Curry Barker’s romantic horror movie Obsession, which Focus Features/Blumhouse’s picked up for $15M+, has grossed $2.6M in previews between Thursday night and Wednesday shows.
Now get this, that number is higher than the previews for Paramount’s Smile, which were $2M, but that movie opened to $22.6M. It remains to be seen whether Obsession plays to that level. The pic’s comps are indie horror movies like A24’s Heretic and Talk to Me, and Obsession already has beaten those pics’ Friday previews, which were $1.2M apiece. Heretic opened to $10.8M and Talk to Me to $10.4M.
Heading into this weekend, literally as of Thursday, it was expected to be a faceoff between the fourth weekend of Lionsgate’s Michael and the third weekend of The Devil Wears Prada 2 with about $20M+ each. We’ll see if Obsession upsets. As we told you Thursday, the Barker film about a toxic relationship is winning critics and audiences over at 95% each on Rotten Tomatoes.
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YouTube filmmaker-turned-big-screen filmmaker Barker’s Obsession is booked at 2,542 locations, which includes 435 PLF screens.
Amazon isn’t reporting grosses to its drama Is God Is, nor is Black Bear with its Guy Ritchie movie In the Grey. They are expected to open to around $3M and $4M+, respectively.
Here’s how the week went own at the B.O.:
1) The Devil Wears Prada 2 (Dis) 4,200 theaters, Wk $55.9M (-45%), Total $157.7M/Wk 2
2) Michael (LG) 3,550 theaters, Wk $52.6M (-29%), Total $256.6M/Wk 3
Note that Michael beat Prada 2 in weekdays on Monday, Wednesday and yesterday. Tuesday was a close call with both grossing $4.7M each.
3.) Mortal Kombat II (NL) 3,503 theaters, Wk $48.8M/Wk 1
4.) The Sheep Detectives (AMZ) 3,457 theaters, Wk $20.3M/Wk 1
5.) Project Hail Mary (AMZ) 2,417 theaters, Wk $9.2M (-23%), Total $330.95M/Wk 8
Let the record show that Project Hail Mary, sans any Oscar nominations (yet), saw its domestic cume rocket past Oppenheimer‘s final total ($330M) this past week.