Film Earns Record $70 Million in a Week

“Depraved” is “very highly regarded” — on the massive display, and now on video-on-demand. In a uncommon show of transparency for downstream revenues, Common reported the big-budget musical has racked up $26 million in its first day and $70 million in its first week of digital launch in the US and Canada.

“Depraved” debuted on dwelling leisure on Dec. 31, for $30 to purchase and $20 to hire the unique or sing-along model of the movie. In line with the studio, the Broadway adaptation delivered the biggest first day and preliminary week of gross sales for any Common theatrical title. For comparability, the studio’s second-largest video-on-demand (VOD) launch was 2023’s “The Tremendous Mario Bros. Film,” with $44 million from its first week of digital leases and gross sales.

And Common expects the Oz-related riches to develop: “Depraved” nonetheless has greater than two months of exclusivity on dwelling leisure platforms earlier than the song-and-dance extravaganza might be out there on Peacock, the streaming service owned by its mother or father firm, NBCUniversal. Then there’s “Depraved: For Good,” which chronicles the Broadway present’s second act and opens in theaters a yr after the unique, on Nov. 21.

“Depraved: Half One” has already generated $682 million on the worldwide field workplace since launching in cinemas on Nov. 22. Although field workplace reporting is commonplace, downstream revenues like premium VOD are both seldom made public — or achieved so in an aggressively spun method.

Hollywood studios have conceded (after mass experimentation throughout the early days of COVID) {that a} theatrical launch is important for propelling a movie into the zeitgeist, and thus boosting ancillary revenues like PVOD. Executives at Common, for one, have publicly mentioned they view premium video-on-demand as complementary to, not a alternative of, theatrical. To wit: “Depraved” introduced in one other $10 million domestically in its eighth weekend on the massive display regardless of being in the stores or hire at dwelling. However digital platforms are interesting as a result of media firms get to maintain about 80% of on-line revenues in comparison with roughly 50% of field workplace returns. Within the case of “Depraved,” the studio obtained to maintain roughly 65% of field workplace ticket gross sales, in keeping with knowledgable sources.

Common has been essentially the most aggressive of conventional movie studios in experimenting with the theatrical window and discovering methods to optimize a film’s time on the massive display earlier than providing it to dwelling leisure shoppers. The studio broke trade precedent in March 2020 by deciding to launch “Trolls World Tour” concurrently on digital platforms and in cinemas (although none besides drive-in venues had been open on the time). After its first few weeks, on the top of COVID-related lockdown measures, Common estimated that 5 million individuals rented “Trolls World Tour,” producing roughly $100 million in gross sales. Since then, Common has settled on roughly 17 days of huge display exclusivity for smaller titles and after 5 weekends of launch for tentpoles (75 to 90 days of theatrical exclusivity had been customary previous to the pandemic) — with premium video-on-demand gross sales accounting for greater than $1.5 billion up to now. A faster pivot to the small display additionally permits the studio to avoid wasting on advertising {dollars}.

Jon M. Chu directed the PG-rated “Depraved,” which stars Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Bailey. Set earlier than, throughout and after the occasions of “The Wizard of Oz,” the story tells the origins of Grande’s Galinda (later referred to as Glinda the Good) and Erivo’s Elphaba (finally dubbed the Depraved Witch of the West) earlier than Dorothy landed in Oz and sauntered down the Yellow Brick Street. It turned the sixth-highest grossing film of 2024 and largest Broadway adaptation in field workplace historical past.

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