Thursday Night Previews: Burnt Out

October 30, 2015

Burnt

Two of the three wide releases had Thursday previews, with Burnt having the bigger of the two films' launches. Bigger is a relative term. It only managed $250,000 during its previews, which is bad news. Its bad news for the studio, as this doesn't bode well for its box office chances. It is also bad new for me, because this is so low it is hard to find other films to compare it with. It is about 10% lower than The Green Inferno, which is about as close a match as I could find, but those two films share almost none of their respective audiences. The Intern is a closer match as far as audiences are concerned. That film earned $650,000 during its previews on its way to a $24.90 million opening weekend. Burnt has worse reviews, so it likely won't have the same internal multiplier. Even so, it should make between $7 million and $9 million, which is a little higher than predicted, but not enough to keep the studio happy.

Meanwhile, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse reported $140,000 during its "midnight showings". (The movie industry has re-defined "midnight" to start as early a 7:00 pm, much in the same way it re-defined "summer" to start during the first weekend of May.) This is barely more than half of what The Green Inferno managed ($275,000) and just a fraction of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension ($600,000) or The Last Witch Hunter ($525,000). Maybe it will bounce back, but it is more likely its opening weekend will be a disaster.

Filed under: Midnight Previews, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, The Green Inferno, The Intern, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Burnt, The Last Witch Hunter