YouTube-related content is batting a thousand at the box office. |
The most recent example was last weekend’s “The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act.” More than 2,200 theaters throughout the country showed the eighth episode and never-before-seen series finale of the zany online series from Australian animation studio Glitch Productions. |
The show follows a group of humans who are trapped in avatar form in a virtual circus and features a cast of wild-looking characters, including Caine, the artificial intelligence ringmaster who has a giant set of chattering teeth for a head, and Pomni, an anxious cartoon jester with variegated blue and red pupils. |
The pilot, which debuted in 2023, has racked up nearly 440 million views on YouTube. Since then, almost every other episode has notched at least 100 million views. |
That fandom powered “The Amazing Digital Circus” to $20.2 million for its four-day opening, starting with Thursday’s nearly $7.9-million haul. It now ranks as specialty content distributor Fathom Entertainment’s biggest opening weekend ever and came in fifth at the box office. As presales started to climb and interest grew, exhibitors added screens to meet that demand. |
“Everybody’s learning what these Gen Zers are doing, what their behaviors are, what their habits are,” said Ray Nutt, chief executive of Fathom Entertainment, which is jointly owned by major theater chains AMC, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark. “But I think we’ve really uncovered something.” |
I first heard about “The Amazing Digital Circus” back in April at CinemaCon, where attendees mused that its massive presale numbers could indicate a sleeper hit, particularly among the Gen Z audience that loved the series. Moreover, it would show the growing power of internet-native content on the big screen. |
Just a few months earlier, YouTuber Markiplier’s self-distributed horror film “Iron Lung” had shocked box office analysts with a $17.8-million opening, on its way to an eventual worldwide gross of $50 million. But at the time, few people would have predicted that Focus Features’ low-budget movie “Obsession” would become such a buzzy hit. |
Now, of course, internet-native stories aimed at younger audiences have become the talk of the town. |
A24’s “Backrooms,” which is based on a YouTube series of the same name, has beat out the Timothée Chalamet-led “Marty Supreme” to become the indie studio’s highest-grossing domestic film ($135 million in the U.S. and Canada, to date). “Obsession” has brought in almost $152 million domestically. |
Both were helmed by filmmakers who got their start on YouTube. |
The strong theatrical turnout for “Backrooms,” “Obsession” and “The Amazing Digital Circus” is a sign that young people still want to go to the movies, but only for the right films and content. |
“Authenticity is the answer here,” Brooks LeBoeuf, Regal’s head of U.S. content, told me on Monday. “As long as the audience doesn’t feel that it’s exploitative, but it’s additive to the fandom that they’ve created ... they’ll come out and support it. We haven’t seen everything be successful from an online creator aspect, but what we’re seeing lately is that the people bringing these to screens are now in tune to what that audience wants.” |
Being choosy about that content is key. For Fathom Entertainment, which has long distributed episodic content, like “The Chosen,” a show about the life of Jesus, it’s about finding strong stories with a large fan base. |
“Certainly the content has to be good,” said Nutt, adding that for big screen success, there also must be “that element of ‘I want to be the first to see it. I want to see it on the big screen. I want to see it with my friends.’” |
That feeling of appointment viewing, which once marked broadcast television’s major appeal, was part of the draw for “The Amazing Digital Circus,” LeBoeuf told me. |
“What stood out was not just the box office result, but the intensity and urgency of the demand,” he said. “It behaved like a true event release, with fans making a clear decision that they wanted to experience it together in theaters, and that’s what we’re seeing with pictures like ‘Iron Lung’ and ‘Obsession.’ For us, the result validated the idea that digital- native properties can translate meaningfully to theatrical when the fan base is highly engaged, and there’s clear reason to show up now.” |
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The Wayans brothers were back in the driver’s seat over the weekend, with the reboot of 2000s-era horror spoof franchise “Scary Movie.” The movie topped the box office with $54.3 million in the U.S. and Canada, and a worldwide total of $105.5 million. |
“Scary Movie,” which had a production budget of $30 million, beat studio expectations to become the biggest R-rated comedy opening in more than a decade. It was also distributor Paramount’s biggest opening for a comedy. Miramax led the production and financing of the film. |
The strong debut performance of “Scary Movie” defied conventional wisdom that comedies no longer work in theaters and are better suited to streaming services. |
“We’re hopeful, certainly, that this is creating a turning point,” Shaun Barber, Paramount Pictures’ head of domestic theatrical distribution, told me on Sunday, noting that the studio has the latest “Jackass” movie coming out later this month. “Like horror, comedy gives you a different type of experience when you’re surrounded by so many other people.” |
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What I’m watching |
It was a big WNBA week for me, as I watched three L.A. Sparks games and was thrilled when they finally got a win on Sunday against the Portland Fire, a new expansion team. On the NBA side, I’ll be watching the Knicks-Spurs game Monday night (and rooting for the Knicks). |
