As we are about to wrap up October at the box office, tracking for some of the November openings are upon us with Ford V Ferrari & Charlie’s Angels entering the race.
As of now, Ford V Ferrari is taking the early lead according to tracking with a potential opening of $23-30 million. The range is pretty wide because the film is being set up as an Oscar contender and good reviews could propel it higher with older audiences, The film, which stars Matt Damon as car designer Carroll Shelby and Christian Bale as renegade auto driver Ken Miles as the pair go to work for Ford in their square-off against Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans race, made a splash at the Telluride Film Festival, snagging solid reviews in the process. As of now, tracking has it looking best with male audiences but tracking does note that the runtime of 2 hours and 32 minutes could be a caveat for some moviegoers.
Charlie’s Angels, directed by Elizabeth Banks and starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska, is off to a slower start in tracking with a potential opening of $16 million. The film is an adaptation of the 70s TV show which already had a film adaptation and a sequel beginning in 2000. The first film, which starred Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, opened to $40.1 million while the 2003 sequel opened to $37.6 million. So why did it work so well then and why are projections so low now? Well, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz & Lucy Liu were bigger names than the new trio of girls and honestly, the original film was a surprise hit which earned surprisingly good reviews. Tracking for the new version is so low because there hasn’t been much of a marketing push yet beyond the trailers and online presence, which is reportedly on the soft side, but that could change before the November 15 release date. Charlie’s Angels hasn’t started its TV marketing blitz so there is time to change the tide and Sony is hoping that the film plays well through the Thanksgiving holiday.
We’ll find out how this all plays out when both films open on November 15.
