It’s been a tough year at the box office.
Yes, theatrical revenue in the U.S. and Canada is up 4.2% compared with last year. But the important summer box office fell flat — again. And, so far, the third quarter isn’t showing much improvement.
Box office revenue is down nearly 11% compared with last year, according to Eric Handler of Roth Capital.
Amid the bleak figures is a somewhat unexpected silver lining: the success of original movies.
Films like Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and Zach Cregger’s horror flick “Weapons” brought in crowds week after week.
Then there was the golden performance of Netflix’s animated musical “KPop Demon Hunters,” which was released in theaters for sing-along showings weeks after it landed on the streaming service — and still topped the charts.
Which brings us to “One Battle After Another.”
The multi-genre film from auteur filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is inspired by the Thomas Pynchon novel “Vineland,” but is nonetheless considered an original story in Hollywood parlance.
The film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro and Regina Hall, centers on an ex-rebel who bands together with his former friends and nearby community members to rescue his daughter from an old enemy.
In its opening weekend, “One Battle After Another” hauled in $22.4 million in the U.S. and Canada and grossed a total of $48.5 million worldwide, a solid opening for an adult drama.
With a budget of about $130 million, “One Battle After Another” will need a long box office run to recoup costs.
But the film should have long legs, thanks to excellent reviews. It notched a 96% on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and an “A” grade on CinemaScore and is already generating buzz about its awards prospects.
What’s more, there are not a lot of films like “One Battle After Another” out there. Original, non-franchise films typically make up about 18% of Hollywood’s total worldwide box office, according to David A. Gross, who writes the FranchiseRe industry newsletter.
“There are interesting filmmakers all over the world who are telling interesting stories, and it’s not going to stop,” he said.
To be sure, not all originals have done well this year — consider Disney and Pixar’s animated “Elio” and Warner Bros.’ “Mickey 17,” which misfired at the box office.
There is a perennial discussion in Hollywood about what audiences want. Is it the sequels and reboots with which audiences are familiar, or original films that will pull them from their couches? In reality, both are essential to a balanced film slate.
“There is a craving from audiences for original material,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. “That doesn’t mean it’s easy to deliver.”
Consistency is a challenge for any studio.
Just ask Warner Bros. Entertainment chiefs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca, who only six months ago were reportedly facing questions about their own futures after a string of underperforming films.
But Warner Bros.’ film prospects turned around in April with the release of “A Minecraft Movie,” which ended up grossing nearly $958 million worldwide.
They followed that up with a string of hits. In addition to “Sinners” came “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “F1 The Movie” (which Warner Bros. distributed), James Gunn’s “Superman,” “Weapons” and the final installment of “The Conjuring.”
That success propelled the studio to pass $4 billion at the global box office, the first time Warner Bros. has reached this milestone since 2019. It was the first studio to do so this year.
The film studio’s performance is a bright spot for parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which is in the process of spinning off its struggling cable channels into a separate company and has been the subject of acquisition speculation.
The Times has reported that Larry Ellison-backed Paramount is preparing a bid to buy its rival. What that could mean for Warner Bros. and its film strategy is a subject for another newsletter.
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Video game giant Electronic Arts Inc. is set to go private after it agreed to be acquired by an investor group composed of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners investment firm. The price tag? A staggering $55 billion.
Redwood City, Calif.,-based EA is known for game titles including “The Sims,” “Battlefield” and “Madden NFL.”
The massive deal would be the biggest leveraged buyout in history. It also speaks volumes about the state of the game industry, which faces increased competition as it struggles to reach the high growth it enjoyed during the pandemic.
Though video games have remained popular, EA’s annual revenues have been stagnant over the last three fiscal years.
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