Blake Lively Movie Earns $7M in Thursday Previews – Box Office

This weekend is shaping up to be a remarkable one at the box office, the kind that studios dream of. Out of nowhere, a movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s popular novel, It Ends With Us, is set to challenge Disney/Marvel Studios’ Deadpool and Wolverine in its third weekend. This presents another interesting face-off akin to the counterprogramming success of Oppenheimer and Barbie . Tonight, industry insiders report that the Blake Lively-led film has garnered $7 million from previews that started at 2 PM today.

This figure is close to the pre-pandemic preview earnings of Fifty Shades of Grey , which made $8.75 million in previews and went on to a $30.2 million Friday and an $85.1 million opening weekend. The Justin Baldoni-starring and directed feature from Wayfarer, which co-financed the project, is also nearing the $7.5 million mark of the 2008 film Twilight , which had a $35.9 million opening day and a $69.6 million opening weekend. Such strong preview numbers for a female-led film are quite rare, particularly outside of superhero movies like Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman . In fact, It Ends With Us is already outpacing Marvel’s The Marvels , which earned $6.6 million in previews.

It Ends With Us initially tracked at $15 million, but industry projections have since ballooned to $40 million or more. Many are holding their breath, wondering whether It Ends With Us will resonate with regular moviegoers beyond its book-fanbase. The challenge with tracking is that it sometimes fails to capture the enthusiasm of less frequent moviegoers—in this case, female book readers. While it remains unclear if all book enthusiasts will translate to box office sales, strong preview numbers suggest a significant interest.

Female-driven movies often experience much of their audience turnout on Thursday and Friday, followed by a potential drop-off on Saturday. For example, Twilight had a Friday-to-Saturday drop of -40%, while Sony’s Where the Crawdads Sing from the summer of 2022 saw a -26% drop. Notably, It Ends With Us has already outperformed the $2.3 million in previews for Where the Crawdads Sing . Sources indicate that It Ends With Us has already sold $18 million worth of tickets in presales, which covers the entire weekend.

Numerous factors are contributing to the movie’s favorable outlook, from Colleen Hoover’s significant fanbase to the presence of Blake Lively amidst the Deadpool & Wolverine press tour. The film’s popularity benefits further from Lively’s connections, including her husband Ryan Reynolds and the film’s inclusion of a Taylor Swift song, “My Tears Ricochet,” in the trailer. The audience reception is overwhelmingly positive, scoring 94% approval.

A competing studio executive noted that this is the first time since 1990 that a husband and wife have had back-to-back theatrical releases boosting each other’s box office results—the last pair being Bruce Willis with Die Hard 2 and Demi Moore with Ghost.

Even if It Ends With Us ends up taking the second spot with a $30 million opening, Hollywood should take a valuable lesson from this weekend. There’s merit in reconsidering what is sent to streaming and what is released in cinemas. Evidently, there is still substantial value in theater experiences, particularly for specific genres.

Source: Particle News