In the past, Taylor Swift might have had to wait until the middle of the week to get all the screens she needed for her The Life of a Showgirl album release party. Now? “She can just step right up,” Richard Rushfield says, “and go, ‘Oh, you don’t have a major motion picture opening up this weekend as it turns out. How about this instead?’”
Theaters were more than happy to oblige, as Swifties powered the glorified bonus footage package to a whopping $33 million — triple what any other entrant put up this weekend. Not a single legacy studio released a film this weekend, leaving the no. 2 spot to Warner Bros.’ One Battle After Another at $11.1 million.
“Fifteen years ago, was there a single weekend like that ever, where there wasn’t a major release?” Richard asks. Sean McNulty adds, “In the first weekend of October, no less, which is traditionally a pretty big weekend,” usually home to the likes of Joker and A Star Is Born.
The one big release this weekend: A24’s UFC biopic, The Smashing Machine, which netted out to a rough $6 million on a $50 million spend. Not great for Dwayne Johnson’s first prestige play, and even worse for the indie studio as its latest mid-budget flop after Eddington. “Is it time to worry about A24?” Richard wonders.
Elsewhere on Monday Morning Quarterbacks, Richard and Sean dissect One Battle After Another’s strong second weekend hold, how Tron: Ares and Roofman might fare this week — and why Gabby’s Dollhouse is no Paw Patrol.
