Beyoncé Concert Film Opens at Number One
Welcome to another weekly installment of Couch Potato, where I go over what went down on the big and small screens so you can be a better-informed viewer.
I had to give Queen Bey her due with the headline, but the news also has to be delivered with context. While Beyoncé did open at number one for her concert film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, this opening came in at $21 million— a mere quarter of her predecessor Taylor Swift’s opening weekend. Looking at previous concert films from individuals such as Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber, Beyoncé’s numbers appear to be more aligned with the norm and Taylor Swift just seems to have been the outlier. However, number one is number one, so our hats are still off to Queen Bey for that. As another feather in her cap, this means she was able to knock a major franchise entry down to second place with The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes falling to second place adding another $14.5 million to its domestic numbers. Finally, Godzilla Minus One marked a huge victory for international films as it rounds out the “Top of the Top 10” debuting at $11 million stateside. Not a small feat for a movie that you have to read subtitles for.
Don’t worry, Disney, I won’t talk too much about Wish’s abysmal second-weekend drop of 62% that placed it back behind Trolls Band Together and couldn’t compete with second-weekend holds of other Disney films to open on Thanksgiving weekend such as Ralph Breaks the Internet or Coco. That’s all I’ll say about it because they’re already dealing with enough bad press about this box office bomb.
As far as movies on Netflix are concerned, Adam Sandler clearly doesn’t even need to show his face to bring solid performing content to the platform as Leo debuted at number one with 34 million views. This completely knocks second-place contender out of the water (pun intended) as Best. Christmas. Ever! remained in second place for the second week in a row adding 13 million views to its total. At least that movie was able to remain stagnant, unlike The Killer which rounded out the “Top of the Top 10” with 8 million views this past week. Given this was its third week, though, it’s still fairly impressive.
Moving on to steaming, Squid Game: The Challenge debuted at number one to the tune of 85 million hours viewed. This knocked out last week’s champion, The Crown, whose most recent season added another 29 million hours viewed in its second weekend on the charts. Proving that babysitting content is alive and well, Cocomelon Lane rounded out the “Top of the Top 10,” debuting its first season to the tune of 13 million hours viewed. Also notably, it seems like Matt Rife is still bringing in views on his new comedy special, but it’s still unknown how many of them were not the type of views his team was hoping for.
Next week brings little competition to Beyoncé and Godzilla as the only movie entering the marketplace is Emma Stone’s Poor Things. We’ll see where that winds up ranking on the charts as well as what the second weekend numbers look like for the other two.
Stay tuned for that, and until next time, happy viewing!
Special to The Central Observer, Elton Allen
About the Author
Elton Allen is thrilled to be a contributing author on The Central Observer. As a proud native of Central Jersey, he looks forward to getting to help out a publication based right out of his backyard. He proudly runs the Couch Potato Corner and our Health & Wellness section. His professional writing background spans nearly a decade and covers a variety of industries, including healthcare, marketing, career counseling, entertainment, and more.