UPDATED: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour had enough in the tank in its second weekend to hold off Killers Of The Flower Moon and stay top in North America on a confirmed $33.2m through AMC Distribution, becoming the first concert film to earn more than $100m at the domestic box office on an unadjusted basis.
The film stands at $131.9m from 3,855 locations after earning more than any other concert film in its second weekend according to AMC Distribution, which provided higher confirmed numbers on Monday than Sunday’s estimates.
Including Thursday grosses The Eras Tour brought in $39.2m over four days. Swift’s concert film is playing Thursday through Sunday for four weeks. By three-day weekend numbers the film fell 64%, an expected hefty drop given that box office was forecast to be front-loaded.
Apple’s Killers Of The Flower Moon directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro opened on an estimated $23m in 3,268 venues through Paramount Pictures, Apple’s theatrical distribution partner on the film, in the widest release to date for a feature backed by a streaming platform.
It was a solid debut for an adult western running to three hours and 26 minutes (note The Eras Tour runs to two hours and 49 minutes), especially as none of the cast was able to promote during the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which has entered its 101st day. The union is preparing to resume contract talks with the Hollywood companies this week.
The launch gave Scorsese his third biggest domestic debut behind Shutter Island’s $41.1m in 2010 and The Departed’s $26.9m in 2006 – both unadjusted for inflation.
Killers Of The Flower Moon, an epic tale about a series of murders in the oil-rich Osage Nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s which triggered an investigation by the FBI, earned $9.4m on Friday, $8.2m on Saturday, and $5.4m on Sunday.
The feature premiered to overwhelmingly strong reviews in Cannes and is understood to have cost in the region of $200m to make. While that is a tall order for any production to recoup – particularly for a three hour-plus western – Killers Of The Flower Moon is expected to remain exclusively in cinemas for at least 45 days and play into awards season as the mature audience takes its time to come out.
One could argue the price tag will not bother Apple’s film division too much as it does not view distribution in the same way as legacy theatrical distributors. Parent Apple has a mark cap of approximately $2.7tn and the film division will view the theatrical release not just as a box office prospect and heavyweight awards contender, but a lure to potential Apple TV+ subscribers.
Paramount initially came on board to finance and release Killers until the budget ballooned and Apple took over as financier. Imperative Entertainment first acquired the rights to David Grann’s book of the same name.
Apple has not said when the film will drop on the platform, however its theatrical partnership with Paramount and the breadth of the nationwide release has been applauded by the exhibition community at a time when box office is down significantly from pre-pandemic times.
ComScore said on Friday that year-to-date box office stood at $7.45bn, some 17.1% behind that of 2019 when all films combined had grossed $8.98bn by this stage.
Killers Of The Flower Moon earned $3.3m from Imax in North America, representing 14.5% of the nationwide total as the large screen format once again over-indexed when comparing its screen count share to share of overall revenue.
Apple’s next wide release is Ridley Scott’s Napoleon on November 22 in a distribution deal with Sony, followed by Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle on February 2 2024 distributed by Universal.
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