In an unexpected turn of fate, TERRIFIER 3 shot past a badly wounded JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX to lead all films at the box office this weekend. The horror sequel from Cineverse (formerly Cinedigm) grossed an impressive $18.3M in its debut, lifting the weekend total to $73.6M.
This compares to the same weekend in 2023 when TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR arrived with $93.2M and the overall box office came in at $132.9M. We expect this to be a momentary setback for 2024, as studios left the weekend devoid of any A-list titles to avoid competing with what most expected would be a strong second weekend for JOKER 2. That strong weekend #2 never materialized, giving oxygen for other titles to breathe.
Next weekend, SMILE 2 should also do well in its opening, putting the current year back on track after a brief hiccup. The head-to-head contest between TERRIFIER 3 and SMILE 2 will be interesting to observe, as the calendar creeps closer to Halloween.
TERRIFER 3 outperformed all expectations by earning $18.3M and a decisive first-place finish. A veritable dud from JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX was a contributing factor in TERRIFIER’s success, do doubt. TERRIFIER 3 is the direct sequel to TERRIFIER 2, which was also successful in its 2022 run after the first TERRIFIER from 2016 had an unremarkable start to the franchise.
The original introduced moviegoers to Art the Clown, a demonic serial killer who inhabits the fictional Miles County, New York. Art the Clown is the prime malefactor of all three films, but in TERRIFER 2 the character of Sienna Shaw makes her first appearance, a young woman who goes up against the clown when it comes after her and her brother. In TERRIFIER 3, the story takes place over the days leading up to Christmas, as Art renews his pursuit of Sienna. Both David Howard Thornton and Lauren Lavera reprise their roles as Art and Sienna.
Filmmaker Damien Leone has been the driving force behind the franchise, writing and directing all three entries. The franchise has developed a serious fan following and become a serious contributor at the box office.
TERRIFIER FRANCHISE GROWTH
- TERRIFIER (7/16/2016) – Opening Domestic $124K, Total Domestic $340K
- TERRIFIER 2 (10/6/2022) – Opening Domestic $805K, Total Domestic $11M
- TERRIFIER 3 (10/11/2024) – Opening Domestic $18.3M
This weekend’s $18.3M for TERRIFIER 3 is almost twice as much as the entire domestic box office earned by TERRIFIER 2, which was considered a success. Continuing with the tradition of very tight production budgets, a mere $2M was spent to make TERRIFIER 3, and more than this amount ($2.4M) had already been taken in at the box office during Thursday night preview screenings. Both critics and audiences like the movie, giving scores of 78% and 90%, respectively.
It will wind up as an exceptionally profitable movie, first from its ticket sales in theatres and eventually from streaming. Fans will be pleased to know that TERRIFIER 4 is already in development, with its creator Leone saying that one last chapter is necessary to complete the story. If the next movie also does well, this success may create a new lane for the story to continue, as a prequel or spin-off in some direction.
Universal’s THE WILD ROBOT claimed second place with a gross of $13.4M, a drop of 29% from last weekend. The 17-day total for the DreamWorks original animated feature stands at $83.7M domestic and $125.9M worldwide. Last week we compared the results for THE WILD ROBOT and TROLLS BAND TOGETHER after each movie’s first 10 days. Here is that same comparison after 17 days.
THE WILD ROBOT (2024) VS. TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (2023)
- TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (11/17/23) – Opening Domestic $30.0M, 17-Day Domestic $75.1M, Total Domestic $103.0M, Total Worldwide $209.4M, Budget $95M, RT Critics/Audience 63%/92%
- THE WILD ROBOT (9/27/24) – Opening Domestic $35.0M, 17-Day Domestic $83.7M, Budget $78M, RT Critics/Audience 98%/98%
It now seems that THE WILD ROBOT will play widely and do well until MOANA 2 opens in six weeks on November 27th. It will become profitable once it crosses $200M in worldwide sales, and it seems likely to hit that mark before its run is over.
JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX finished in a disappointing third place with $7.1M in its second weekend. This was a steep decline of 81% from the already meager $37.7M it earned last week in its opening. Until a few weeks ago, no one would have predicted this outcome. However, as its opening day approached, the critics appeared to sour on the sequel, an opinion that the audience came to share.
After its opening weekend, JOLER: FOLIE A DEUX registered a poor 33% score from critics and 31% from moviegoers, which snuffed out whatever interest it might otherwise have had. Here is a look at the rate of daily box office decline for the two JOKER movies over their first 10 days:
COMPARING THE DAILY RATE OF BOX OFFICE DECLINE – JOKER (2019) VS. JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (2024)
One can see the impact that JOKER 2’s poor reception had on its potential viewers. Here’s a look at the box office totals after 10 days.
JOKER (2019) VS. JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (2024) AFTER 10 DAYS IN RELEASE
- JOKER (10/4/2019) – Opening Domestic $96.2M, 7-Days $137.7M, Weekend #2 $55.9M, 10-Days $193.6M, Total Domestic $335.5M, Total Worldwide $1.078B, Budget $55M, RT Critics/Audience 68%/89%
- JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (10/4/2024) – Opening Domestic $37.7M (-61%), 7-Days 44.6M (-68%), Weekend #2 $7.1M (-87%), 10-Days $51.6M (-73%), Budget $190M, RT Critics/Audience 33%/31%
JOKER 2’s 81% drop from its first to second weekend is historic, the largest in DC movie history. The culprit may be the sequel’s turn to a musical format. I doubt that TOP GUN: THE MUSICAL is likely to be the next act for Tom Cruise with his patriotic franchise.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE finished in fourth place by earning an additional $7.0M this weekend, a decline of 30%. After 38 days, Warner Bros.’s comedy horror sequel has grossed $275.6M domestic and $415.7M worldwide. Among Tim Burton-directed movies, this exceeds BATMAN’s global total of $411.6M from 1989 but trails the director’s highest-grossing movie of all time, ALICE IN WONDERLAND which earned $1.025B worldwide in 2010.
Finishing fifth is PIECE BY PIECE from Focus Features, bringing in $3.8M in its opening weekend. The film is an animated biographical comedy based on the life and career of singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams who stars in the film. This is the fifth theatrical film in Lego animation history.
HISTORY OF LEGO ANIMATED FEATURE FILMS
- THE LEGO MOVIE (2/7/14) – Opening Domestic $69.1M, Total Domestic $258.0M, Total Worldwide $470.8M, Budget $60M
- THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (2/10/17) – Opening Domestic $53.0M, Total Domestic $175.9M, Total Worldwide $312.3M, Budget $80M
- THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE (9/22/17) – Opening Domestic $20.4M, Total Domestic $59.4M, Total Worldwide $123.8M, Budget $70M
- THE LEGO MOVIE 2 (2/8/19) – Opening Domestic $34.1M, Total Domestic $106.0M, Total Worldwide $199.6M, Budget $99M
- PIECE BY PIECE (10/11/24) – Opening Domestic $3.8M, Budget $16M
This is the first Lego animated movie in the post-pandemic era, and it was never expected to be a blockbuster, having a modest $16M budget. Universal chose to release the film under its Focus Features division as a movie tailored to art houses more than mainstream wide distribution.
It played in only 1865 locations this weekend. Both critics and audiences seem to like it, with scores of 81% and 93% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie will struggle to reach profitability from its theatrical ticket sales, which would need to reach $40M worldwide.
Where Are We as of 10/10/2024
After 40 weeks, the 2024 year-to-date box office has climbed to 88% of 2023 totals and 74% of 2019 totals at this same point in the year.