Box Office: "Street Fighter" Eyes $30 Million Opening as "You Can See Everything" Could Start at $8 Million.
Strength in numbers? Theater operators hope the saying holds, as four new releases aim to boost October box office. A Paramount adaptation of the video game "Street Fighter" is expected to outpace the other newcomers, with 3,500 North American theaters estimating $25 to $35 million. Disney's survival thriller trailer "Whalefall" should secure […]
Strength in numbers? Cinema operators are hoping the adage is true as four new films aim to boost the October box office.
Paramount's video game adaptation of "Street Fighter" will outpace newcomers with an estimated $25 million to $35 million from 3,500 North American theaters this weekend. Disney's survival thriller "Whalefall" should finish second with $10-12 million from 3,065 theaters. Meanwhile, A24's wildly popular Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything is on target for $7-8 million from just 800 locations, and Jane Austen's remake of "Sense and Sense" is targeting $5-8 million from 2,436 screens. RELATED STORIES Aaron Sorkin Says It "Never Happened" That Jesse Eisenberg Plays Mark Zuckerberg Don't play "Social Accounts," claims the paycheck was a "deterrent."
Although "Street Fighter" is projected to take the top spot, the PG-13 action-adventure is the biggest-budget of the four and will need to stay in theaters to justify its price tag. Legendary video game maker Capcom invested $82 million in the film, and Paramount is in the works for distribution. "Street Fighter", which has been under contract with the studio for a long time, moved to Paramount after the initial contract expired. Overseas, "Street Fighter" is projected to gross approximately $35 million from 65 markets. Popular in Variety
Street Fighter is the third film based on the Capcom video game series. The first live-action film, released in 1994 and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, was a commercial success with $100 million not adjusted for inflation. The second, 2009's Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Lee, was a big flop for the 20th century, earning just $12.8 million against a $50 million budget. Directed by Kitao Sakurai and starring Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji, the reboot takes place in 1993 when two estranged fighters are recruited to enter a tournament that forces them to face each other.
"Whalefall" cost $60 million and also requires significant staying power, as theater owners keep about half of ticket sales. Directed by Brian Duffield, Whalefall follows a diver (Austin Abrams) who is swallowed by a sperm whale and with only an hour of oxygen left in his tank, he figures out how to escape. Reviews have been mostly positive, with one reviewer calling the film "genre fun".
"You Can See Everything" cost about $7 million to produce, and exhibitors believe the film could become a rare documentary. Earlier this year, Amazon MGM's "Melania," a $40 million look at first lady Melania Trump, earned $7.1 million from 1,778 theaters, the biggest opening for a non-musical or concert documentary in more than a decade. However, most non-fiction films these days are lucky to make that much by the end of their box office run.
Ever since A24 unveiled its top-secret project at the Telluride Film Festival in early September, hype for You Can See Everything has been high. Comedian Nathan Fielder and "Primetime" filmmaker Lance Oppenheim have been quietly working on the film for more than three years, a candid look at the Theranos founder's life a month before he begins his 11-year sentence for defrauding investors. The doctor will benefit from rave reviews and positive word of mouth. It has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Owen Gleiberman of Variety describing the unconventional story as a unique […] circus.
"Hess and Hess", which has a budget of 25 million dollars, hopes to act as an antidote to the films "Street Fighter" and "Whale Pressure". Daisy Edgar Jones and Esme Creed Miles star in the latest adaptation of Jane Austen's classic as sisters Eleanor and Marian Dashwood, who struggle with love, loss and financial uncertainty as they are forced to leave their family estate in Sussex.
Sense and Sensibility has been remade for the screen many times, most notably with director Ang Lee's 1995 film starring Emma Thompson as Eleanor Dashwood and Kate Winslet as Marian. That film was a critical and commercial failure, earning seven Oscar nominations and grossing $135 million at the box office, not adjusted for inflation. Focus Features has backed two previous Austen remakes over the years, including 2005's "Pride and Prejudice," starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, as well as 2020's "Emma," starring Anya Taylor-Joy. The well-reviewed "But" was released digitally while theaters were closed due to the pandemic.
So far, October's box office has been uneven. Tom Cruise's dark comedy "Digging" and Aaron Sorkin's Facebook drama "The Social Account" flopped, while Colin Hoover's adaptation "Truth" and Jessica Chastain's "Another Mom" are shaping up to be modest winners. Fortunately, it doesn't need much improvement from last October, which hit a three-decade low amid a slew of disasters including Dwayne Johnson's MMA drama "The Smashing Machine" and Disney's sci-fi sequel "Tron: Ares."