Sydney Sweeney May have amazing jeans, but she doesn’t have a good month. Her latest movie, Tony Tost’s Neo Western ”Amerana“Had that kind of opening weekend on Cash office This means that relaxed observers think something is seriously wrong.
The film only made an estimated $ 500,000 during their opening weekend through LionsgateGood for 19th place in the week among domestic emissions. With the studio that opened the film slightly wide on over 1,100 screens across the country (that’s an average per screen of $ 436), and to spend $ 3 million to acquire it out of SXSW back in 2023That is what we in the industry generally call “not good.”
But Lionsgate does not lose sleep (although Sweeney still thinks about the ad campaigns she chooses). In fact, the studio believes that “Americana” will make a simple profit when everything is said and done.
We have heard the studio spin before: Box Office Opening Weekend is not what it used to be, and these movies are designed to make a win while we watch the long game by putting it on Pvod and licenses it to a streamer. It is usually the logic we hear when we are convinced that the audience does not have super -hero fatigue.
While there Were not enough spins in the world to save Lionsgate’s “borderlands,” Lionsgate is in another boat compared to other large studios. Despite Sweeney’s star power, “Americana” is not in the same category as one of the studio’s large tent poles, although it has another of those as the lead role Sweeney, “Housekeeper”, coming out this ChristmasSo we can have a different conversation then.
Part of what makes Lionsgate unique to other studios is that Lionsgate, in addition to the two or three franchisees and a dozen other editions, post as many as 30 to 40 small films per year with limited marketing and a more targeted push during its Lionsgate premiere banner. Some of them go direct-to-streaming, as an upcoming Netflix movie called “War Machine”, and others open in theaters and on digital day and date or after a 17-day theater window.
Some of the more successful latest examples are “Sisu” or “Fall”, each earned $ 7.2 million in domestic. There are many more you probably haven’t heard of.
“Americana” fits into that business model, and as IndieWire has learned, as many as 95 percent of these films do Turn a win after they have run their course in theaters, Pvod and Svod. When it comes to this movie, the Lionsgate acquired movie for $ 3 million, but it also licensed “Americana” internationally, so the studio holds only the bag in about half of it, or in the $ 1.5 million ball park. The film’s marketing-some of the theatrical trailers, most of the digital, or to get Sweeney to post on her Instagram next to photos of her in head-to-to-denim-take about another $ 3 million.
Time for a little back of napkin matic: The studio expects the film, from this point, to Ben out to about $ 1.5 million in theaters (do not forget exhibitors will take half of that cash office), but it also expects to take in a few million from home entertainment, pay-1 license to a streamer that Starz (now span by Lion Net) Or internationally. Or internationally.
Turning on as many as 1,100 screens even helps to create awareness along the way. And if a movie like this one day appears on Netflix’s top 10, it can even get a small economic boost, but it is unclear what Lionsgate’s business is in that respect. When everything is said and done (when it is), “Americana” can look at a profit of about $ 1.5 million, which turns out to be more or less by design.
But let’s not confuse “americana” to be a here. In an ideal world, “Americana” would have a last cash office at least twice of what it is now expected to reach, and that would also the profit. Like “Sisu”, which also opened wider and got a richer marketing push, the studio believed that “Americana” had a little upward, what about Sweeney of everything. And unlike most of its titles that get a 17-day window, “Americana” will be in theaters exclusively for 30 days.
It is certainly not what the film’s financiers, the bridge, had in mind when “Americana” was originally produced for about $ 9 million. Part of the reason why the film has been on the shelf for two years since it was first opened on SXSW in 2023 is due to the bridge later that year declaring bankruptcy. Honestly, it is lucky that this movie was released at all.
But Lionsgate is pretty good at getting associated business from home entertainment and digital editions, tending to over the index compared to what other studios can bring at home. You tend to watch action movies and genre films do particularly well after its theater driving, a large part of the reason why Lionsgate continues to make films with Jason Statham or Gerard Butler.
But doing this one-by-you/one-for-dem model also holds Lionsgate in good graces with someone like Sweeney when they want to work with her again for “The Housemaid.” And American Eagle Controvers is condemned, an overwhelming box office opening will not make Sweeney a smaller bank bar star.
