The North American film market last weekend was still calm, with a total box office of about 71 million US dollars, a slight decrease compared to the previous weekends, mainly due to the dual factors of the lack of blockbuster new films and the intense battle of the NFL playoffs The impact of this time-every year at this time, many American families choose to stay at home on weekends to watch rugby players hit me, so it has always been an off-season for the movie market. It is worth mentioning that "The Wandering Earth 2", which is being screened in China, has also been released in North America, and its box office performance and reputation are better than the first one.

Seven weeks after its release, "Avatar: Way of Water" still has no rivals. The film's current North American total box office has accumulated to 620 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office has 2.12 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected to surpass "Titanic" ($2.19 billion), also directed by James Cameron, and rank among the top three in box office history. list.

"Infinity Pool" poster

In terms of new films, the highly anticipated Canadian film "Infinity Pool" (Infinity Pool) was released in 1,835 theaters, but it only got 2.72 million US dollars at the weekend box office, which is not very satisfactory. Since its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, the film has received unanimous praise from the media, and it still maintains a high rating of 88% on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes". Producer Neon Pictures also used a lot of publicity on social media. The film was originally rated as NC-17 by the MPA (audience aged 17 and under are not allowed to enter the venue), but after re-editing, it barely obtained the restricted (R) rating news, which became the selling point of the film for a while. one.

"Infinity Pool" has an 88% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but only 52% audience rating

"Infinity Pool" is written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg. He is the son of the famous Canadian director David Cronenberg. The overall evaluation is average, but there are also remarkable points. This time "Infinity Pool" is starring Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard, who is well-known in Hollywood, and the new generation of horror movie goddess Mia Goss. The story tells the story of a young and wealthy couple on an island vacation accidental encounter. The film is considered to be Brandon Cronenberg's most mature work since the film. However, it seems that the market has not yet fully accepted non-traditional horror films like "Infinity Pool", which has a slight literary tendency. The audience's praise on "Rotten Tomatoes" is only 52%.

The secret agent action film "Pathaan" from India was released in 694 theaters in North America over the weekend, and received a box office of nearly 6 million US dollars. Starring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, the film is regarded by the media as a well-regulated popcorn commercial film with Indian characteristics.

In addition, the gospel film "Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist" and the Chinese film "The Wandering Earth 2" were released in 1,362 theaters and 160 theaters in North America respectively, each receiving $2.36 million With a weekend box office of 1.35 million US dollars, it ranked ninth and tenth on the North American box office list last weekend. It is worth mentioning that "The Wandering Earth 2" has a "Rotten Tomatoes" film critic rating of 79%, surpassing the 70% of the first film.

"The Wandering Earth 2" has a "Rotten Tomatoes" rating of 79%, surpassing the 70% of the first film

In the past, at this time of year, with the announcement of the Oscar nominations, the relevant film companies often arrange for those nominated works to expand the screening scale, or return to the theaters from the state of being down. In this way, on the one hand, it is taking advantage of the trend to harvest a wave of box office, and on the other hand, it is also creating momentum for the "Olympic Games". Things are a little different this year. Continuing the general trend of the past period of time, American audiences have almost completely lost interest in such "Olympic" works. Of the ten films nominated for best picture, only "Avatar: Way of Water" was in the weekend's top ten at the box office. Over the weekend, 13 films in theaters received various Oscar nominations for the year, but if Avatar: The Way of Water with four nods and Puss in Boots 2 , which was nominated for best animated feature, are excluded Outside the box office, the remaining 11 works together only got a weekend box office of 6 million US dollars, accounting for more than 8% of the total weekend box office in North America.

Among these films, the best situation is "The Instant Universe" produced by A24 Pictures. After receiving 11 Oscar nominations, the film, which has been out of production since the beginning of October last year, returned to more than 1,400 theaters across the United States last weekend and won a weekend box office of 1 million US dollars, showing its strong vitality.

Stills of "Women Talk"

In addition, "Women's Conversation", which was nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, expanded its screening scale from more than 100 theaters to 700 theaters last weekend, and it also won $1 million over the weekend. box office. The rest of the nominated works, such as "The House of Dreams", "The Banshee of Inisherin", "Tal" and "Desire to Live" also expanded the screening scale to varying degrees last weekend, but the box office increased Neither is ideal. Also, "To Leslie", which was accidentally nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars and was pushed to the forefront of public opinion, re-entered a total of ten theaters across the United States last weekend, and only got a weekend box office of 4,000 US dollars. Pretty bleak. For comparison, the Belgian film Intimacy, which was nominated for an Oscar for best international film, premiered in four theaters across the United States last weekend and grossed $68,000 in three days.

On the other hand, the Hollywood union passed an agreement on January 27 to maintain the epidemic prevention and control norms until April 1 this year. Based on the regulations, the actors and crew involved in the actual filming still need to undergo nucleic acid testing before entering the group, and they must provide negative certificates every week after starting work. However, other peripheral staff, including the logistics support department, will no longer need weekly nucleic acid testing starting this week. For film companies, this will save them a lot of money, because the current cost of a nucleic acid test across the United States is at least about $20. It has been more than two years since the Hollywood epidemic prevention regulations were implemented in September 2020. In a sense, as long as these regulations continue to be implemented for one day, the American film market cannot be regarded as completely out of the impact of the epidemic.