Thanks to Universal’s animation lateral Illumination, the box office was despicable over the weekend. Despicable Me 4 took the top spot knocking down another sequel, Inside Out 2. But enough with the cute fuzzies, how did Ti West’s MaXXXine do? It’s good news and bad news.
First the good news. The Mia Goth thriller opened bigger than any of its predecessors with $6.4 million. The bad news is that it was predicted to open at somewhere close to $10 million. MaXXXine’s production budget hasn’t been confirmed but it’s safe to speculate that it was more than its two sisters due to a star power cast and period piece setting.
X and Pearl cost $1 million, but there has been some speculation about whether those numbers are correct.
Although some fans may not like it, CinemaScores are good predictors of how well an audience will receive a film. MaXXXine sits at a B, a little better than Pearl which got a B- while professional critics pushed the Tomato Meter to “fresh” with 75%.
So who is spending their money to see MaXXXine in theaters? Deadline broke down the demographics thusly:
“MaXXXine attracted 52% men with 23% over 35. Diversity demos were 48% Caucasian, 31% Latino and Hispanic, 9% Black, 6% Asian, and 6% Native American/other.”
MaXXXine is currently playing in 2,450 theaters which will probably change mid-month when Twisters takes over major screens on July 17 and Deadpool & Wolverine say “LFG” on July 26.
A24 probably isn’t sweating that much, digital sales is probably where niche films like MaXXXine do best. Speaking of niche films, that brings us to the horror movie Longlegs which is set to open theatrically this week. It has already received a 100% Tomato Rating and generated positive hype.
So tell us, is MaXXXine on your theatrical watchlist, or are you waiting until digital? And will you see Longlegs in theaters or do the same thing? Let us know in the comments.