• by Wayne Friedman , October 23, 2023

Two top theatrical movies this week -- the opening of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and the second week  of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” -- earned positive box-office results, according to analysts, even as those films did not adhere to "traditional" theatrical movie success measures.

Martin Scorsese's new film "Killers of the Flower Moon" earned $23 million in its opening weekend, according to Comscore -- with a hefty $200 million production budget. For many, this measure  -- a $20 million-plus opening for a major big studio release -- could be considered a definite failure.

But "Flower Moon," which is financially backed by Apple, has a different measure of success -- one that could benefit the Apple TV+ premium streaming platform. The movie is expected to make a major appearance in the coming weeks on the streaming platform -- after 45 days of an exclusive theatrical engagement.

The movie also features big movie box-office stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, who both have major international appeal -- which can go a long way toward possible profitability. 

The film, distributed by Paramount Pictures, spent an estimated $21 million on national TV advertising so far from 3,370 airings yielding 2.4 billion impressions, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

"Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," now in its second week, earned another $36 million, according to Comscore, to land as the top movie box-office revenue producer for this week. The total for two weeks for the movie amounts to $129.8 million -- another record for a concert film. 

Still, by traditional success measures, this means the movie had around a 70% drop in the second week from the first (which includes Thursday to Sunday box-office revenue) -- which would be considered a failure for many studios.

But analysts say considering the low production cost of the movie -- just $15 million (with Swift herself footing the bill) -- this is a big win.

The Swift movie also continues to spend little on national TV advertising -- letting the “Swifties” fans generate the marketing lift for the popular music star, and her tour which is still in progress, with major social-media attention metrics. 

EDO Ad EnGage estimated the movie has spent a very low $1.9 million on TV for 22 airings producing 83.1 million impressions.