‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Steals Box Office Rhythm Away From ‘In The Heights’
Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II in its third weekend has beaten Warner Bros. highly-publicized Jon M. Chu-directed, Lin-Manuel Miranda musical In the Heights for the top spot at the weekend box office, $11.7M to $11.4M. It is a defeat no one really saw coming. A Quiet Place Part II‘s domestic running B.O. stands at $109M.
As one rival marketing exec told me this weekend, “Warner Bros. was everywhere with In the Heights. Everywhere I turned, on every network, there was an ad.” And that’s not a ding to the Burbank, CA lot; it’s what a filmmaker wants, especially on a diversity project such as In the Heights, with a fresh- faced cast: They want to know that the studio truly has their best intentions and their backs. Warner Bros. supported In the Heights this weekend. Unfortunately, it was the audience who did not.
On social, RelishMix saw a social media universe for In the Heights of 115.6M across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. By comparison, La La Land, which platformed-out for nominations, was only at 48.9M at opening. In The Heights had seven owned video materials, which were cross-promoted across Warners YouTube channels around the globe, including the UAE, Europe, Latin America, and soundtrack videos on the Atlantic Records channel, too. Activity popped from the Tribeca world premiere in Washington Heights and as the cast made the talk show rounds, noting a big “Broadway’s Back” performance on Jimmy Fallon with Lin-Manuel cross promoting In The Heights.
RelishMix noticed a huge push, of course, from the In the Heights’ cast, who were “well-activated and the driving force across social media tracking back over a year from before the pause.” Stephanie Beatriz led the charge with 3.1M fans/followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, along with Leslie Grace 2.5M, Anthony Ramos 1.8M, Miranda 1.8M, Ariana Greenblatt 1.9M, Dascha Polanco 930K, Melissa Barrera 817K — as well as super-activated helmer Chu with 813K fans.
Similar to the social media push to turn Black Panther into an event for African American moviegoers, and Crazy Rich Asians a must-see for Asian American audiences, there’s a #LatinxGoldOpen hashtag going around for In the Heights, with tastemakers holding screenings, according to RelishMix. Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding posted on Facebook:
We could all use a little song and a whole lotta dancing right now, which is why I’m throwing an @intheheightsmovie virtual block party this Thursday 6/10 at 7 PM EST over at @oprahdaily! The magnificent cast is joining me for a chat, music, and games. Tap the link in my bio or head over to OprahDaily.com/intheheights to register for FREE!
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway: Peter Rabbit SMU social reach climbs back from the re-date pause a year ago to at 157.2M across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube which and under the norm for family animated but the top trailer is well boosted to 11M views on YouTube and 8.5M views for the top boosted trailer on Facebook and a solid official Facebook page for the franchise with 279K fans with a well accelerated posting cadence.
Chatter for family films is always dicey as little kids are not the ones commenting and parents are onboard or not and most connected on Facebook. Streaming potential and fan reluctance to attend theatrically with unvaccinated kids is a topic. Mixed-mentions of the Peter Rabbit brand, franchise, James Corden as Peter and other notes must be taken with a grain of salt while noticing that key studio fed videos have comments turned off as do Disney and Universal family films.