Two major studios this weekend took a bold swing and decided to go after the challenged older female demo over Valentine’s Day weekend in a continued pandemic, and while the results were in line with projections, they wouldn’t be anything to brag about in a pre-pandemic marketplace. It’s also the hardest weekend for moviegoing, with the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Disney’s Covid-delayed release of Kenneth Branagh’s $90M adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile starring Gal Gadot is seeing a $5.1M Friday and an estimated $12.7M opening, while Universal’s $23M Jennifer Lopez-Owen Wilson romantic comedy Marry Me, which is also available on the studio’s sister streaming service Peacock on the premium tier, is landing in 3rd with $3M on Friday and a $8M opening at 3,642
Again, both are hoping for more love from the Valentine’s Day box office. But I believe we won’t know if older women are truly ready to come out to the movies again until it happens. It will take some sort of Sex and the City or Bridesmaids phenomenon to put us back there, and I don’t think we’ll be able to see it coming, It will take sheer guts and will on behalf of a major studio in terms of greenlighting a movie toward females, as studios try to make sense of what works at cinemas in an era where streaming is appetizing. Many content creators continue to worry if the same types of movies they used to make are ripe for theatrical in a truly have-and-have not marketplace, or if such genres have completely been absorbed by streaming — a place where movies live forever.
