“Mistress of Evil” Doesn’t Cast a Great Spell

Diving into the weekend, it was Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil which got the most audiences, but the #1 weekend finish wasn’t enough from the complete disappointment it was for the studio, its predecessor and even the forecasts. In a race between second and third position, WB’s Joker that came behind the leader, and continued to shock with its excellent performance both domestically and worldwide. Not far behind, however, was second sequel Zombieland: Double Tap which generated a wealthy weekend on its own.

Taking the top spot was Disney’s live-action sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil which sold an estimated 36M in ticket sales, falling well short of a magical opening. The Sleeping Beauty spin-off was accessible in 3,790 theaters, and averaged a not-so-hot $9,499 per-screen average. The debut is fairly behind the studio’s 45M expectations, the industry’s 50M forecast—and is the lowest opening Disney has had all year (without Fox), which rings especially disappointing. Not to be a wet blanket, but additionally, Mistress of Evil opened to only a little more than half of it’s predecessor’s 69.4M three-day. Heck, the sequel even managed to underperform compared to one of this year’s biggest commercial flops, Dumbo, which garnered just 45.9M. For the domestic close, it’s predecessor finished with an impressive multiplier of 3.5x, which would mean a finish of 126M, but considering the follow-up’s poor debut, we are forecasting a good-bye number of around 110M.

You would imagine, with a budget soaring as high as 185M—that the film given needs serious global aid. That’s when the international numbers arrive. Mistress of Evil earned an estimated 117M from every major market, which results in a worldwide opening of 153M. This is marginally more impressive than its North American performance, but with a finishing forecast of just 400M globally, it pales in comparison to the 2014 original’s 758.5M. Leading the way was a 22.4M opening in China, followed by Russia (10.7M), Mexico (7.8M), Indonesia (4.8M), Korea (4.6M), Brazil (4.5M), the UK (4.3M), France (3.9M), Thailand (3.7M), the Philippines (3.5M), Germany (3.4M) and Spain (3.2M).

Review wise, the darker fairy tale earned mixed response from the critics, but audiences seemingly adored the film. On RottenTomatoes, reviewers gave it an approval rating of 41% “Rotten” based on 191 reviews, with a critics consensus reading: “While it’s far from cursed, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil too rarely supports its impressive cast and visuals with enough magical storytelling to justify its existence.” However, opening day audiences have given the picture a strong 96% score. Metacritic took a similar opinion, handing it a weighted average of 43/100. CinemaScore lists it at an A.

Following close behind in runner-up was DC and WB’s Joker, which continued its strong performance with another 29.2M, dropping a reasonable 47.7% from its stunning sophomore session, now holding a massive 247.2M dollars in the bag after 17 days of release. Overseas, the film is still having an absolute party, laughing up an estimated 77.8M for a foreign gross of 490.3M and a worldwide bout of 737.5M, making it the fifth biggest global release in the DCEU, right behind Suicide Squad (746.8M).

In third place was the second newcomer of the weekend, which was Sony’s Zombieland: Double Tap, which generated a solid 26.7M over three days. This overcomes its 20M pre-weekend expectations, and is exceptional that a comedy sequel keeps box office stamina, especially after 10 years. The debut outperforms the likes of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (20.9M), Pet Sematary (24.5M) and even its predecessor, which opened to 24.7M. The three films above give an average multiplier of 2.91x, which would mean a finish of around 77.6M.

Fourth holds United Artists Releasing’s The Addams Family, which took flight to a solid sophomore weekend, earning an estimated 16M, which instigates a dip of 47% and a domestic bout coming around to 56.8M after 10 days. The film is pacing around seven million ahead of The Emoji Movie, which later finished to 86M—this screams predictions in the area of 95M.

Rounding out the top five was Paramount’s Gemini Man, which shot at a second weekend of 8.5M, sliding a steep 58.6% from its already average opening, while having grossed 36.5M domestically after 10 days of release. Overseas, the film hauled in an estimated 33.4M, which the majority comes from its 21M debut in China. This results in an international total of 82.2M and a global tally of 118.7M.

Next weekend, we see two moderate wide releases on what’s going to be the possibly slowest weekend of the Fall. First and foremost, we regard STX Entertainment’s horror pic Countdown, which is playing an estimated 2,600 theaters, and that is followed by Sony’s cop thriller Black and Blue in an estimated 2,000 sites.

TOP FIVE:

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Joker
Zombieland: Double Tap
The Addams Family (2019)
Gemini Man