On today’s episode of the “Daily Variety” podcast, Box Office segment, Variety’s Jack Dunn breaks down another big weekend for “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and how to break down Friday night’s box office numbers. And Marc Malkin brings you a Just for Variety interview with iconoclastic filmmaker John Waters, who turns 80 on April 22nd.
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Universal and Illumination’s “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” also had a strong week, maintaining its No. 1 spot for the second week. Dan, Variety’s deputy web editor in charge of the news desk on weekends, was given the job of reporting on Friday night’s box office results on Saturday morning. That gave him the first glimpse of hard data on the film’s performance.
Reading the tea leaves is very important. “There’s so much data and numbers on the box office, especially in the days and weeks leading up to release, especially if you’re talking about something like ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ or ‘Project Hail Mary,'” Dunn says. But you know that there are limits to what you can do with data. Sometimes audience preferences change. ”
Meanwhile, Waters spoke to Malkin about his ambitions to continue directing feature films. He wrote his first novel, Liarmouth: A Feeling Bad Romance, in 2022, which was shortlisted for adaptation into a feature film. But a major hurdle remains: funding.
“The last movie scheduled was my novel ‘Liarmouth,’ which was an option. I wrote the script, and they loved it. Aubrey Plaza was going to star, but then no one would pay for it,” Waters says.
(Photo: Film director John Waters)
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