20th Century Fox’s high-profile gay teen romance “Love, Simon” opened to a distant 5th place at the weekend box office, with just $11.5 million. While the film’s budget was only $17 million, the studio must feel a little disappointed considering all the marketing they put into it. Here’s why it underwhelmed:
HIGH NUMBER OF ADVANCE SCREENINGS
Fox screened the film for free in hundreds of cities across the country beginning in January to drum up buzz. Normally, the strategy might work, but this was a case of over-saturation. On top of these, last Saturday, March 10th, Fox screened “Love, Simon” in another 927 theaters with showings that cost regular admission prices. They did well, totaling $800,000. But that’s $800k that won’t be added into the film’s official box office total.
So many early screenings can certainly help get the word out on a film, but while “Love, Simon” does have some strong qualities (particularly star Nick Robinson), I don’t think it’s the kind of film that its target teen audience will go see again and again (or even for just a second time).
LOW NUMBER OF THEATERS
“Love, Simon” only opened in 2,400 theaters, compared to “Tomb Raider”‘s 3,900. “Black Panther” is also still in 3,800 locations, and “A Wrinkle in Time” is in nearly 4,000. It’s unclear if Fox will increase the theater count next weekend.
“I CAN ONLY IMAGINE”
The PG-rated faith-based drama surpassed expectations with an impressive $17 million, 3rd place start in just 1,600 theaters, for a $10,500 per screen average.
UNFAMILIAR BOOK
“Love, Simon” is based on 2015’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Fox clearly shortened the title for the movie adaptation, but the novel is not as well known as the iconic A Wrinkle in Time. Similarly, last year Robinson starred in “Everything, Everything” for Warner Bros. – also based on a 2015 teen romance novel, which opened to $11.7 million and totaled $34.1M.
SPECIFIC TARGET DEMO
Even with Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel as Simon’s parents, “Love, Simon” didn’t attract an older crowd, with 59% of its audience coming from those under the age of 25.
We’ll see if “Love, Simon” has some legs throughout the rest of Spring, but with eight big releases opening over the next two weekends, it might struggle to pass $30 million total.