‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Earns $2.6 Million at Thursday Box Office
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“Killers of the Flower Moon” began its global theatrical run with $2.6 million in Thursday previews. The $200 million-budgeted, 3.5-hour crime epic comes from Apple Original Films, with Paramount supplying a conventional pre-streaming theatrical release. If it plays like a normal film in terms of Thursday-to-weekend math, it’ll end the Friday-Sunday frame with around $26 million. Its length and adult appeal mean we could see more casual viewership this weekend and over the long haul.
Pre-release projections have been in the $25-$35 million range, partially because Leonardo DiCaprio is among Hollywood’s last unmitigated butts-in-seats movie stars. However, Paramount is hoping that rave reviews and a likely-to-be-strong showing at the Oscars will result in strong post-debut legs. It’s also among the most explicitly commercial year-end Oscar contenders on the docket for the remainder of 2023. This despite being a long and grim drama about how greedy, racist white men slaughtered members of the Osage tribes to get their oil-rich reservation land. Once again, DiCaprio is the last of his kind.
With that $200 million price tag, “Killers of the Flower Moon” would have to pull earnings on par with “The Revenant” ($533 million in 2015/2016) to become profitable in theaters. The math may take a backseat due to the film’s existence as a prestige title funded by a tech company. As such, rate of return won’t be the core definition of success for this film.
Rather, success will be measured in money earned in theaters, Academy Award nominations (including Lily Gladstone) and streaming viewership. Like Amazon’s theatrical release of “Air,” the perception of success — along with strong viewership on the respective streaming platform — will be more important than dollars and cents.
This skewed math will be replicated with Apple’s Sony-distributed “Napoloean” next month. It also personifies the streaming era. It’s less about cash-in-hand profit and more about the appearance of success. Does Apple shelling out $200 million for a new Martin Scorsese-directed and DiCaprio-starring epic make Apple look “good”?
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