Box Office: Mark Wahlberg ‘Arthur the King’ at Dog House

How does a movie with an “A” CinemaScore and 4 1/2 star PostTrak with a major star and a dog underperform at the box office?

The title of a puppy with a heart loaded with adventure sports arthur the king from Lionsgate had no chance of winning a crown this weekend with a projection of between $8 and $10 million. However, many expected this well-received film to live up to expectations. Not so with a $7.5 million opening.

Additionally, the failure of mid-budget CinemaScore “A” movies at the box office is becoming a trend.

arthur the kingThe poor performance had to do with the fact that it seemed ripe for streaming by today’s standards and not for film, right? Is that why people didn’t show up? Yes, but that’s not 100% of the reason.

It’s true that stars need to get closer to Jesus with themselves when they make streaming movies alongside theatrical titles: do you dilute your marquee image by being available for free at home? Wahlberg’s action title, The Family Plan, It was reportedly AppleTV+’s most-watched movie to date.

To paraphrase/quote Sidney Poitier’s advice to Denzel Washington: “If they see you for free all week, they won’t pay to see you on the weekend.” Hollywood stars should get that tattooed.

However, dog movies are a business on the big screen, and still are, since Rin Tin Tin, Benji and Old Yeller. This despite various genres (i.e. comedies, romantic comedies, mid-budget films, which arthur the king es) being devoured by streaming, thus conditioning the public to stay at home and avoid cinemas.

Case in point: A recent hit movie about dogs is MGM’s Channing Tatum movie, Dog, which was made for $15 million, opened to $14.9 million and made its way to $61 million in the United States and $84.8 million globally. Definitely a surprising post-pandemic in 2022, at a time when audiences were slowly returning to movie theaters. In fact, Dog was seen as one of the catalysts that brought women back to cinemas, with audiences being one of the most nervous about returning post-Covid (Dog (54% were women, 73% over 25 years old).

Before Dog, as far as non-IP dog movies go, before Covid, there was Warner Bros. Max, which opened with $12.1 million and reached $42.6 million domestically in 2015 Dating back to the pre-streaming mega days of 2008, Disney had beverly hills chihuahua, which posted a lucrative opening of $29.3 million, a domestic gross of $94.5 million and $149.2 million worldwide, and spawned a sequel.

Arthur the King, which was co-financed by pre-sales from Entertainment One (eOne) and Tucker Tooley Entertainment, had a cool adventure bike racing element. Lionsgate in the trailers clearly sold it on the big screen. So what’s up? Because arthur the king crumble?

Sources close to the study affirm that there are benefits, which is therefore not a victory lap to face a CinemaScore “A” movie that fell short at the box office. Lionsgate only had a P&A commitment in arthur the king, with an advertising budget of more than $20 million and no minimum guarantee. That’s a very low threshold for them, a viable threshold to profit from. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, the theatrical market for studios, shaken up by streaming, has become a P&A minimum to bring titles from the theater to home entertainment, where the real money is. The theatricalization of these mid-budget titles has become an advertising mechanism for the sale of homes. arthur the king is in a 31-day movie window (not 17 days).

Lionsgate, in its marketing, focused primarily on male, non-family or religious sports audiences (Wahlberg himself may attract a quotient of that crowd), and that’s where this film is falling short in gross terms, I’m told. It didn’t have the typical familiar hit of a Saturday matinee.

The studio’s decision not to double down on family audiences was due to the fact that the film centers on an emaciated, troubled dog, not a cute one. However, the Belgian Malinois in Dog She wasn’t the prettiest star in Hollywood and she was also acting opposite a guy with abs and guns. Together they did business. Yesterday’s gross receipts arthur the king to $2.8 million, they were down -6% from Friday’s $3 million (which included $825,000 in previews from secret screenings on Thursday and Monday).

“This is a movie like Boys on the boat which could have reached the center of the country,” says a box office source. Also missing in arthur the kingGross receipts are Canada. The film was sold exclusively to Prime Video there and the picture will debut on the streamer at a later date.

The West and South were the best regions for Arthur the King. However, the Northeast was weak and I’m told that’s because Spring Break wasn’t in full force there. To date in March, this weekend showed the majority of K-12 schools closed (28%), as well as universities (40%), more than Dune: Part TwoOpening weekend.

Interestingly, Harkins and Phoenix theaters both performed excellently on Arthur the King. The film performed well at the network’s Monday Secret screening series, while Phoenix had a cold, rainy front over the weekend, sending moviegoers to theaters. In addition, the circuit includes films with dog themes and Wahlberg. They boasted a nearly 3% stake in Tatum’s. Dog.

But there is more to Arthur the King. Even though Lionsgate aimed for the sole sports showcase, the film was always a bit of a feathered fish. I was told that the actual cost of the film before pre-sale was $40 million. That was too high a movie price for this conceit. It’s one of the reasons Paramount moved away from the title, plus the film isn’t a primary vehicle for Wahlberg’s audiences, who relish him in action roles.

arthur the kingOn paper, it was similar to the reality television show. An incredible race, with little at stake (how suspenseful is stopping the race?). Furthermore, for rival film marketing executives in their sports angle, the film wasn’t exactly a hit with family audiences.

eOne pre-sale for arthur the king It was 18 million dollars. Domestic pricing was sought after Paramount abandoned the project. I heard MGM expressed interest, but Lionsgate ultimately acquired the film in a deal that closed before the eOne merger. Tooley previously had an agreement with eOne.

Some sources also believe that this weekend was not the right one for Arthur the King, that it would have gone better at Easter or later. That is, if Lionsgate decided to lean toward faith- and family-based. There’s nothing for families over Easter weekend other than fanboy bias Godzilla x King: The New Empire. Additionally, there are a large number of religious titles on the market today, including Ordinary angels, Cabrini and the Chosen one episodes.

Lionsgate recently failed to deliver on another A+ film, ordinary angels, which opened to $6.1 million. We’ve seen that their Kingdom Story fare works much better with faith-based ones. The studio is very frugal when it comes to marketing and reportedly spent $40 million less than average studio P&A standards to obtain John Wick: Chapter 4 to its franchise record domestic opening of $73.8 million.

Lionsgate reportedly Plane ($32.1 million domestic, $74.5 million worldwide) made $35 million in profits, plenty of cash to cover 50% of the studio’s $70 million overhead. While the optics of each film at the box office may not show it (go figure), the studio prides itself on maintaining a low-cost, high-margin business formula.

According to sources, a $10 million opening in arthur the king would have yielded a bottom line domestically of $35 million to $40 million versus the $20 million or more in the country you’re considering now.

While studios are still embracing the ancillary business model of post-Covid movie theaters and are making the most financially of their attempts to tap moviegoers distracted by streaming, unfortunate dilemmas remain for mid-sized films and the filmmakers behind them. Of them: Will movie studios ever spend enough? Again to turn them into compelling events? Or do audiences for smaller films, outside of horror, never come back?