Beyoncé rules box office at weekend with Renaissance film
Beyoncé ruled the box office this weekend.
Her concert picture, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, opened in first place with $21m in North American ticket sales, according to estimates from AMC Theatres Sunday.
The post-Thanksgiving, early December box office is notoriously slow, but Renaissance defied the odds. Not accounting for inflation, it’s the first time a film has opened over $20m on this weekend in 20 years (since The Last Samurai).
Beyoncé wrote, directed and produced Renaissance, which is focused on the tour for her Grammy-winning album. It debuted in 2,539 theaters in the US and Canada, as well as 94 international territories, where it earned $6.4m from 2,621 theaters.
“On behalf of AMC Theatres Distribution and the entire theatrical industry, we thank Beyoncé for bringing this incredible film directly to her fans,” said Elizabeth Frank, AMC Theatres executive vice-president of worldwide programming, in a statement. “To see it resonate with fans and with film critics on a weekend that many in the industry typically neglect is a testament to her immense talent, not just as a performer, but as a producer and director.”
Despite several other new releases including Godzilla Minus One, the Hindi-language Animal, Angel Studios’ scifi thriller The Shift, and Lionsgate’s John Woo-directed revenge pic Silent Night, it was a slow weekend overall. Films in the top 10 are expected to gross only $85m in total.
But it was in this traditional “lull” that AMC Theatres found a good opportunity for Renaissance to shine.
“They chose a great weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “There was competition but it was from very different kids of movies.”
Though Renaissance did not come close to matching the $92.8m debut of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in October, it’s still a very good start for a concert film. No one expected Renaissance to match The Eras Tour, which is wrapping up its theatrical run soon with over $250m globally. Prior to Swift, the biggest concert film debuts (titles held by Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber for their 2008 and 2011 films) had not surpassed the unadjusted sum of $32m .
The 39-city, 56-show Renaissance tour, which kicked off in Stockholm, Sweden in May and ended in Kansas City, Missourim in the fall, made over $500m and attracted over 2.7 million concertgoers. Swift’s ongoing “Eras Tour,” with 151 dates, is expected to gross some $1.4bn.
Both Beyoncé and Swift chose to partner with AMC Theatres to distribute their films, as opposed to a traditional studio. Both superstars have been supportive of one another, making splashy appearances at the other’s premieres. Both had previously released films on Netflix (Miss Americana and Homecoming). And both are reported to be receiving at least 50% of ticket sales.
Movie tickets to the show were more expensive than average, around $23.32 versus Swift’s $20.78, according to data firm EntTelligence.
Critics and audiences gave Renaissance glowing reviews – it’s sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and got a coveted A+ CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences who were polled. EntTelligence also estimates that the audience, around 900,000 strong, skewed a little older than Swift’s.
“To have two concert films topping the chart in a single year is pretty unprecedented,” Dergarabedian said.
But to compare them too closely would be a mistake.
“Taylor Swift was a total outlier and the result of a very specific set of circumstances,” he said. “These two films are similar in genre only.”