$16 million is enough to lead pack on a weekend when blizzard forced theater closures
By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The snowy frontier saga "The Revenant" weathered a blizzard-ravaged box office.
Weekend movie-going was affected up and down the East Coast by Winter Storm Jonas, which forced theater closures in Washington D.C. and New York, and caused hundreds of theaters to suspend showings. Studio executives said the storm had a major effect on business.
"It had a huge effect on the entire marketplace," said Kevin Grayson, head of domestic distribution for STX Entertainment, which debuted the horror thriller "The Boy." ''Anywhere from 300 to 400 theaters were affected."
Fittingly, the film that most flourished in the frigid winter weather was 20th Century Fox's Oscar-nominated "Revenant," which took in an estimated $16 million in its third week of wide release. The Alejandro Inarritu-directed thriller, set in the 1820s, is proving to be one of Leonardo DiCaprio's biggest hits with $119.2 million in North America thus far. It was also the top film internationally over the weekend with $33.8 million.
Disney's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," came in second with $14.3 million in its sixth week of release. "The Force Awakens," with $1.94 billion globally to date, will likely cross $2 billion in the next week.
Last week's No. 1 movie, the Kevin Hart-Ice Cube comedy "Ride Along 2," dropped steeply in its second week, sliding to third with $13 million for Universal.
Those holdovers were trailed by a trio of new releases: "Dirty Grandpa," ''The Boy" and "The 5th Wave," which all earned $10 million to $12 million over the weekend.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office firm Rentrak, said the storm had an effect, but cautioned against overestimating its impact.
"It probably altered the box office 10 or 12 percent overall," Dergarabedian said. "This was never predestined to be an earth-shattering box office weekend, anyway."
Lionsgate's "Dirty Grandpa," starring Robert De Niro and Zac Efron, received some of the harshest reviews of the year. It narrowly edged out the other newcomers with an estimated $11.5 million.
"The Boy," a PG-13 rated supernatural tale that cost only about $10 million to make, earned an estimated $11.3 million. It appealed strongly to Latino moviegoers, which made up 41 percent of the audience, according to STX.
Sony's "The 5th Wave," which cost about $38 million to make, is a young-adult adaption from the first of Rick Yancey's trilogy of science-fiction books about alien invasion. Starring Chloe Grace Moretz, "The 5th Wave" $10.7 million debut didn't suggest a budding YA franchise. But Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony, was upbeat about the result and said it came in "ahead of our expectations with the storm."
"Jonas was certainly no friend to the movie industry," Bruer said.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Revenant," $16 million ($33.8 million international).
3. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," $14.3 million ($23.3 million international).
3. "Ride Along 2," $13 million ($6.5 million international).
4. "Dirty Grandpa," $11.5 million ($2 million international).
5. "The Boy," $11.3 million ($750,000 international).
6. "The 5th Wave," $10.7 million ($15.9 million international).
7. "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi," $9.8 million.
8. "Daddy's Home," $5.3 million ($5.9 million international).
9. "Norm of the North," $4.1 million.
10. "The Big Short," $3.5 million ($10.1 million international).
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to Rentrak:
1. "The Revenant," $33.8 million.
2. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," $23.3 million.
3. "The 5th Wave," $15.9 million.
4. "The Big Short," $10.1 million.
5. "Creed," $9.1 million.
6. "The Hateful Eight," $7.5 million.
7. "The Walk," $6.7 million.
8. "Ride Along 2," $6.5 million.
9. "Boonie Bears III," $6 million.
10. "Daddy's Home," $5.9 million.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More