The success of Warner Bros.’ “Weapons” and Disney’s “Freakier Friday” in their opening weekends at the box officemarked a win for superhero counterprogramming efforts and for moderately budgeted movies.
That’s the analysis offered by Brent Lang, Variety executive editor and a longtime box office reporter, on the latest episode of the “Daily Variety” podcast. The performance of both wide opener titles this past weekend was encouraging for the overall health of moviegoing.
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“What was exciting is that [‘Weapons’ and ‘Freakier Friday’] were really effective examples of counter- programming. One was going for kind of younger female audiences, and the other was going for slightly older male audiences,” Lang says. “One is an R-rated movie, one is a PG rated movie. So it really shows that this is a business that can expand to welcome a lot of different types of genres. And that there doesn’t need to be just one new release each weekend. And that’s something that theaters have been really pushing studios to think about. Because movie theaters are really a foot-traffic business. They want people coming through the door. They want them buying concessions. That’s how they make a lot of money. And they want people in the habit of going to the movies.”
Lang also warns that the coming weeks will see a drought of big-ticket new releases until Disney’s “Tron: Ares” arrives on Oct. 10.
“There was a lot to celebrate this weekend. But when you look ahead, it’s a very weak slate until mid-October, when ‘Tron: Ares comes out,” he says. “This just shows that consistency [of releases] is also really important, and studios haven’t quite figured that out.”
Also in the episode, veteran Variety international editor John Hopewell weighs in from Locarno, Switzerland on why mid-sized European film festivals such as Locarno are more strategically important for the global film business than ever before. For one thing, events such as the Locarno fest’s Aug. 8 presentation of its Leopard Club career achievement award to Emma Thompson, draw far more coverage and generate more buzz in the age of instantaneous online media.
Hopewell, who is based in Madrid but travels the world throughout the year for Variety, says the shift began back in the late 1980s when organizers of the Rotterdam festival in Amsterdam decided to establish a film sales marketplace in addition to screening arthouse titles. The addition of a business element changed everything.
“Since then, San Sebastian [festival in Spain] and Locarno have copied Rotterdam because if you want to have films, you have to attract buyers who would then attract producers and sales agents and bring their film to your festival,” Hopewell says. “Locarno, as with San Sebastian, are amongst the best festivals in Europe that have developed the most sophisticated of bouquet of industry sections, attractions and debates.”
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