‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Fails to Take Flight as The Marvels Crashes and Burns
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.
The box office doesn’t look too good these days, which is a shame given that three new movies all make up the “Top of the Top 10” this week. Coming in first place was The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which opened with $44 million domestically, which is less than half of even the lowest opening title in its original run. The international box office did give it a bit of a boost to nearly crack triple digits with $98.5 million, but this film’s budget is going to require the picture to bring in a significant amount more money throughout its run to begin to start seeing a profit. The second place winner this week was Trolls Band Together who rode the nostalgia wave for 90’s kids along with excitement from their preestablished young fan base to $30.6 million in its opening weekend. These numbers are decent especially given that it’s so far deep into the franchise, but they are heavily assisted from its international box office which carried it past the $100 million mark, which bodes well for the studio’s ability to make its investment back.
A studio that will not be making its money back is such a huge fall for the former powerhouse that it deserves its own paragraph. The Marvels continues to be all bad news for the studio, bringing the biggest second week drop for any MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movie dropping 78% with just $10.2 million in its second weekend. This brings its domestic total over two weeks to $65 million, which anyone who has analyzed Marvel’s box office in its prime will know is not good. This superhero won’t stand a chance at saving Disney’s $200 million budget. It couldn’t even definitively fend off Thanksgiving, the slasher film about a murderous rampage on Thanksgiving, which itself brought in $10.2 million leading to a tie for the “Top of the Top 10.” This spells major doom for Marvel, and it might finally be time to address the writing on the wall that things need to change if they want to go back to their former glory.
Over on the Netflix charts, The Killer secured the first place spot on the movies list with a moderately impressive 27 million views in its debut week. This brought Locked In to second place in its second week, adding another 13.2 million views to its total. Finally, it appears people were either really in the mood to see some fast cars or they were just that unimpressed with this week’s selection of newer titles as F9: The Fast Saga rounded out the “Top of the Top 10” in its apparent third week in the overall chart with 10.4 million views this week specifically.
As far as shows are concerned, All the Light We Cannot See continues its reign at the top of the charts for the second week in a row, adding another 38 million hours viewed to its total. It was a great week for the most recent season of Selling Sunset, which was able to climb up the charts in its second week to second place with 30 million hours viewed. Finally, once again, true crime fans came out in droves to support another new topic. This week’s selection was Escaping Twin Flames, with 11 million hours viewed to round out the “Top of the Top 10” in third place. We’ll see if it experiences a better second week performance than the others in this category have suffered before it.
Next week, Wish hopes to not suffer from a divided audience against ‘Trolls,’ as it debuts in theaters. Cinephiles can also rejoice as Napoleon gallops into theaters as well. A small handful of theaters can also see Netflix’s Maestro as it releases it in enough theaters to qualify it for the Oscars, as well as The Holdovers releasing wide hoping to maintain its own Oscar buzz. It’ll be an interesting report next week for sure.
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.