Disney’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness easily held onto first place for the third weekend in a row, as Focus Features’ Downton Abbey: A New Era came in with slightly less than anticipated going into the weekend. Meanwhile, A24’s arthouse horror Men came in with an anemic fifth place debut.
Downton Abbey: A New Era was largely expected to be the ‘event’ that would bring older audiences back to theaters, as they have been generally much less likely to return compared to younger demographics. Going into the weekend, A New Era was hoping to crack the $20 million mark – a number that would still be lower than its predecessors $31 million debut, but enough to prove the viability of programming aimed at older moviegoers. However, the $16 million start for Downton suggests that getting the 40+ crowd back to the multiplex continues to be an uphill battle. That being said, the IP may be strong, but without any major hook or novelty, A New Era simply looked like another chapter in the Downton franchise, lacking the ‘must-see’ factor that pushed the first film to a $96 million domestic haul.
Down in 5th place we find A24’s Men, Alex Garland’s surreal horror thriller that unfortunately failed to spark much interest, opening to just $3.2 million. That was barely more than Everything Everywhere All at Once earned in its 9th weekend of release, which officially surpassed Uncut Gems to become A24’s highest grossing domestic release. The sci-fi comedy has amassed over $52 million, and continues to see regular drops of under 10% – a testament to how truly strong the word of mouth has been.
Playing in 2,212 theaters, the $1,488 per theater average for Men was almost identical to that of X which released back in March, collecting a slightly better $4.2 million from a wider 2,865 locations. Both theater counts were likely too high, as A24’s more unconventional horror pics tend to do the bulk of their business in metropolitan areas – two of the ten highest locations for Men were at the Alamo Drafthouse venues in Austin, while general multiplexes largely stayed away.
Audiences were heavily divided, landing a D+ CinemaScore from opening day audiences (the same score Hereditary received in 2018), while critics were also a bit less enthusiastic with a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. Look for a domestic total under $10 million, which is a disappointing result for this wide of a release. A24 will bring one more horror title this summer with the release of Bodies Bodies Bodies on August 5th, where it opens alongside Bullet Train and Easter Sunday.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had little difficulty holding onto first place, easing 48% to $31.6 million. This gave the superhero sequel a new worldwide total of over $800 million, surpassing the $768.5 million tally of The Batman to become the new highest grossing film of 2022. The Bad Guys had a terrific hold, easing just 13% to $6 million, allowing it to hold onto third place. Sonic 2 also performed well, down just 15% to $3.9 million. The animated features are now at $74 and $181 million, respectively.
Next weekend will see the launch of Top Gun: Maverick, which hopes to bring in an audience hungry for action that doesn’t feature any capes; the aviation sequel has continued to track upwards since its review embargo dropped, with almost universally positive reception from those who have seen it so far. Additionally, Disney will open the long delayed Bob’s Burgers Movie, one of the last remaining pre-COVID holdovers to hit theaters.
Bombs and Blockbusters 