A weekly film and box office newsletter. Howdy, folks! After last weekend's monumental box office run, in which Gen Z filmmakers Kane Parsons and Curry Barker toppled Star Wars, there was plenty of interest in what would happen this weekend. Spoiler alert: The numbers are pretty great across the board. Here are the highlights:
As for new releases, it's time for another installment of "what young people actually want to see." Paramount's "Scary Movie" reboot, the first installment in the franchise since 2013, topped the box office with $55 million — and it did so by hooking more than just millennials. Over 70% of the opening weekend audience was from the 18-34 demographic, with 62% under the age of 30. How about that? Amazon MGM's "Masters of the Universe," meanwhile, played mostly to Gen Xers with a disappointing $29.3 million domestic opening for the fantasy blockbuster and 59% of its audience over the age of 35. Just 6% of the audience was under the age of 18. Amazon MGM insists it's happy with that opening number — and the film will have downstream revenue on Digital and, eventually, as a Prime Video movie — but it feels like the writing is on the wall for leaning on IP that was popular in the 1980s, unless you have a huge creative swing to hook it on like Greta Gerwig did in "Barbie." As "Scary Movie," "The Devil Wears Prada 2" and the ongoing "Scream" franchise show, the new sweet spot for reliable IP is the late '90s or early 2000s. While some big-budget films ahead will certainly get young moviegoers' attention ("The Odyssey" and "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" will be massive), it's definitely been interesting to watch these low-to-mid-budget movies dominate the box office against pricey blockbusters the last couple of weeks. Now, on to the rest as we tackle the YouTube-to-Hollywood filmmaker pipeline, Cinemark's big stock pop, Netflix's "War Machine 2" and more in this week's newsletter. Adam Chitwood Be sure to follow me on my socials linked below for the latest updates. DMs are open for tips.    
Box Office: ‘Scary Movie’ Cruises to No. 1 With $105 Million Global OpeningParamount/Miramax’s “Scary Movie” is cruising to the top spot at the box office over Amazon MGM’s “Masters of the Universe,” earning $55 million from 3,490 locations, which is the highest for the horror movie parody series before inflation adjustment. Globally, the film has made $105 million for the weekend. Holding a reported production budget of just $30 million before marketing costs — all financed by Miramax — “Scary Movie” is an instant mid-budget theatrical success regardless of whether its full theatrical run is frontloaded or not. 72% of the opening weekend audience was from the 18-34 demographic, with 62% under the age of 30, showing that while millennial nostalgia was a major contributor, Gen Z... 
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