Queen Bey got the weekend off to a hot start.
“Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” a concert film written, directed and produced by the singer, earned $5.1 million in previews on Thursday, beating expectations. The film is projected to earn between $17 million to $20 million in its opening weekend from approximately 2,539 domestic locations. But “Renaissance” is a global event, with the concert movie debuting in 94 international territories — a collection of markets that includes the U.K., South Africa and Australia. Globally, the film should bring in between $30 million to $40 million.
It’s a solid result even if it can’t match the year’s other notable concert film, Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” which opened with $92 million domestically last October. That movie has gone on to earn $250 million worldwide. Both artists opted not to partner with a major studio to release their film in theaters. Instead, they’ve joined forces with AMC Theatres, the world’s largest exhibition chain, to bring their sold-out concerts to an even wider audience. It stands to be a very lucrative experiment for Beyoncé, who takes half of box office earnings, with exhibitors keeping the remaining ticket sales. For its troubles, AMC will earn a distribution fee, though not the kind of percentage of revenues that a standard studio would demand and receive.
It could be a tight race for first place at the box office charts, as “Renaissance” will have to hold off “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” as it tries to grab the crown. The “Hunger Games” prequel is in its third weekend of release.
The other major new debut, Lionsgate’s “Silent Night,” is expected to open between $6 million to $8 million after earning $250,000 in previews. John Woo, the action maestro behind “Face/Off” and “The Killer,” directed the film, which stars Joel Kinnaman as a man looking to avenge his son’s death. The gimmick here is that all that carnage unfolds with zero dialogue.