FRIDAY PM: Yes, Disney/Pixar’s original animation title Hoppers is leading with a second frame around $30M, -34%, but Universal’s feature take of Colleen Hoover novel, Reminders of Him, is top of mind for women, overindexing with an $18M opening, maybe more.
By Sunday, Hoppers‘ domestic cume should stand at $88.3M, well ahead of Onward‘s ten-day of $61.5M; that pic’s runway cut short by the closure of theaters during Covid.
Similar to Twisters, Universal went straight for the Heartland here in promoting Reminders of Him. Muy smart, with Uni launching a Heartland Tour that kicked off in Chicago with a screening (moderated by Good Day Chicago’s Jake Stakes) and had star Tyriq Withers reunite with his grandmother and aunt. There were several stops at Chicago landmarks, followed by stops in Kansas City and Dallas with exclusive screenings, Q&As, book giveaways and as well as Wither’s character Ledger’s orange truck. We hear Texas markets overindexed yesterday.
Note, Reminders of Him the best reviewed of the Hoover movies at 60% fresh, better than It Ends With Us (55% Rotten) and way better than Paramount’s Regretting You from the fall (29%). Current RT Audience score for the Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers movie is 88%, ahead of It Ends With Us (87%) and Regretting You (84%).
Reminders of Him‘s Friday is $7.6M at 3,402 sites. RelishMix measures pic’s social media reach at 349M across TikTok, YouTube, X, Instagram and Facebook, which is ahead of It Ends With Us (337.4M). YouTube views at 94.6M are ahead of It Ends With Us (56M) at the time of opening, but the Blake Lively movie bested Reminders of Him in IG views, 157.1M to 117M. Overall, pre-release social media universe reach is 2x ahead of romantic genre norms. Talent activation shows Rudy Pankow at 8M fans, Lauren Graham at 2.1M, Hoover fans at 4.4M, Withers at 466k and Monroe at 406K.
Says RelishMix about word of mouth on social, “Convo runs positive for Reminders of Him, with emotion-forward reactions doing the heavy lifting. Fans lean into catharsis, repeat-viewing confessions, and book-to-screen loyalty, framing the trailer as a tear-jerker rather than a puzzle box. Casting goodwill helps, especially with Monroe’s credibility bleeding in from horror and indie drama, while chatter about Withers signals a rising-actor bump. Comparisons land in the Nicholas Sparks lane and adjacent melodrama like It Ends With Us, mostly as tone-setters. Craft praise centers on music, the cut and gut-punch moments that feel engineered to make people cry on their phones. Quotes that capture the upside include ‘Emotional damage actually I can’t wait to see this one’ and ‘After reading the novel I had to watch it again and again, it was so beautiful.’”
While It Ends With Us is considered Hoover’s most popular novel, Regretting You was significantly less in popularity (hence the final domestic gross of $48.8M, which pales next to the $50M stateside opening of It Ends With Us. Reminders of Him, I’m told, is more popular than Regretting You, with 6 million-plus copies sold in the United States and translation into 45 languages.
Also showing the potential to overperform is A24’s horror title undertone with $4.3M today, and $8.5M to $10.5M at 2,570 locations. Why the bullish-ness on the high-end? Hello, it’s Friday the 13th today. Great day for a horror movie. Previews yesterday were $200K shy of Heretic‘s $1.2M which went on to a $4.3M first day/previews and $10.8M opening.
Fourth goes to the third weekend of Paramount/Spyglass’ Scream 7 with $7.5M, -56%, at 3,243 sites, after a $2.2M Friday. Today the movie becomes the fourth Scream movie to cross the century mark. Cume by Sunday is $105.6M.
In fifth, is the fifth weekend of Sony Pictures Animation’s Goat with $1.3M today, $5M, -23%, for the 3-day at 2,946 sites, and a running cume of $90.8M.
FRIDAY AM: The weekend box office hopes to hold it together after the successful launch of Pixar’s Hoppers, with Universal delivering the third feature take of a Colleen Hoover novel to the screen in Reminders of Him, and A24 hoping for one of its indie horror pics, undertone, to overperform.
Both are off to solid starts, with Reminders of Him at $1.9 million in previews Thursday at 3,000 theaters from showtimes that began at 2 p.m. A24’s undertone, which premiered at Sundance, did $1M yesterday from 2,750.
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Reminders of Him, from director Vanessa Caswill, had a Thursday night that’s above the previous Hoover pic Regretting You from Paramount ($1M previews, $13.6M opening), ahead of A24 rom-com Materialists ($1.5M, $11.3M opening), and just below The Housemaid ($2.2M previews, $19M opening). Forecasts for the movie starring Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers and Lainey Wilson were between $10M-$15M heading into the weekend. The PG-13 film is looking to be a destination for female audiences this spring.
The pic follows a woman who after prison attempts to reconnect with her young daughter but faces resistance from everyone except a bar owner with ties to her child. As they grow closer, she must confront her past mistakes to build a hopeful future.
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undertone‘s previews are ahead of the Philippou brothers’ Bring Her Back ($850,000) which debuted to $7.1M. That’s the three-day hope for this movie by Ian Tuason about a podcaster who receives freaky recordings. A24 snapped up the movie after Fantasia Festival; the pic was made for $500K before P&A.
The $80M production The Bride!, from Warner Bros ends its first week with $9.2M at 3,304 sites. It’s expected to plummet this weekend.
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Hoppers ends its first week with $58.2M at 4,000 theaters, which is ahead of the first week of Pixar summer originals Elemental ($47M), Elio ($31.5M) and 2020’s pre-Covid Onward ($49.7M). Hoppers will rule this weekend with around $27M in its second frame.
