'Drive-Away Dolls' Looking to Be Stuck In Park - Ticket Sales Tracking (2/19-2/22)

Hi,

I've been tracking ticket sales for movies recently at my two local NJ AMCs that do fairly well.

Last week, audiences were feeling the love as both Valentine's Day openers did better than expected. Blowing all expectations out of the water, Bob Marley: One Love's actuals got high to nearly double our $7.38M Wed prediction. Even the near-universally panned disaster Madame Web was able to outperform its $5.64M Wed opening. Not like it will be able to go much further, but Madame Web will forever live on now dearly in our hearts. While the Spider-Man spin-off may have avoided total disaster from its $80M budget over its 6-day opening, Bob Marley will certainly be rolling in the green against its modest $70M budget. Paramount is 2/2 this year !!

As we prepare for the release of the sandworms next week, we probably have the last quiet weekend for some time. After a writers/actors strike delay, Focus Features is finally releasing Drive Away Dollsafter a delay from its initial September 2023 date. Directed by only one Coen Brother, this quirky road trip romp is hoping to take on the wider indie audience with an all-star cast that can now be used for promoting the film. Will it have been worth the delay? As a fellow indie, comedic with a notable director, we will be using Asteroid City as a comp. I have recorded ticket sales for this Thursday and Friday for 3 Days. The green bars are how much ticket sales increased from day to day.

When Focus Features initially delayed DAD to this window, they must've been hoping for a better result that this. For Thursday, ticket sales have been expectedly unremarkable. While a healthy growth is at Theater 2 (a location better for the indie crowd), the sales for Theater 1 barely moved an inch. Currnetly, DAD is speeding towards a $.28M Thurs compared to AC. To be fair, it is opening Thursday on an original, indie title. It is no surprise audiences are not flocking out to the first showings for what they can quickly check out during the weekend. Still, this is not a confident start with theater capacities at M: 2.60% and EH: 10.39%. Even the demand is lower than AC, which had capacities at M: 19.79%and EH: 56.41%. With a notable name such as Coen as the director, one would think there would be a bigger drive, but that does not seem to be the case.

For Friday, things are looking to be even worse. Sales over the week have been severely backloaded, which would be fine if the tickets were not at almost 0. At this rate, DWD is looking at a $.45M Fricompared to AC. That is better than Thursday, but the cast and crew deserve better than this. Currently, the theater capacities are at M: 0.52% and EH: 3.36%. These are by no means stellar demands, but if Thursday is to teach us anything, there will be a strong surge day of. As expected, the capacities are lagging behind AC, with demands of M: 8.86% and EH: 6.17%. With Friday, you might expect more of a sales increase, and with AC as a deflated summer release, this is very possible.

Overall, Drive-Away Dolls is crawling towards a $.73M Th+F opening. For an original indie, this low outing does not come as a complete surprise, but it does beg to question if whether this would have done better in its pre-delayed slot. If this number holds, the weekend is looking at around $1.75M. No matter the budget, this is pretty dire of an outing. As a Coen title, this will have longevity on home media for years to come, but for now, it is coming to a complete stop before you could even say 'go'.

I have taken some suggestions to help make this post better. Please comment if you have anymore!

TL;DR:

Thursday: $.28M

Friday: $.45M - expect higher

Opening Day: $.73M