‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Easily Scares Up $53M Franchise Opening Record, But ‘Inside Out 2’ Has Last Laugh With Third No. 1 Win At $56M+ – Early Sunday AM Update

UPDATED, EARLY SUNDAY AM: So, as we approach the end of the weekend, it wasn’t a close call for No. 1 between Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One with the former beating the latter in early AM industry estimates of $56M$57M to $53M. Inside Out 2‘s success this weekend stems from an excellent, matinee fueled Friday to Saturday bump of 31% for a total yesterday of $22M. That’s the same 31% Friday-to-Saturday jump that Incredibles 2 posted in its third frame.

Still, it couldn’t be clearer, we are out of the dog days of the strike-impacted box office with a consistent supply of event films, many of which are over-indexing. Paramount and tracking never saw a franchise opening record coming for the John Krasinski alien production, but here’s another summer movie once again that’s overperforming for the fourth weekend in a row thanks to a coast-to-coast heat wave and diverse moviegoers’ walk-up business. According to Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak, 66% bought their tickets for A Quiet Place: Day One same day, versus 9% who snapped up their tickets in advance more than a week ago.

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Lupita Nyong'o in A Quiet Place: Day One movie
Lupita Nyong’o in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’

And as some analysts try to knock Paramount Global for rejecting Skydance’s bid to merge, here’s the current administration showing that they can pump out excellent, mass-appealing product. Even though A Quiet Place: Day One isn’t No. 1, it’s a series best start, and another victory for Paramount Global following their streak this year of No. 1 opening pics Mean Girls, Bob Marley: One Love and IF (another Krasinski production which is nearing $110M this weekend).

Best areas of play for A Quiet Place: Day One were East, South Central and West with the AMC Burbank the No. 1 grossing cinema of the weekend at $125K-plus.

All studios have yet to report their figures. In addition, we’re seeing New Line’s Kevin Costner western Horizon still at $11M+ in third after a $4M Saturday.

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UPDATED, Saturday AM Final: A fresh take with a new cast and new director — except for the aliens — A Quiet Place: Day One is deafening its $40M+ forecast with a franchise record opening weekend of $53M and day of $22.5M. Last night, box office analysts saw both A Quiet Place: Day One and Disney/Pixar’s third weekend of Inside Out 2 fighting over No. 1. That drag-out fight between big eared aliens and adolescent emotions will continue throughout today. Disney is figuring a massive swing for the third weekend of Inside Out 2, between $55M-$59M.

While that doesn’t appear to look like a close call at the weekend box office, there are other industry calculations to reflect that. More to come.

Anger from 'Inside Out 2' is angry because theatrical refuses to be dead.
Anger from 'Inside Out 2' is angry because theatrical refuses to be dead.

While Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 clocked $17.1M yesterday, which is the same exact amount of cash as Toy Story 4‘s June 28th Friday gross back in 2019 (realize that was the fourthquel’s second Friday), some aren’t calculating that the studio gets a +35% bump today over yesterday. The reason being is that as kids get out of school, family moviegoing traffic shifts to the weekdays, so the matinee Saturday pop isn’t as robust. Inside Out 2 is already up 14% over Friday this AM, and will end the day up in the 20 percentile. The third Saturday for a Pixar film is wild: While Incredibles 2‘s third Saturday to Friday was +31% during pre-Covid 2018, Elemental was only +22%, and Lightyear +18% post-pandemic.

It’s clear that audiences had a want-to-see this for A Quiet Place third time around. Why? It’s a whole fresh new take on a universe they love. Also evident that moviegoers were passionate about heading out this weekend was the fact that they shelled out to see the movie in the best format possible, meaning Imax and PLF, which are accounting for a 41% share of ticket sales so far. Never mind the B+ CinemaScore, which is the same grade as the first film. Genre audiences are always hard. In Screen Engine/Comscore audience exits, A Quiet Place: Day One gets four stars. A massive diverse crowd is showing up to the Paramount movie with 35% Caucasian, 32% Latino and Hispanic, 20% Black, 10% Asian and 4% Native American/other.

Age demo breakdowns for Day One were 32% for men over 25, 29% women over 25 (best grades at 81% on PostTrak), men under 25 at 20% and women under 25 at 19%. Forty percent of the audience went because it was part of a franchise they loved, while 36% said it looked entertaining and fun. Those nail-biting NYC apocalyptic trailers that Paramount cut sure worked, with 17% saying that the in-theater trailer and 12% citing the online trailer as the most influential forms of advertising for the Michael Sarnoski- directed and written, Platinum Dunes production.

Top-grossing movie theater to date for Day One is AMC Burbank with $76K.

Social media analytics corp RelishMix measured the online universe reach for Day One at 180.3M, +6% above previous installments across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram combined. The campaign also saw a lift with a near-27M views from the pre-game spot during the Super Bowl in February. Lupita Nyong’o is the cast’s social media champ with a reach of near 20M, the latest post in 22 hours nabbing 32K views:

Says RelishMix: “The convo on A Quiet Place: Day One ran mixed-positive before opening, with fans of the franchise, as well as newer audiences, intrigued with the change of location, scope, and characters, exciting all in equal measure.

Prospective moviegoers are saying, ‘This is an awesome spin-off in the franchise,’ and, ‘Amazing! This somehow gives me Cloverfield vibes.’ The cast is pulling in many viewers, with a particular interest in seeing Lupita Nyong’o join the series. Fans are saying, ‘You had me at Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, can’t wait for this,’ and, ‘Djimon Hounsou, as always, will play the strong one. I like this guy.’ Lastly, the continued representation these film showcase for people with disabilities has people saying, ‘Love this franchise turning people with sensory disabilities into the strongest people and most fortunate.’ The world of A Quiet Place only grows larger and roaring praise toward the intense yet ‘simple concept’ floods the comments. Fans are also eager to see Nyong’o in another horror that compliments her ‘expressive’ and ‘captivating’ talent.”

New Line’s distribution deal of Kevin Costner’s Horizon banked $4.1M yesterday, which is $100K shy of the $4.2M first day of his 2003 western, Open Range. That movie had a mid-August release back in the day, by the way.

This spells for an estimated $11.3M opening on the western, which Costner invested $50M+ of his own money in to shoot the entire franchise, which costs north of $100M. No, it’s not a great opening in regards to the movie’s cost. However, it’s depth to the box office for exhibition. They aren’t complaining.

Plus, the movie is bringing out a very older audience at 55+ of 47% — by far the movie’s biggest quad. At a time when cinemas need more movies than streamers, bravo to Costner for betting on himself in an attempt to capitalize on his Yellowstone audience and herd them toward the multiplex. A strong 40% said that they galloped to Horizon, as they were fans of Costner as a director.

That said, moviegoers aren’t entirely yippie-ki-yay about the 3-hour opus, with a B- CinemaScore, a 69% positive on PostTrak, and three stars. Early word of mouth from some key media was that Horizon had the feel of a miniseries. This is a different result from Open Range, which landed an A- CinemaScore, and had a slightly shorter runtime at 2 hours and 19 minutes. Eesh. This will cast a shadow on how many rush out for Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2, which is currently dated for Aug. 16.

Some intriguing under the hood with Horizon: Women were the majority turnout at 54% to men 46%, with women over 25 repping 48% of the audience. That demo also gave the western its highest grades, if you could call it that, at 74%. Diversity demos were 68% Caucasian, 14% Hispanic and Latino, 7% Black and 5% Asian American.

Horizon is playing best where it should be in the South, South Central, Midwest, and Mountain regions. Highest-grossing venue is Megaplex Pineview Stadium 10 stadium in Utah, with $12K so far.

RelishMix saw the grey landscape ahead for Horizon with the movie’s social media universe stats running 39% under historical drama, with 110.7M across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube, and Instagram. Costner is reaching out to his 4.2M fans on social, while Jamie Campbell Bower counts close to 7M.

Overall weekend for all films stands at $153.5M, which is 20% ahead of the same frame a year ago, when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny led the 3-day frame with a $60.3M opening.

  1. Inside Out 2 (Dis) 4,440 theaters Fri $17.1M (-44%) 3-day $55.3M (-45%) Total $467.2M/Wk 3 (industry average)

2.) A Quiet Place: Day One (Par) 3,707 theaters, Fri $22.5M, 3-day $53M, Wk 1

3.) Horizon (NL) 3,334 theaters, Fri $4.1M, 3-day $11.3M/Wk 1

4.) Bad Boys Ride or Die (Sony) 3312 (-469) theaters, Fri $2.8M (-45%) 3-day $10.2M (-46%) Total $165.1M/Wk 4

5.) Kalki 2898 AD (Prath) 1,049 Fri $1.85M 3-day $5.8M Total $11.4M/Wk 1
Audiences love this movie at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The pic in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil is playing best in the East and the South Central with the Cinemark Tinseltown in Texas the highest grossing multiplex with $30K so far.

6.) The Bikeriders (Foc) 2,692 (+50) theaters, Fri $920K (-78%) 3-day $3.1M (-68%), Total $16M/Wk 2

7.) Garfield Movie (Sony) 1,762 (-1251) theaters Fri $560K (-51%) 3-day $1.85M (-51%) Total $89.4M/ Wk 6

8.) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (20th) 1,650 (-760) theaters, Fri $518K (-53%) 3-day $1.8M (-53%), Total $168.1M/Wk 8

9.) Kinds of Kindness (SEA) 490 (+485) theaters, Fri $725K (+305%) 3-day $1.79M (+375%) Total $2.3M/Wk 2
Solid numbers throughout here for the Yorgos Lanthimos-Emma Stone reteam, especially from the Alamo theaters.

10.) Jatt & Juliet 3 (WHS) 143 theaters, Fri $470K, 3-day $1.36M, Total $1.8M/Wk 1
The rom-com from filmmaker Jagdeep Sidhu follows two police officers from Punjab who travel to London on a mission that proves more complicated than expected.

UPDATED, Friday PM: Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 is heading to a $17 million-plus Friday, which will put the sequel on track for a third weekend of $60M at 4,440 theaters, -41%, making it one of the seven best third weekends ever. Oscar buzz is already developing around the movie, and rightfully so: it’s responsible for bringing audiences back to cinemas. Stateside gross will stand at $471.8M by EOD Sunday.

Yesterday, the pic’s global cume of $863M, already outstripped the lifetime total of the original 2015 title, which ended its run at $858.8M.

'Inside Out 2'
‘Inside Out 2’

Right now, Paramount’s $67M prequel A Quiet Place: Day One is seeing a $20.5M Friday at 3,707 theaters, which again, is an opening-day franchise record for the movie ahead of the first two movies’ $18.8M and $19.3M starts, respectively. However, the three-day, per many, is being spotted at $48.5M, which would rep the second best three-day start in the series. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 70%, which is behind the first film’s 83% and second’s 92%. By the way, the current three-day projection is ahead of the $40M that was being spotted on tracking.

‘Horizon: An American Saga’
‘Horizon: An American Saga’

Kevin Costner independently financed Western Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is posting a $4.3M-$4.6M Friday for a $12M-$13M opening at 3,334 locations for New Line. Whatever this movie cost — some say the first installment is $50M, others $100M — the opening isn’t far from the start of the multihyphenate’s Open Range, which debuted to $14M. We can throw fruit at the opening, but realize this: This is $12M-$13M more in this marketplace, and for exhibition, that’s nothing to complain about. The question is whether the sequel, currently scheduled to be released August 16, 2024, sticks to the landing strip or gets jettisoned to Max. RT score of 71% is better than the 38% that film critics are giving it.

RELATED: 10 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2024 From ‘Inside Out 2’ to ‘Twisters’

Sony’s fourth frame of Bad Boys: Ride or Die at 3,312 theaters is looking at around $3M today, and a three-day of $11M, -41%, for a running total of $163.9M by Sunday.

RELATED: The Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Box Office: Photo Gallery

Pushing its way into fifth place is the Bollywood title Kalki 2898 AD, with a $2M Friday, $6.5M three-day and running total less than $12M for the four-day at 1,049 sites. The movie grossed around $5.4M on Thursday. The feature, written and directed by Nag Ashwin, takes place in a future ruled by elites who revel in absolute luxury while leaving the rest of the world in darkness. There, a warrior must rise to protect the one who will bring a new tomorrow in this action-packed science fiction epic. That’s the logline. See the trailer below. Critics says 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences differ at 95%. More updates as we have them.

RELATED: 20 Western Movies To Watch After Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon’

FRIDAY AM: We told you it was a franchise record in regards to previews for the Quiet Place franchise with A Quiet Place: Day One, and that’s what it is with a now-revised $6.8M total. That’s higher than Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ($6.6M), which went on to a $58.4M opening. If this prequel legs out like that, or even north of $50M, that’s a fantastic 3-day take for a third installment.

Meanwhile, New Line’s Kevin Costner pic Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 came up short from where we saw it, with $800,000. Oh, no — but keep in mind that pic’s audience isn’t a Thursday night preview one.

Inside Out 2 did $11.2M Thursday, -12% from Wednesday for a second week of $156.8M and running total of $411.99M.

It’s a going to be a rich weekend at the box office. Last year at this time, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny led with a $60.3M 3-day, for an overall $128.2M weekend. It’s within reason that we will beat that marketplace total by Sunday.

THURSDAY PM: Paramount’s prequel A Quiet Place: Day One is heading to a franchise-record preview night between $5M-$6M, several sources inform us. Showtimes began at 3 p.m.

Tonight’s figure easily ranks ahead of the $4.3M made by the first movie in 2018 and the $4.8M made by A Quiet Place: Part II on its Thursday heading into Memorial Day weekend 2021, when summer kicked off for recently reopened theaters.

Those two movies were directed by John Krasinski, while the prequel is helmed and written by Pig director Michael Sarnoski. A Quiet Place: Day One tells the story about how the ferocious aliens with the highly sensitive ears landed on Earth in NYC. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou star.

Reviews are great at 86% certified fresh, though they are the lowest of the franchise to date after Chapter 1 (96%) and Chapter 2 (91%). CinemaScore comes out Friday, but A Quiet Place earned a B+, while Part II landed an A-.

Tracking had this prequel at $40M+ for the weekend, and given that it’s a genre film, it can be frontloaded. The first movie’s previews repped 23% of its $18.8M Friday, heading to a $50.2M 3-day weekend, while the second installment’s previews repped 25% of its first Friday of $19.3M for a 3-day of $47.5M, 4-day of $57M over Memorial Day weekend. Too soon to tell if there’s a ‘5’ in front of Day One‘s opening. The Platinum Dunes production is rated PG-13. Paramount held the New York premiere Wednesday night at AMC Lincoln Center.

At this point in time, we’re hearing around $1M-$1.5M for Kevin Costner’s pricey three-hour epic, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1. At that level, it could get the New Line theatrical release, which is a distribution deal, to $12M. Realize this older-skewing title is a slow burn, not a one-shot, opening-weekend film. Best to assess this movie’s success in its first 10 days, as many take a summer break this week.

Critical reviews stand at 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t as bad as Costner’s The Postman at 14%, though below Waterworld‘s 47% Rotten (which he produced) and under his 2003 film Open Range (79% certified fresh), and his 1990 multi-Oscar winner Dances with Wolves (87% certified fresh). Of his westerns, Open Range opened to the highest at $14M, was released by Disney, and ended its run at $58.3M.

'Inside Out 2' box office
‘Inside Out 2’

As expected, Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 will rule the weekend with $55M-$60M. The pic crossed $400M in its 13th day of release on Wednesday. That figure is pacing 2% ahead of Barbie, which stood at $394.4M at the same point and time and finaled at $636.2M. The Kelsey Mann-directed sequel will click past the $1 billion global mark this weekend, becoming the 54th title to reach that feat.

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