Despite no real competition in the second weekend, search engine results show that The Eternals is headed for a potentially lower second weekend box office result than Disney might want. The movie launched last week to a $71 million domestic weekend haul, but this was significantly reduced from the originally predicted 80 – 85 million projected for the movie. Now, the movie may see a lower hold on box office than one would expect given its biggest competitor for Week 2 will be Clifford the Big Red Dog.
According to Google Trends, the movie is currently drawing about 25% of the internet searches that it did over the weekend. This is significant because there should start to be a spike again on the Wednesday before a second weekend — after all, moviegoers are typically looking up times and reserving tickets in their ordinary preparation for going to see a film. Yet The Eternals is on a steady, downward trend.
Note: The Nov 9 spikes in this graph are likely inaccurate based on their sudden rises and drops. In situations where bizarre numbers appear and disappear within Google Trends, look to the overall plot line.
If The Eternals fails to hit a 50% hold during the second week, the film threatens to not make back its cost at the box office. The film has a reported budget of $200 million for production, but the worldwide income at this point is $166 million. Given the the likely $100 million minimum advertising for the film and the percentage of revenue that is split with the theater… it’s very possible that The Eternals becomes a financial flop. The film would need to have a 70% hold to give it a shot at making a profit. Of course, Disney is notorious for finding ways to get films to a profit, even if it requires significant hoops in post-theatrical runs. They don’t seem to enjoy John Carter and Black Widow situations very often.
This comes at a time when there is allegedly a rift between The Walt Disney Company CEO, Bob Chapek, and Marvel Studios head honcho, Kevin Feige. The rumored feud seems to be based around Chapek wanting a return to legacy characters within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while Feige pushes for a different strategy in the Phase 4 films — one of which is The Eternals.
Bob Chapek Rumored To Be Feuding With Kevin Feige Over Marvel’s New Woke Strategy
The Eternals needs a very strong second weekend to pull off a profit, because Ghostbusters: Afterlife promises to take over the box office afterwards. The window for Marvel to snag another win is closing quickly.
