Tornado yarn “Twisters” surpassed audience tracking estimates by a wide margin, playing exceptionally well in middle America and the Southeast (where real twisters are a menace!) and on big-screen cinema.
Universal Pictures collected a sizeable $81.2 million in domestic boxoffice July 19-21, as “Twisters” surpassed prerelease tracking estimates by 60% (the estimate was $50 million in U.S./Canada for that weekend). “Twisters,” which reportedly cost $155 million to film, is a standalone sequel to the 1996 weather disaster flick of the same name.
The movie clearly resonated as escapist fare with audiences in real-life tornado geography, which is a demographic based on geography. Further, all age demos embraced …. young, old, male and female.
“Twisters” also benefited from marketing messaging positioning as a fun action movie, which is a relief after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump shortly before its premiere. The movie avoids preaching about ecology, as so many environmental disaster films do.
“Midwesterners indeed turned out in force, leading ‘Twisters’ to overperform in the cinemas between the coasts,” says a Variety article by Rebecca Rubin. “Traditionally, New York City and Los Angeles have the highest-attended venues in the country.”
The Variety article continues: “But over the weekend, the top-earning theater for ‘Twisters’ was Regal Warren Moore in Oklahoma City, while the No. 3 spot was Regal Pinnacle in Knoxville, Tenn. Regional chain Santikos Palladium in San Antonio was fourth in terms of grosses, while AMC locations in Nashville and Dallas also ranked high on the list.”
The movie also pulled capacity audiences at immersive cinemas with 4DX projection, which incorporates shaking seats, scents, enhanced audio and other multi-sensory sensations to stationary cinema seats..
As for audience demos, Deadline.com’s Anthony D’Alessandro wrote: “Audiences, a massive amount of them from the middle of the country, love ‘Twisters’ which gets an A- CinemaScore and 4 1/2 stars on PostTrak. The first Michael Crichton created, co-written, produced movie received an A- CinemaScore.”
“Twisters” stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos, who shadow tornadoes across Oklahoma. Powell, who was prominent in “Top Gun: Maverick,” is emerging as a bonified young-hunk cinema star.
This continues a sudden trend of robust weekend premieres this summer including Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” and Disney’s “Inside Out 2,” after Universal’s “The Fall Guy” and some others opened soft.
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