‘Honest Thief’ Continues To Lead Lackluster Pandemic Box Office, ‘Empty Man’ Tripped By Holdovers

Entertainment social media analytics corporation RelishMix says, “The campaign on social for 20th’s The Empty Man dropped just one week ago on Oct. 16.  Any normal campaign for an indie, one-off high concept or awards contender will obviously drop at least two months out — at the latest.” I understand that a major studio wants to save on P&A with the lights turned off in LA and NYC. However, let’s at least provide some oomph if we’re putting a big screen release out there. Empty Man debuted in 4th this past weekend to $1.265M at 2,027 venues, behind Open Road’s second weekend of reigning Liam Neeson action thriller Honest Thief, which grossed $2.35M, 101 Studio’s The War With Grandpa, which made $1.88M in its third weekend in No. 2, and Warner Bros.’ ninth weekend of Tenet, which made $1.3M at 1,801 locations.

Video views for Empty Man on the 20th Facebook page were low heading into the weekend at 20K, with YouTube lightly boosted views were under 700K. Nothing to scream about. RelishMix observes that there weren’t any notable marketing materials for Empty Man. 

The movie, based on the Boom! Studios graphic novel, follows a retired cop who is looking into a group of teens who are disappearing mysteriously from a small Midwestern town. The locals believe it is the work of an urban legend known as The Empty Man. As the retired cop investigates, he discovers a secretive group and their attempts to summon a horrific, mystical entity, and soon his life—and the lives of those close to him—are in grave danger. Pic was directed and adapted by David Prior.

Social Media chatter for Empty Man was largely negative, with the movie being compared to The Bye Bye Man, The Slender Man, The Candyman.

Empty Man stars The Kissing Booth franchise star Joel Courtney, who counts a social media reach across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter of 7.3M, and there’s nothing about Empty Man which can be found on his social media channels. James Badge Dale, the pic’s lead, counts 23K on Instagram and only posted this, below…

FULL STORY: https://deadline.com/2020/10/honest-thief-empty-man-after-we-collided-weekend-box-office-1234602930/