Parasite has done amazing thus far and I like Neon's slow-and-steady expansion strategy for the movie which will give it a good chance to bring forth WoM. The reviews are great and I believe the WoM will follow with a HUGE awards buzz.

Currently I, Tonya at $30,014,539 is the biggest movie for Neon. Do you think Parasite could beat that?

I definitely think it's possible. I for sure see it reaching 20 Million and being their #2. If it becomes a big awards player like I think it will 30+ should happen.

I'm happy for NEON. They definitely needed another hit.

Sure. It's a pretty interesting movie that isn't slow, at least for fhe last third, so it could find a big audience here.

Yes.

I say Parasite in the top 10 for seven weeks? Over/under?

Yep. This is going all the way

It's doing well so far but I think suburbs will tell the story. I see it landing around 10m, which would make it the biggest foreign breakout of the year and by far Bong's highest.

Highest "foreign language" gross this year has been The Farewell at 18m, which had the benefit of a prominent American cast and director pimping it out across various media forever and ever. It would be a feat for Parasite to surpass it.

Yep. Especially since the other big Oscar contenders are going to be on Netflix or have already come out.

14k pta, expanding well; based on the numbers so far it’s definitely getting 20m.

With all the Oscar nominations including best picture, this is happening.

Its already at $25m so yeah this is a given. I can see it doing $40m in the end. I still think going a little wider during Christmas would have made it bigger.

Yeah they really should have added some more theaters during Christmas. Was hoping it would have been in around 700. I also hate that it's on Blu-ray in a little over a week. That should have been pushed back.

I'm still hoping it opens here. I want to see it in a movie theater.

Looks like this is actually happening. While $40-$50M domestic would already be a terrific result for this movie it still deserves so much more IMO.

Agree with this. In another reality this is a runaway $100m hit. (I still remember Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's monumental run in 2000/2001, which was basically the run that got me really passionate about box office)

It absolutely could have gone farther but I think they would have needed to expand more over Christmas and not come to streaming/DVD already. If they were smart they would have held off until maybe a month after Oscars. That way if it wins anything big it could reap the benefits. Obviously it will also make money from streaming and in sales, but I think it will still leave money on the table. Plus it's better to be able to show off how much it made.

At least it has already done terrific.

You can’t expand against Star Wars with a 2000 pta.

Sure you can. It's not like everyone cared about Star Wars. Especially not with those reviews. This one mainly played to the diehards. And Golden Globes increased interest in Parasite again. Some theaters still had Black Christmas for crying out loud. It would have done better than that.

No it took too many screens. There wasn’t space to expand. And theaters are usually contractually obligated to play new releases like Black Christmas for two weeks.

Not going to reach 40m confirmed. We should just hope it might get to 35m. At least pta is good enough to hold most theaters.

Shouldn't have released it on digital now. I mean, I guess since it's more accessible more people will see it but this would be the perfect time to expand it.

That’s a good point, Magnus.

Once one film successfully adopts that formula we could see awards prospects moving enmasse to Oct/early November instead of this shift to December. Charting with Dan did an interesting analysis of Best Picture nominees through the decades and when they were released in the year. November/December are approaching 100% in terms of release dates for nominees.

The 27th brought Black Christmas to two weeks. Unless you count Thursday night as opening night then it was the 26th . I don't think anyone had to keep it any longer as -1,111 theaters shed it that week. I do think some kept it because of the festive theme though. I think Parasite could have at least doubled its theaters. But whatever. If it wins Best Picture I hope it can get a few million more theatrically despite being on digital and Blu-ray. I'm still wishing my theater would get it but they don't get many foreign films. I think they should make an exception for this one and people would see it. It has crossed over in a way most don't. I'm holding off watching it in case by some miracle they get it. I bet they would if it won Best Picture. I just have to decide if I want to wait to see if that happens before watching it.

Theaters were a bit too slow to get rid of Black Christmas. It’s easier to hold theaters than expand, probably because of cognitive biases. But with its pta more theaters should have dropped BC.

I was going to say, if Parasite wins big they should re-release in theaters but just saw the Jan 28th home video release. Ugh .

It's playing in over 1,000 theaters this weekend at least. The home media release is a bummer, but if it pulls an upset at the Oscars it could still add a few million to its run the way Moonlight did three years ago, despite coming out on DVD/Blu-Ray two days after the ceremony.

It's done!!