From THR:
Rian Johnson’s Knives Out was a huge Thanksgiving winner, grossing $41.7 million for the five days — nearly double expectations for the pic (the number includes roughly $3.7 million in preview grosses and sneaks).
From Lionsgate and MRC, the star-studded whodunnit turned in one of the top holiday performances in years for a live-action original film. Nearly three-quarters of ticket buyers were 25 years of age and older, including 46 percent who were 35 and older, according to PostTrak.
Overseas, Knives Out earned a pleasing $28.3 million for an early global total of $70 million, including a China debut of $13.5 million. That was followed by $3.8 million in the U.K., where the film received the widest release in Lionsgate’s history (632 locations).
Knives Out — which centers on a family gathering that goes horribly wrong after the clan’s patriarch turns up dead — stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell and Christopher Plummer. Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street produced the $40 million film.
"Rian Johnson created a fresh and original crowd-pleasing film with Knives Out and, along with Ram Bergman, assembled a stellar cast, and we are thrilled to see it connecting with audiences,” MRC film co-presidents Brye Adler and Jonathan Golfman said in a statement. (MRC shares a parent company, Valence Media, with The Hollywood Reporter .)
On the one side; Good news! Should help if Johnson does decide Blanc needs a case.
On a more downbeat note; that would be more impressive if I didn’t know how increasingly rare it is that live-action original films are released in holidays.
I’m pleased but not surprised it’s doing well. I saw it on an early afternoon showing, and the fairly large theater, outside of the first three or four rows from the screen, was completely packed.
I managed to see Knives Out, the day after Thanksgiving. Oh my it was a fun movie! Daniel Craig was just hilarious, well basically the whole cast was great! I was also glad to get a proper introduction to Ana de Armas and am looking forward to seeing her team up again with Daniel Craig in NTTD.
On a side note, this weekend I also finally got around to seeing “Logan Lucky” (twice!). Mr. Joe Bang was hysterical! I do hope that DC gets to do more comedies in his post-007 future.
EDIT
This is BFI, expect very heavy analysis on seconds of footage, with references that WILL come from little seen cinema of 30’s - it’s exactly what screen studies is at uni btw
Saw Knives Out on Friday night, thought it was utterly fantastic. Daniel Craig clearly enjoyed playing Benoit Blanc a lot! He was great in the role, and when you contrast his performance with that of Bond in NTTD trailer (the snippets we have seen anyway) it’s hard to imagine they are the same actor, if you know what I mean.
We’ve been very lucky to have him over the past 14 years or so.
Now, I want to see a new mystery with Craig’s Blanc. I couldn’t get enough.
Just saw it the other day and thought it was a great film - certainly much better than the generic but fine Murder On The Orient Express remake - definitely here for periodical Benoit Blanc mysteries (and the whole cast playing different roles every time)
Would work either way - You can do the traditional Poirot type thing or do more of an American Horror Story type anthology thing where the same actors recur in totally different roles/stories with new additions along the way - again just the same actors not the same character archetypes or anything like that
There is now an mp3 directors commentary by Rian Johnson on the Knives Out website. Johnson did this for The Brothers Bloom and Looper aswell. If you want to stick it on your phone and go see the film with it, I’d recommend doing it, but otherwise it is just a cool listen if you enjoyed the film.
EDIT: listening to the commentary now, Ricky Jay was supposed to be in it, would’ve brought the Bond cast to 3.
Great. Finally the movie has been released here in Germany, and when my wife and I carved out time to see it, even arriving half an hour before it starts, the tickets are already sold out.
Our last day in Malta for a holiday over the New year period, devoid of new places to tear up, I suggested a film in any of the island’s cinemas.
Never expecting Knives Out to be an option, we engaged Google Maps and, with but 15 minutes to its start, we gunned the little rental shit box over to a screening.
What an utter gem of a movie. Thoroughly enjoyed every last moment of it.
A supreme script, brilliantly filmed and directed. A must see.
Daniel Craig was just hilarious, well basically the whole cast was great! I was also glad to get a proper introduction to Ana de Armas and am looking forward to seeing her team up again with Daniel Craig in NTTD.
I do hope that DC gets to do more comedies in his post-007 future.