Box Office Report: Is Scorsese a Swiftie?

Who do you think was losing their minds the most at the cinema this weekend: Swifties or Scorsese devotees? I imagine there wasn’t much dancing in the aisles for the latter unless someone accidentally screened New York, New York.

But it was a good weekend, gross-wise, as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour stayed on the top spot with $31 million, even though that signaled a 66.6% drop from its opening weekend (make your jokes now.) It’s an independently distributed concert movie, and it’s already the highest-grossing one of its kind, easily smashing the competition.

People joked that there wouldn’t be much crossover between Swift’s film and Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, but it’s worth noting how much the latter’s audience skewed to the under 35s. See, our tastes are diverse. Audiences came out for Marty, too, with the historical drama grossing $23 million from 3,628 cinemas. That’s the biggest Scorsese opening weekend since 2010’s Shutter Island and the third-best of his career, behind The Departed. It did good business even though the strike meant its starry cast couldn’t promote it. Such is the power of Scorsese, as well as excellent reviews. It’s a $200 million budgeted movie, though, so it’s unlikely that Apple, its distributor, will be expecting to see it break even in the cinema alone. It’s unclear when the film will land on Apple TV+, but it won’t be for at least 45 days. So go see it if you can. It truly demands the big screen.

We’ve all spent 30 years arguing over whether The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween or Christmas movie. Well, Disney put it back in cinemas for the former, so there’s your answer. No fights now; it’s been settled. The Hot Topic favourite brought in a tidy $4.1 million from 1,650 theatres.

In limited release news: some thriller that may or may not be religious, Soul Mates, grossed $95,507 from 201 locations; The Persian Version brought in $87,372 from nine places; Another Body, about a college student’s search for justice after she discovers deepfake porn of herself online, earned $7,761 from one theatre; and documentary Full Circle made $1,654 from one cinema.

This coming week sees the release of John Cena action movie Freelance and the video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.