“Send Help” Box-Office Is Remarkably Steady

While much of the attention on the box-office is all about the newcomers like “Wuthering Heights” and “Crime 101” this weekend, it’s one of the still in cinemas titles that’s really raising eyebrows.

Sam Raimi’s survival thriller “Send Help” is in its third weekend at the box-office and was removed from 500 screens on Friday, reducing its footprint to 3,500 to around 3,000 screens. Yet, something unusual is happening.

The film launched January 30th to an opening weekend of $19.1 million. That fell to $9 million in its second weekend – a drop of around 53% which isn’t bad for this kind of title and was impacted by the Super Bowl.

For the President’s Day weekend, its Friday-Sunday haul was expected to be good – a fall of maybe 40%. Instead, the film is on track to earn $8.97 million for the three-day period and $10.7 million for the four-day period in fourth place. That means a third weekend drop-off of just 0.9%.

It’s an essentially unheard of miniscule drop for a wide release horror film, especially one in its third weekend and still doing millions in business. The loss of 500 screens hasn’t had any real impact other than increasing the per-screen average by around 16% – meaning the cinemas that are remaining are more filled. It’s also a specifically North American phenomenon as the film’s international drop-off in its third weekend was 50%.

By end of Sunday, the film is looking to end up with a $74 million worldwide haul so far and on track to end its run with around $90-110 million – a very good result for a film with a $40 million budget. Reviews for the film were excellent, and audience scores have been great which partly explains why the film’s business is still going strong.

It also marks yet another mid-budget R-rated thriller alongside “The Housemaid” shown to have strong business beyond the usual first two weeks, and makes a case for films staying in the theatrical window for longer.

Source: Secom