Variety’s Rebecca Rubin notes the $35 million earned in six weeks by Daniel Kwan’s and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. The film stars Michelle Yeoh and so far is only living in actual theaters. It has created enough word of mouth, however, to bring in audiences in a surprising way.
The film’s budget was only $25 mil, so it has already made a profit. For comparison, let’s look at (domestic) box office for the ten Best Picture contenders last year, even after the Oscars:
Dune — $108 million
Belfast — $39 million
West Side Story — $38 million
Everything Everywhere — $35 million
Licorice Pizza — $17 million
King Richard — $15 million
Nightmare Alley — $11 million
Drive My Car — $2 million
Coda (Winner) — $1.6 million (N/A Apple)
The Power of the Dog — N/A (Netflix)
Don’t Look Up — N/A (Netflix)
The article says:
David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, says the box office milestone points to one truth: “There’s still plenty of room for well-produced, original, creatively-told stories on the big screen.”
He adds, “Platforms have never been easy and I don’t think that will change — they will remain rare. But when a movie is compelling enough, audiences will find that movie and platforming works.”
It’s hard to know what will bring people to the movies. Friend of the site Michael Grei’s 90-year-old mother just went to the movies for the first time in 50 years or so to see Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story. People will come, Ray. They just have to have a good enough reason.
When it comes to the Oscars, however, we have to wonder what kind of year this is going to be and how the financials will shake out.
When the shift to streaming first began. Netflix was way ahead of the curve. However, they recently seem to have been caught off guard somewhat when COVID coincided with the splashy debuts of streaming platforms that could showcase studio blockbusters. Streaming seemed a good fit for Oscar movies, or art films, or adult films that are no longer playing in theaters (and still don’t appear to be making money, at least for now). But with the big blockbusters landing on streaming sites now like HBOMax or Disney+, it seems that the market has changed once again. That tells me (and I don’t know anything about anything) that Netflix should go bigger, not smaller. They should go with big budget effects films that might not be aimed at the Oscar race but are aimed at attracting a wider audience.
That would be my best guess about how that landscape has been altered. Big budget movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home have no problem attracting audiences to theaters. Everyone went to see that movie — it has made a whopping $800 million domestically. That is insane.
They did that without even being released in China. It should be noted that China’s box office is doing much better than ours here in the US and that’s mainly due to their own homegrown films, not American films. If you put that together with TikTok’s popularity, you see China is kind of kicking our ass in many different ways.
At any rate, that Everything Everywhere All at Once is considered a box office success for an “art film.” It shows there is at least some interest in turning out to see a movie if it isn’t also offered on streaming if it is interesting enough.
Therefore, onto the Contender Tracker it goes. Our first Oscar contender for the year. I have to thank Scott Kernen for nudging me to note the film as a Best Picture contender, though I was dragging my feet on that until I actually saw it, which I will do soon.
Off topic – But I think Andrew Garfield is going to win a consolation Oscar (some call it an Emmy) for Best Actor in a Limited Series. He’s just plain exceptional in Under the Banner of Heaven on Hulu.
Of course, just released today, Colin Firth overacts enough to launch any nominating committee into space on HBO’s The Staircase.
since 2013 every screenplay winner in both original and adapted ( well the father was cowritten to be fair ) was won by someone who never won an oscar category a mix between veterans and newbies
Thank you for giving steam to this film! Can we create a campaign around it and not stop talking about it until Oscar season? Michelle Yeoh for best actress!
between women talking , she said and the son who do you think will stand a better chance at winning adapted screenplay ?
Since half of the boxoffice stays in the theater, the movie’s $25 mio production plus the marketing budget (another $20 mio at least) needs grosses of $90 mio to break even. Which it surely wont do.
Fantastic movie, btw.
It is doing something that no film is doing–moving up in numbers from week to week or staying around the same in terms of numbers. It’s still worth noting that the numbers are looking good for the small budget film. Even if it doesn’t make it all back in theaters, it will do well on demand and get another boost come oscar season if it gets nominations.
also, it is currently number 3 at the daily box office surpassing Fantastic Beasts. It’s only going up, so we will see what happens.
I say give it a best pic nom and some others. We’ll earned.
Belfast didn’t make that much domestically, which is how the others are tracked I believe.
Picture, Director, Michelle Yeoh, Editing for sure, Costumes,
Turner Networks to Screen Actors Guild awards: Nice knowing you; 2022 is the last year we televise your show. Another victim of the WB/Discovery merger.
https://deadline.Com/2022/05/tnt-tbs-no-longer-air-screen-actors-guild-awards-sag-1235016113/
Turner had televised the SAGs since 1998. “Warner Bros. Discovery has pledged to deliver $3 billion in cost savings from the deal, and the end of the SAG Awards comes as the conglomerate is examining the newly acquired assets, with TNT and TBS pulling away from new scripted development.”
The TBS series Kill The Orange-Faced Bear with Damon Wayans Jr. was canned a week before production started – the first (but not the last?) big decision to kill a WarnerMedia entertainment project following the completion of Discovery’s acquisition.
Also out: SAG show exec producer (since 1995, when it debuted on NBC) Kathy Connell, she’ll be replaced by Jon Brockett.
Acting nominations are definitely in the conversation already for 2022 for this film. Jamie Lee Curtis! She was hysterically funny and delivers a career-best performance. And, of course, Michelle Yeow, who was so wonderful years ago in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and in “Last Christmas” a year ago. And if “Everything Everywhere All at Once” doesn’t at least garner a nomination for Peter Rogers in film editing, that branch of the Academy can just throw away their membership card. Outstanding editing. Also, James Hong is a contender for Best Supporting Actor (he is such an underrated actor). I love it when thespians perform a role just by using facial expression. James Hong is an acting master of his craft. I also thought the costumes were fantastically”way out there” (think costumes from “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” as a reference point). Anyway, I really liked the movie . . . totally original and, surprisingly, very moving during the denouement.
Good points about the editing and the costumes.
… by the way, “Weird” trailer is out there and Daniel Radcliffe seems to embodied Weird Al Yankovic really well. GG Comedy/Musical alert, but I doubt this would be AMPAS’ cup of tea…
Film was good. I hope Michelle Yeoh gets nominated for Best Actress!
Nah, it’s a clusterfuck.
I dont know what else we will see in 2022 but OMG that film blew me away in so many different ways. The direction, the editing, the production, the acting the fight choreographies. But the b*tt plugs and that stuff made me thing that it is too crazy and open-minded for Oscar voters. If they can connect emotionally and respect the vision of the directors then maybe we have a chance to see it in the top oscar 10. Fingers crossed!
I’m quite impressed by the movie, but I think the butt plugs were a mistake. Graphic, not funny.
Definitely it was a mistake.
Dont just underestimate the creativity and the thought behind this great idea. I thought it was hysterically funny! I liked the idea but i can see why some people may find a problem with this!
I appreciated it more the second time I saw it. The first time was confusing in places.
Good to know. Because as much as I admire the film and enjoyed aspects of it greatly … it was WAY too much for me to take-all-in the first time.
It is undoubtedly a Best Pic contender and undoubtedly should be. I tell anyone that will listen to go see it. Most have never heard of it. Most go see it. Those that I’ve told to see it and do see it love it. Several have actually said it’s a top 5 movie for them. Ever.
it could win screenplay but i want kushner to win smth
I wasn’t a fan of the film. I thought it started out super strong but it all became too much with no chance to breathe. But Yeoh was fantastic.
I loved After Yang though. That film was fantastic.
Been meaning to check After Yang out, thanks for the push!
After Yang was lovely.
It’s a sad state of affairs that we’re counting $35M box office as a win, but it’s a worthy contender. I’ve been trying my darndest to lobby friends and family to see it.
Not happening.
Yes, because we all know there’s a threshold that a film has to gross to win Best Picture.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b446951a1bde9e2de4d9f227b8087d84a4fddc8aa646740bc3bbc2d8410a41be.gif
I wonder why they leave out of the tracker the best narrative of the cast, Ke Huy Quan… I am thinking he’s even more likely than Yeoh, because Yeoh probably can’t win, but Quan, can.
I hope there’s a reasonable scenario for both of them to win. My review of EEAAO is here:
https://moviestruck.substack.com/
Because Sasha has likely not seen it yet. You really should if you haven’t yet! It’s somethin else.