As we’ve seen with other HBO Max movies that hit theaters and the streaming service simultaneously, whenever there’s a solid number at the B.O., there’s also a solid draw in-homes. That wasn’t the case with James Wan’s giallo-inspired horror title Malignant which died at the weekend domestic B.O. with a $5.57M opening and a divided audience C CinemaScore, as well as 753K U.S. households watching the pic per Samba TV.
Remember, these are unique views for the movie in the 3M Smart TV U.S. households that Samba TV measures. Malignant‘s HBO Max first weekend draw is 53% less than the 1.6M who tuned in to the Wan produced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which posted a domestic debut of $24.1M over the June 4-6 weekend. Ultimately, through 17 days, Conjuring 3 pulled in 3M U.S. households, per Samba TV, the 6th most watched Warner Bros. theatrical/HBO Max movie; a list that’s topped off by the R-rated Mortal Kombat with 5.5M U.S. households. Conjuring 3 ended its domestic run at $65.6M.
Malignant, which was also R-rated, received pretty good reviews at 76% fresh, but seemed to divide moviegoers with its surprise ending; in sum too heady for Wan’s mainstream horror followers. Annabelle Wallis plays Madison, who is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.
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Malignant‘s audience per Samba TV skewed lower income ($75k and less), female (+6%), young (44 and below), Black (+9%), and Hispanic (+25%).
Of the top 25 largest DMAs, Portland, OR over-indexed the most (+50%), followed by Sacramento, CA (+35%) and Phoenix, AZ (+25%).
Conjuring 3 in its first weekend also leaned lower income ($75,000 and less), younger (44 and below), Black (+19%) and Hispanic (+41%), with Phoenix overperforming (+47%).
Interestingly enough, and really not a like-a-like for like, Malignant was watch by more U.S. households than Warner Bros.’ In the Heights musical which didn’t fly at the B.O. with an $11.5M start and 693K first weekend viewership on HBO Max.