As many in Hollywood know, the film-musical is a difficult genre and today it is experiencing times far from its heyday in the 30-50s of the last century. And yet, from time to time, musicals come to the screen – big or small – on TV or streaming platforms.
Not least upset by negative reviews and potential audience fears about the dangers of COVID-19, the film disappointed given its Broadway theatrical run, grossing a lackluster $7.5 million from 3,365 North American theaters in its U.S. and Canadian debut.
Industry experts predicted that the musical would bring in at least $10 million from Friday through Sunday. Despite the fact that the film is unlikely to make a profit in theaters, the losses will not be catastrophic. Dear Evan Hansen cost $28 million to produce – a modest budget for a musical. That puts Universal in a better position compared to its last musical, SatS, which ended 2019 with just $6.5 million and ended up losing the studio nearly all of its $100 million film budget.
So Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings held onto the top spot for the fourth weekend in a row with $13.3 million. The Disney/Marvel film has now reached $196.5 million, making it the highest-grossing release of the year, let alone the pandemic era.
Evan Hansen’s Dear , which debuted exclusively in theaters, brought in $7.5 million from 3,364 theaters for its opening weekend in second place. The film’s opening weekend audience was predominantly female (62% vs. 38% male) and quite young, with 71% of viewers under the age of 34.
In third place is 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy , which showed a fairly small decline in its seventh weekend of release, falling 19% overall to an estimated $4.1 million. Ryan Reynolds’ superbly sustained action film has collected $114.1 million since its mid-August debut. Candyman (Candyman) of the studio Universal took a stable fourth place with $ 2.5 million in its fifth weekend, which is 29% less than last weekend. The horror film reboot has brought in $56.8 million to date.
In its second weekend, Cry Macho fell 52% to $2.12 million, which brought the film to fifth place. The Clint Eastwood drama, which made its day-to-day theatrical debut on HBO Max, has brought in a disappointing $8.34 million so far.
Dune (Dune) from Warner Bros. had another successful weekend abroad: collecting $26.3 million in 32 countries, including $3.1 million on 167 IMAX screens (at an average IMAX per screen of $18.5 thousand). The film’s second weekend was solid across the board, including Russia ($4.9 million, down 37%), France ($4.6 million, -33%) and Germany ($3.4 million, down -23%). the fantasy epic will open on October 15 in nine more countries, including Japan.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings grossed $14 million in 44 countries for an international cume of $166.9 million and a global cume of $363.4 million. The film took first place in 18 countries, including the UK, Australia, Brazil and Mexico. Protagonist earned $5.1 million in 48 countries for a total of $203.3 million (including $94.8 million in China) and a worldwide cume of $317.4 million.