After topping the domestic box office on Thursday, RRR understandably, dipped to third place. S. S. Rajamouli’s latest action epic earned $5.4 million on its first day, which includes $3.3 million in Thursday screenings. Yes, the film earned more on its preview debut than on Friday. However, I’m inclined to count Thursday as its opening day (akin to when a film opens big on Wednesday but drops hard on Thursday). My Thursday morning IMAX showing was crowded and we’re still talking about an Indian melodrama that’s going to earn around $12 million for the “weekend” in 1,200 theaters. That’ll be a $10,000 per-theater average, or the biggest in the top ten (and second biggest in the top 20, but more on that later).
As noted yesterday, Rajamouli is the man who directed Baahubali: The Beginning ($26 million worldwide in 2015) and Baahubali: The Conclusion ($262 million global, including $221 million in India, in 2017). Both are currently on Netflix if you want to know why those in-the-know were psyched for RRR. This flick is comparatively more grounded, telling a comparatively grim and often violent tale (centered on but not technically based upon real-life characters and incidents) of British imperialism and righteous revolution while still offering the bonkers-bananas production values, spectacle and larger-than-life action that justifies yesterday’s $30 (!) IMAX ticket. This release is being specialty-priced courtesy of the distributor, and you can’t use your AMC A-List or Regal Unlimited passes, so that should be noted as the grosses roll in.
Nonetheless, I got my money’s worth, in terms of a three-hour spectacle (with intermission) that occasionally plays like Aquaman and Avatar on steroids with the patriotic/nationalistic fervor of Pearl Harbor or Battle At Lake Changjin and at least one knock-out dance sequence. Globally speaking, the flick will try to stand tall beside Dangal (the biggest-grossing Indian flick ever with $305 million worldwide, including $193 million in China) and Baahubali: The Conclusion (the biggest grosser ever *in* India). RRR will best the $10 million domestic debut of Baahubali 2 and presumably that 2017 film’s $19 million domestic total. As we saw with (among others) Christmas with the Chosen, the BTS concert and Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie, these demographically specific event movies are standing out as conventional theatrical product struggles.
A24 unleashed Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s critically acclaimed sci-fi mindbender Everything Everywhere All at Once into ten theaters yesterday. They are trying an old-school platform release before going wide on April 8. The cinematically spectacular Michelle Yeoh/Ke Huy Quan/Stephanie Hsu multiverse comedy earned $203,900 on Friday for a likely $515,000 opening weekend. That would give the flick a $51,500 per-theater average, one of the bigger such per-theater averages since late 2019. If you’re so inclined, A24 is hosting an IMAX “fan screening event” on March 30, which might be the last chance general audiences have to see this eye-popper in IMAX. I have nitpicks and subjective qualms, like RRR it’s overlong, redundant and peaks at the 90-minute mark, but it is absolutely a must-see original.
I don’t know how Everything Everywhere All At Once will play when it goes wide. Frankly, I think the platform release was partially about getting at least once week of positive box office news via a massive per-theater average. However, it’s almost certain to play as a demographically specific event film (it’s Michelle Yeoh’s first outright lead role in an English-language movie) and A24 did get The Green Knight to $17 million last summer. In a time when Paramount of all studios is on a roll with a variety of mainstream theatrical features, I’ll choose to be optimistic that A24 can sell this one-of-a-kind fantasy as a “too cool to wait for VOD” event flick. At the very least, they may have their best shot at the next Oscar season.
