Box Office Breakdown for Weekend of 3/24/24
What’s up, Geeks + Gamers? It’s ODIN!
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Sees Franchise-Worst Opening
March continues to be the only month of box office life we’ve had this year. With Dune: Part Two continuing to hold strong in second place, the newcomer, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, has still easily taken the top spot, making over $45 million in its domestic debut and roughly $61 million worldwide. Though this is not the biggest release we have seen this year, we can at least say that this is a bigger opening than Madame Web, which continues to be a massive disappointment that, according to the-numbers.com, has still not reached $100 million worldwide. Despite this small bit of good news for the new Ghostbusters, things go downhill when you compare it to the last two Ghostbusters films to be released. Not only is this the lowest opening weekend for the franchise when you adjust the domestic numbers for inflation, but when you look at estimated ticket sales, it doesn’t get much better. According to my calculations, Ghostbusters (2016) saw a domestic opening of almost $59 million when adjusted; this means roughly 5.3 million tickets were sold. Ghostbusters: Afterlife saw an adjusted opening of $51 million, which equates to roughly 4.2 million tickets. With the opening weekend for Frozen Empire currently being around $45.3 million, that means it sold about 3.4 million tickets. This is bad not just because of the money but also the clear indication that almost 1 million fewer tickets were sold, which indicates a decrease in the remaining fan base. If these differences continue, it means that Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has a very good chance of being a fairly sizable box office flop in 2024. With the release of Godzilla x Kong next weekend, it is not looking good.
According to the-numbers.com, the top 5 this weekend domestically were:
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ($45.2 million as a new release)
- Dune: Part Two (38% drop in 4th weekend)
- Kung Fu Panda 4 (44% drop in 3rd weekend)
- Immaculate ($5.3 million as a new release)
- Arthur the King (43% drop in 2nd weekend)
Dune: Part Two vs. Oppenheimer (Current Status)
As I wrote about last week, Dune: Part Two continues to trail behind the box office of last year’s surprise box office hit, Oppenheimer. That continued this week, with Dune now tracking about 12% behind where Oppenheimer’s domestic numbers were at the same point of its release. Using my RCC method, Dune is still about $26 million in the red. Though this is a good jump from last week, it does still indicate that the chances of Dune seeing the same success as Oppenheimer are slim to none. I fully expect Dune to be able to reach profitability, but as the weeks go on, there will be more and more international competition that could cut into the potential profits it could see at the global box office; at this point, only time will truly tell.
For video coverage of this weekend’s box office, check out my latest video HERE.
If you want further analysis on these or any other films, check out the full charting I do over at my website. Have a wonderful rest of your day, and as always, God bless!
(If you ever want further insight into my methodology, see my previous articles HERE and HERE.)
