Sony’s GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE led the box office with a respectable take in its opening three days. The total for all films this weekend was $104.6M, lower than last year on this same weekend when JOHN WICK 4 opened with $73.8M and all films generated $118.6M.
Only one of the first 12 weeks of 2024 has produced higher totals than the corresponding weekend from 2023. That bright spot was two weekends ago when KUNG FU PANDA 4 opened, with strong support from DUNE: PART TWO in its second weekend.
As of Thursday 3/21, the year-to-date box office is running at 89% of the 2023 total. This demonstrates some resilience and strength for the year, despite the relatively thin slate of new movies in January and February. In two weeks, we will see the biggest shortfall of the year in comparison to 2023 results.
On the weekend of April 7-9, 2023, Universal’s THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE opened with $146.3M and the total for all films was an uplifting $205.1M, the fourth highest-grossing weekend of 2023. The box office from that same weekend this year may not even reach half that amount.
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE grossed $45.2M in its debut. This is the fifth installment of the 40-year-old franchise. Originally, Sony had planned on a 12/20/23 release, but this was moved back to 3/22/2024 to clear time for the after-effects of Hollywood’s actor’s strike. The studio was adamant that its stars have the opportunity to promote the movie.
In this edition, the Spengler family returns to the firehouse in New York City where it all began, and teams up again with the original Ghostbusters. This time, an ancient artifact unleashes an army of ghosts that must be fought and vanquished. Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and Dan Aykroyd return, joined by Paul Rudd, Annie Potts, and Patton Oswalt. Here is how FROZEN EMPIRE measures up against previous outings.
GHOSTBUSTERS Franchise Recap
- GHOSTBUSTERS (6/8/1984) – Domestic Opening $13.6M, Domestic Total $243.6M, Worldwide Total $296.6M, Budget $30M, RT Scores 95%/88%
- GHOSTBUSTERS (6/8/1984) – Domestic Opening $29.5M, Domestic Total $112.5M, Worldwide Total $215.4M, Budget $37M, RT Scores 55%/61%
- GHOSTBUSTERS (7/15/2016) – Domestic Opening $46.0M, Domestic Total $128.4M, Worldwide Total $229.1M, Budget $144M, RT Scores 74%/49%
- GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (11/19/2021) – Domestic Opening $44.0M, Domestic Total $129.4M, Worldwide Total $204.3M, Budget $75M, RT Scores 64%/94%
- GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (3/22/2024) – Domestic Opening $45.2M, Budget $100M, RT Scores 42%/86%
The first four GHOSTBUSTERS movies earned nearly $1B worldwide. FROZEN EMPIRE’s opening weekend has come in at the same ballpark as the last two chapters, which is what most experts had forecasted before its release. One huge warning sign for the picture’s future is that it has earned a dismal 43% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, by far the lowest in the series.
GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE wound up with a worldwide total of $204.3M, making it a break-even project considering its $75M production budget. (The industry standard is that a movie needs to earn 2.5x its production budget in worldwide ticket sales to break even.)
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE cost $100M to produce, and after grossing approximately the same amount as AFTERLIFE in its opening, it seems unlikely that FROZEN EMPIRE will earn enough from ticket sales to be profitable. It will need to maintain strong sales next weekend and beyond to have any chance.
DUNE: PART TWO continued its solid run with $17.6M this weekend, a drop of only 38% from last weekend and good enough for second place. After 24 days, DUNE 2 has amassed $233.4M domestic and $555.7M worldwide, making it the top movie of the year so far. It has already done better than last year’s first-quarter champ, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA, which earned $212.4M domestic in the first quarter. DUNE: PART TWO still has 11 more days to top off its quarterly earnings.
KUNG FU PANDA 4 finished in third place in its third weekend with $16.8M, a decline of 44%. After 17 days, the animated sequel has grossed $133.2M domestically and $222.6M worldwide. While doing quite well for itself, PANDA 4 is not quite on the same track as the original film from the series. KUNG FU PANDA from 2008 earned $155.8M domestically in its first 17 days in theatres. However, we expect that the performance of the current movie will justify moving forward with a KUNG FU PANDA 5 shortly.
Neon’s new horror film IMMACULATE was the other wide opener this weekend and earned $5.4M in its debut. The film stars Sydney Sweeney (ANYONE BUT YOU, WHITE LOTUS, EUPHORIA) as Cecilia, an American nun of devout faith, who travels to a remote convent in the Italian countryside. After a warm welcome, her experience there descends into a living nightmare as she discovers that her new home harbors a dark secret and unspeakable horrors.
This is a transparent attempt to reach the same audience that came out for THE NUN (2018) and THE NUN 2 (2023), both very successful with domestic runs of $117.6M and $86.3M respectively. After a slow start, IMMACULATE is not likely to see the same success. However, because it was produced on a tightly controlled budget of $10M it may still wind up as a profitable movie for Neon. Critics were slightly more positive about it than the public, giving 73% and 62% respectively.
ARTHUR THE KING finished in fifth place in its second weekend, with $4.4M and a decline of 43%. This is the second consecutive box office stumble for Mark Wahlberg, after last year’s FATHER STU: REBORN grossed only $13.8M domestically in its first ten days. ARTHUR THE KING has earned a similar amount, with $14.6M in its first 10 days. However, both movies will most likely be profitable, given their tight budgets of $4M for FATHER STU: REBORN and $10M for ARTHUR THE KING.
WHERE ARE WE AS OF 3/21
After eleven weeks, the 2024 year-to-date box office stands at 89% compared with the same eleven weeks in 2023, and 66% compared with those weeks in 2019.