theaters, where it pulled in $1.4 million, good for 9th place. That actually gave it a higher per theater average than Firestarter ($1,670 to $1,119), a respectable enough result for a live-action family comedy, a genre which has mostly vanished from theaters in the past several years.
Next weekend will see a pair of very different adult-oriented titles opening wide, as Focus Features brings their Downton Abbey sequel alongside A24’s new horror-thriller, Men.
Bombs and Blockbusters 