Battle at the Box Office 10/23/23

Taylor Swift continued to reign supreme at the box office, holding off the latest from Martin Scorsese.

The Eras Tour took in another $33.2 million, dropping 64% from last weekend.  It makes sense that the movie was heavily front-loaded as most Swifties probably went as early as they could over last weekend’s opening.  The concert film has made just shy of $132 million for two weeks out, almost double what the previous best-performing concert film, Justin Beiber’s Never Say Never, made in its entire theatrical run.  It’s possible that The Eras Tour could cross over $200 million domestically if it continues at this pace.

Killers of the Flower Moon took second place with $23.2 million, the third-best opening ever for Martin Scorsese behind Shutter Island and The Departed.  The movie has a CinemaScore of an A- and it drew in an older audience, so it could stick around as a more mature alternative to Taylor Swift and whatever comes out over the next few weeks.  It’s way below where Oppenheimer opened back in the summer, which took in $82.4 million. Oppenheimer was 20 minutes shorter but both movies were extended, adult-orientated movies based on true events.  Oppenheimer obviously had a partner in crime with Barbie to offer a massive boost, as no one is doing a double feature of The Eras Tour and Killers of the Flower Moon.

The Exorcist: Believer dropped to third place with another $5.6 million, bringing it to $54.1 million total domestically and $107.5 million worldwide.  It’s the highest-grossing Exorcist sequel both domestically and worldwide.  It’s performing almost identically to Evil Dead Rise, another late sequel to a long-running horror franchise, with Evil Dead Rise capping out at $67.2 million domestically and $146 million worldwide.

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie and a re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas rounded out the top 5.  Nightmare Before Christmas was released in 1,650 theaters and made $4.1 million.

Although it’s no longer playing, there was some news about The Blind, the biopic about Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson.  The movie was the biggest Fathom Event in the company’s history with $15.7 million.  The movie was originally scheduled to play for 8 days in theaters but it was extended twice and played for around 3 weeks.

The per-theater average went to Anatomy of a Fall, which took in $10,880 in each of the 14 theaters it was playing in.