Really strong business at the box-office this week as two different waves ended-up crashing into each other: a particularly good weekend for the movies as a group activity & the first pressing of Cannes film fest releases as events on the Croisette are still underway.
**Three-Day Week3nd**
I stuck to my nautical metaphor before my goodness was the weather out for blood in most of continental France last week. Between storms in the south, hail in the north & continuous episodic rain & sunshine everywhere, the whole week was very unseasonal. What is usual for this time of year is that Thursday was another national holiday: add to that the sizeable cross-section of schools or businesses that also closed Friday to sweeten the deal, and suddenly families & students especially were left looking for a port to call in at. And it sure looks like the movies came out of the whole ordeal on top.
Family releases had an especially rousing weekend. On a microscopic level, even has-beens like *Hoppers* & *Marsupilami* made no less than a hero’s return, with a + 66 % & + 29 % bump respectively in a 100 or so locations. But moving on to the real meat of things: *Super Mario Galaxy* & *Michael*’s performance trended in a straight line from last week, with both managing a stellar -1%. The plumber needed the one-up especially bad in it’s race to 6.3M & this week makes that concept a bit more realistic. Meanwhile, if you’re following the meta-game, *Michael* has been in a one-to-one race of it’s own to outdo *La Vie en Rose*. The local Edith Piaf biopic that launched Marion Cotillard to superstardom was no slouch itself back in 2007, but compare it’s trend & the King of Pop’s and it’s clear that it’s record is about to be beaten. It’s total tickets sold in week 4 is 300k behind *Michael*, whose own total is now only 750k admissions from *La Vie en Rose*’s lifetime gross. I don’t think anybody would’ve predicted this level of response & it’s a real achievement for Universal. The podium for the first half of 2026 is looking pretty clear, but whereas *SMG* will have to settle for 2^(nd) or 3^(rd) place, *Michael* is the odds on favourite for 1^(st) if it continue it’s winning streak.
Those are the blockbusters, but the overall health of the industry doesn’t just come down to them. What about the rest? With half-a-dozen other films posting a WoW drop of about 20%, audiences clearly spread their love. *The Devil Wears Prada*, *Good Vibes Only*, *Just an Illusion*, *Primavera*, *Santiago:* *The Camino Therapy*, *Brawl*, *We’re the Orchestra*… This selection of diverse movies, both in origin & in their target audience was the workhorse this week. With 1,2M admissions between them, each one of these films is either past their break-even point or well on their way to do so.
Even the real losers of the week were able to weather the worst of it with 35-40% audience drop-off. *Mortal Kombat 2* & *Fuse* are among them & despite not atrocious numbers, I think it was out with the old & in with the new for the general audience. That brings me to *Obsession,* which in it’s release week managed 217k admissions despite a low number of locations. Though it missed out on 4^(th) place in the rankings in a photo finish, that’s still a very robust performance for a film where the consensus is that it’ll make you feel bad & weird out the normies (more so than even your typical elevated horror). Well, more people must be weirdos than you’d think, because the WOM is bonkers. With critics & audiences aligned on a 3,9/5 stars on Allociné, in a rare case of both groups agreeing when it comes to genre releases, *Obsession* has all the hallmarks of a grass-roots success with a surge in the late weekend carrying it through Monday & Tuesday.
I can only imagine it will end up with a solid multiplier between x3-x4. The rest of the year has been a slaughterhouse for B-movies. *The Bride!, Hokum, They Will Kill You* all opened below 50k admissions & genre luminaries left and right have been having their career-worst results at the national box-office (Bekmambetov, Raimi, Gans, Verbinski), leaving *Scream 7* & *The Mummy* as the only modest successes. Was it weak films or has genre lost one of it’s traditional strengths: livening-up slow times of year when the release schedule is in its doldrums? In this specific case, *Obsession* wisely switched-up on a terrible early poster & has (as with the rest of the European campaign) capitalised on the great critical reception it got in North & Latin America. After a slow start domestically, the film’s growing success online might have fuelled this & other later overseas openings.
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Really strong business at the box-office this week as two different waves ended-up crashing into each other: a particularly good weekend for the movies as a group activity & the first pressing of Cannes film fest releases as events on the Croisette are still underway.
**Three-Day Week3nd**
I stuck to my nautical metaphor before my goodness was the weather out for blood in most of continental France last week. Between storms in the south, hail in the north & continuous episodic rain & sunshine everywhere, the whole week was very unseasonal. What is usual for this time of year is that Thursday was another national holiday: add to that the sizeable cross-section of schools or businesses that also closed Friday to sweeten the deal, and suddenly families & students especially were left looking for a port to call in at. And it sure looks like the movies came out of the whole ordeal on top.
Family releases had an especially rousing weekend. On a microscopic level, even has-beens like *Hoppers* & *Marsupilami* made no less than a hero’s return, with a + 66 % & + 29 % bump respectively in a 100 or so locations. But moving on to the real meat of things: *Super Mario Galaxy* & *Michael*’s performance trended in a straight line from last week, with both managing a stellar -1%. The plumber needed the one-up especially bad in it’s race to 6.3M & this week makes that concept a bit more realistic. Meanwhile, if you’re following the meta-game, *Michael* has been in a one-to-one race of it’s own to outdo *La Vie en Rose*. The local Edith Piaf biopic that launched Marion Cotillard to superstardom was no slouch itself back in 2007, but compare it’s trend & the King of Pop’s and it’s clear that it’s record is about to be beaten. It’s total tickets sold in week 4 is 300k behind *Michael*, whose own total is now only 750k admissions from *La Vie en Rose*’s lifetime gross. I don’t think anybody would’ve predicted this level of response & it’s a real achievement for Universal. The podium for the first half of 2026 is looking pretty clear, but whereas *SMG* will have to settle for 2^(nd) or 3^(rd) place, *Michael* is the odds on favourite for 1^(st) if it continue it’s winning streak.
Those are the blockbusters, but the overall health of the industry doesn’t just come down to them. What about the rest? With half-a-dozen other films posting a WoW drop of about 20%, audiences clearly spread their love. *The Devil Wears Prada*, *Good Vibes Only*, *Just an Illusion*, *Primavera*, *Santiago:* *The Camino Therapy*, *Brawl*, *We’re the Orchestra*… This selection of diverse movies, both in origin & in their target audience was the workhorse this week. With 1,2M admissions between them, each one of these films is either past their break-even point or well on their way to do so.
Even the real losers of the week were able to weather the worst of it with 35-40% audience drop-off. *Mortal Kombat 2* & *Fuse* are among them & despite not atrocious numbers, I think it was out with the old & in with the new for the general audience. That brings me to *Obsession,* which in it’s release week managed 217k admissions despite a low number of locations. Though it missed out on 4^(th) place in the rankings in a photo finish, that’s still a very robust performance for a film where the consensus is that it’ll make you feel bad & weird out the normies (more so than even your typical elevated horror). Well, more people must be weirdos than you’d think, because the WOM is bonkers. With critics & audiences aligned on a 3,9/5 stars on Allociné, in a rare case of both groups agreeing when it comes to genre releases, *Obsession* has all the hallmarks of a grass-roots success with a surge in the late weekend carrying it through Monday & Tuesday.
I can only imagine it will end up with a solid multiplier between x3-x4. The rest of the year has been a slaughterhouse for B-movies. *The Bride!, Hokum, They Will Kill You* all opened below 50k admissions & genre luminaries left and right have been having their career-worst results at the national box-office (Bekmambetov, Raimi, Gans, Verbinski), leaving *Scream 7* & *The Mummy* as the only modest successes. Was it weak films or has genre lost one of it’s traditional strengths: livening-up slow times of year when the release schedule is in its doldrums? In this specific case, *Obsession* wisely switched-up on a terrible early poster & has (as with the rest of the European campaign) capitalised on the great critical reception it got in North & Latin America. After a slow start domestically, the film’s growing success online might have fuelled this & other later overseas openings.