It’s the most wonderful time of the year to be a theatrical release.
via: Deadline
We’re still waiting on official numbers, but Warner Bros wound up owning Christmas with its trifecta of Aquaman 2, Wonka and The Color Purple respectively in the top three spots. Speaking of The Color Purple, it came up big — much bigger than expected on its first day with an estimated $18.1M, A CinemaScore, 5 stars and 92% positive. That haul was enough for Color Purple to win Christmas Day ahead of Aquaman 2 ($10.6M) and Wonka ($10.4M). As of right now that ties with the first Christmas day of Universal’s feature take on West End/Broadway musical Les Miserables which went on to ultimately make $148.8M. Are musicals dead on the big screen? Absolutely not, they just need to be excellent.
Aquaman 2 looks to be coming in at $38.3M for the 4-day, and Wonka with $28.7M.
Diversity demos on the Oprah Winfrey-Steven Spielberg produced Color Purple were 65% Black, 19% Caucasian, 11% Hispanic and Latino and 2% Asian. We always knew presales were big, especially in the South, with projections for Christmas Day raising from $8M to $10M-$12M. But yesterday was amazing. Older folks may have taken a longer time to return to cinemas post Covid, but they came back big with Color Purple‘s largest demo being those over 55 at 25%; they also gave the Blitz Bazawule directed movie its best grades at 97%. Women over 25 turned out at 62% (94% grade), followed by guys over 25 at 21% (86%), women under 25 at 14% (91%) with guys under 25 a far distant at 4% (89%).
