Proud Mary really didn’t have a chance. When the film with Taraji P. Henson was first announced, it sounded promising. But good intentions don’t always lead up to good results.
First of all, the TV ads and trailers for the film did not look as enticing, and Sony didn’t seem to put all their muscle behind the promising the film. Yes, there was some marketing, but there have been numerous complaints that the studio hasn’t been doing enough to promote it.
But the death knell for the film came when Sony refused to have any advance media and public promotional screenings for the film. As I have said many times before, this is a very clear sign that the studio knows it has a dud on its hands and wants to avoid, as much as possible, any advance word getting out on the film before it opens.
Compare that to what Marvel did last week with Black Panther when they announced a public screening for a film clip from the movie. Mind you not a screening of the entire movie, but just a short clip from the film. Yet, there were lines around the block and up the street. In other words, they know they’ve got a winner and it’s going to be huge.
But sometimes audiences can sense if a film is going to be a stinker, and even before negative Proud Mary reviews came out, it was obvious that all was lost. The film came in 8th place, with $10 million behind other new releases this month. All in all, that’s perhaps not as bad as it could have been, and in fact, better than some predictions, which had it coming in with $8-9 million. With the extended MLK weekend, this box office number will be higher once the Monday numbers come in.
As for the other releases, this weekend, the Liam Neeson thriller, The Commuter (the last thriller he says he’ll ever do), directed by Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra (who has previously directed three other action thrillers with Neeson) came in third with $13.4 million. Warner Bros. family film Paddington 2, which the studio picked up from the newly-deceased Weinstein Company, came in 7th with a $10.6 million opening.
As for the holdovers, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with Dwayne Johnson (named by Forbes as the second high paid actor in 2017) has turned out to be a massive and rather unexpected worldwide hit for Sony Pictures. The film has overperformed everywhere, grossing $283 million so far domestically and over $666 million worldwide to-date. With no sign of slowing down in evidence, it’s very possible the film could actually hit $1 billion or close to that worldwide before all is said and done.
Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg’s The Post opened wider this weekend after a few weeks in limited release with a respectable $18.6 million and $23 million to date. And Star Wars: The Last Jedi, despite all the naysayers, is on its way to making well over $600 million in the U.S. and has made nearly $1.3 billion worldwide.
Full list:
1) Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Sony $27,035,000 Total: $283,170,909
2) The Post Fox $18,600,000 Total: $23,089,237
3) The Commuter LGF $13,450,000
4) Insidious: The Last Key Uni. $12,135,000 Total: $48,375,140
5) The Greatest Showman Fox $11,800,000 Total: $94,553,868
6) Star Wars: The Last Jedi BV $11,275,000 Total: $591,549,584
7) Paddington 2 WB $10,620,000
8) Proud Mary SGem $10,000,000
9) Pitch Perfect 3 Uni. $5,655,000 Total: $94,651,225
10) Darkest Hour Focus $4,525,000 Total: $35,737,552
11) Molly’s Game STX $3,885,000 Total: $20,715,167
12) Ferdinand Fox $3,400,000 Total: $75,428,094
