EXCLUSIVE: Getting a leg-up here on our Thanksgiving stretch preview, Apple Studios production of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon will invade the global box office via Sony this Wednesday, in what’s shaping up to be a $46M WW global start.
Split up for the Wednesday-Sunday stretch, that’s $22M 5-day domestic, and $24M overseas.
Note, it’s not the only wide release over the holiday: There’s Disney’s animated movie Wish, which we’ll tell you more about early next week and there’s the second weekend of everything that’s bowing today: Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Trolls Band Together, Thanksgiving and Next Goal Wins.
Napoleon, starring Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, is on a 45 day-theatrical window, we hear, before it hits Apple TV+.
We’re told the comp here both domestic and stateside is Scott’s House of Gucci which launched over the 2021 5-day Thanksgiving holiday worldwide when Covid was still top of mind for moviegoers. That Lady Gaga-Adam Driver-Al Pacino-Jared Leto movie in unadjusted for inflation overseas grosses did $12.8M and another $22M in U.S./Canada for a $34.1M global start. Big territories for House of Gucci were Scott’s homeland of the UK ($3.4M opening), France ($1.9M), followed by Mexico at a near $1M.
Napoleon will invade 85% of offshore territories with major territories Belgium, France and the UK going on Nov. 22; Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Netherlands on Nov. 23; and Spain on Nov. 24. China opens on Dec. 1 along with Japan. South Korea will go on Dec. 6.
Stateside, previews begin Tuesday at 3PM in 2,700 sites for the movie which also stars Vanessa Kirby as Napoleon’s wife Josephine. Pic will expand to 3,300 by Wednesday and will screen in Imax, PLFs and select locations in 70MM. Napoleon is currently trending with older guys over 35, followed by males 17-34 and then women over 35. Rotten Tomatoes for Napoleon stand at 67% fresh.
Killers of the Flower Moon, which repped streamer Apple’s foray into wide theatrical releases with Paramount, had a $44M global debut and a $23.2M domestic opening over 3-days back in October in the thick of the actors’ strike. RT critics score notched 93% certified fresh. While the cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemmons and Lily Gladstone put in facetime at the Cannes Film Festival World premiere, it’s only now that they’re fully out there after an entire summer and fall off with the SAG-AFTRA standoff with AMPTP over. The current running total stateside on Killers of the Flower Moon is $61.6M and $138.8M worldwide.
A big difference to look out for in grosses between the two Apple movies is that Killers of the Flower Moon is 3 1/2 hours long, which crimps the number of showtimes, while Napoleon clocks in at 2 hours and 38 minutes. It won’t come as a shock if the latter grosses more.