‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ Sees $575K, ‘Amsterdam’ $550K – Box Office Previews

Not exactly the flashiest of Thursday nights for previews as Sony’s feature take of the classic children’s book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile saw $575K off showtimes that began at 3PM in 3,453 locations while New Regency/20th Century Studios/Disney’s Amsterdam baked $550K off previews that began at 6PM in 3,005 locations.

Here’s the thing, sometimes studios with family movies don’t even hold previews outside of summer. There were only 15% K-12 schools out yesterday. Sony didn’t hold previews for the first Peter Rabbit which debuted in February 2018, but held them for Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway which did $900K on June 10 last year at 2,572 theaters. Lyle, Lyle‘s numbers are above that of Paddington 2, which did $325K, another live action-CGI hybrid based on a classic kid’s book back in January 2018. Lyle, Lyle, is also higher than the $175K cashed in from 8PM showtimes of the first Paddington in January 2015. It all comes down to Saturday matinee business and Sony is betting low on Lyle, Lyle at $11M-$12M, while industry estimates are much higher between $15M-$18M. Sony put the movie here because it’s the Indigenous People holiday weekend and 42% of all K-12 schools are off Monday per ComScore. Lyle, Lyle is 67% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Disney was hoping that David O. Russell’s absurdist period comedy would do around $10M. It might be in the high single digits if business doesn’t pick up; and the movie has all the Imax screens. The pic’s previews are head of the Bob Odenkirk R-rated action movie Nobody which did $410K on its Thursday before filing a $6.8M opening, and they’re below Michael Bay’s Ambulance which saw $700K in its preview night before a $8.6M opening. Amsterdam is suffering from bad reviews at 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch, this is an $80M movie, twice as much as Russell’s American Hustle which boasted the star power of Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.

Taylor Swift, who also stars in Amsterdam, is doing her part to get the Swifties out to see the film:

Paramount’s Smile had a rich week with weekday grosses averaging $2M+ at 3,645 theaters. Thursday was $2.1M, off 13% from Wednesday bringing the horror movie’s first week total to $32.29M, 21% off from the first week of Bullet Train which did $41M in its first seven days. Yeah, odd comp, but it just goes to show you the power of Smile, the fact that it’s $8.7M off from a Brad Pitt action movie. Smile is expected to do around $11M in weekend 2.

New Line’s Don’t Worry Darling finishes second on Thursday with $555K at 4,121 theaters, -13% from Wednesday, a 2nd week of $9.5M and running total of $34.97M.

TriStar’s The Woman King at 3,504 theaters did $506K, -17%, for a $9.1M 3rd week and running total of $48.8M.

Popping into 4th place with a full-on opening yesterday at 886 sites was Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2 which did $403,9K. Logline for the Leone penned movie: After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the timid town of Miles County where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night. The sequel is being handled by Iconic Events Releasing.

Universal’s Billy Eichner comedy Bros did $380K at 3,350 theaters for 5th Thursday, and a $6.74M first week at 3,350 theaters.