A New Era’ Pulls In Older Adults With $18M+ – Deadline

SUNDAY AM UPDATE: Refresh for more analysis and chart Focus Features’ Downton Abbey: A New Era is coming in at $16M, and while some might snipe that it’s lower than the first one’s robust $31M start, particularly against a production cost that’s double from the first at $40M, keep in mind this is a sequel to period drama franchise, not Marvel. For Focus, it’s their best opening during the pandemic, besting Northman‘s $12.3M start. By the way, New Era‘s opening is right where tracking spotted it earlier this week.

It stands to reason that grosses would wane, even in a healthy marketplace for older adults, given the type of established IP here. Rivals would say the first movie was capturing lightening in a bottle, arriving three years after the six season series ended. The sequel isn’t really selling a cliffhanger here which would create a stampede, i.e. the downstairs staff got poisoned and there’s no one around to cook the holiday goose. Nonetheless, greenlighting a sequel was in full order given how the 2019 movie ranked as the best domestic start ever for a Focus Features’ movie.

On the bright side, older audiences did come back this weekend for New Era; even if it wasn’t at the admissions level of the first film, the share of over 45s and 55s should come as a sign of optimism. Uni is reporting 48% were over 55. Similar to the first, it’s leaning 73%. If New Era marked some people’s first time back to the cinema during Covid times, they’ll see everything is normal, and hopefully this will be a catalyst for more older women to attend; they having been reluctant during the pandemic.

“The only way to get adults back into cinemas is to offer them quality entertainment,” said Focus Features Distribution Boss Lisa Bunnell, “This movie opens doors for other people to see other movies.”

“You have to keep putting movies out aimed at adults,” Bunnell added about the longevity of specialty cinema.

Again, from an exhibitor’s point of view (especially arthouses), not a studio’s accounting department, A New Era reps more business in the wake of Focus Features’ The Northman and A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once which is officially the studio’s top grossing movie stateside with $52M. Exhibitors have mentioned that Downton 2 repped the first time they saw older patrons since pre-pandemic.

New Era will be on a 17-day exclusive theatrical window per Universal’s plan with movie theaters. The bright side is that it’s not theatrical day-and-date, nor is it going straight to streaming without a big studio marketing campaign like some other specialty cinema movies.

One thing you have to hand to Universal, despite Jeff Shell’s desires and previous experiments to crunch the window, is that in the end, they’re committed to theatrical and building a diverse slate. While that business m.o. might sound like a broken record, it’s true. Together, Universal and Focus are providing 30 movies to cinemas this year. And…