The Many Saints of Newark, the Sopranos prequel from writer-producer David Chase and director
Alan Taylor, has finally been released. The movie follows the complicated life of mobster Dickie
Moltisanti, including his relationship with young Tony Soprano — and so far it has proven a little
divisive among long-time fans of the landmark HBO series. Sadly, this probably isn't the kind
of buzz Warner Bros. was hoping for after finally returning to David Chase's popular mob universe.
The movie is also the latest experimental offering in the dual-release strategy Warner
Bros. has been deploying throughout the pandemic. Some of the biggest,
most-anticipated releases distributed by the studio have been given simultaneous
day-and-date debuts in theaters and on the HBO Max streaming service. Thus far, the experiment has
been a mixed bag — at least as far as box office returns are concerned. Some of these films have
had successful theatrical runs that haven't been entirely cannibalized by their HBO Max releases,
including Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat. But not all of Warner's films have been so successful,
and The Many Saints of Newark has landed squarely in the latter category.
"Oh Marone, oh, Jesus."
The Many Saints of Newark pulled in a paltry $5 million at the box office in its first weekend
of release, an underperformance even by the diminished standards of the pandemic era.
Box Office Pro projected before the weekend that Many Saints would gross
somewhere in the range of $7-12 million. So why has this happened?
Well, there's no smoking gun for why the Sopranos prequel didn't kill it
at the box office. But it seems likely that a combination of factors may have
worked together to reduce the movie's box office takings.
According to a recent analysis by Deadline, the main reason
could be that the target audience for The Many Saints of Newark is an older demographic;
one that has been slow to return to theaters over coronavirus fears.
The most successful films of the pandemic era have been tentpole films that appeal
to younger viewers, such as Black Widow, which grossed $80.8 million on its opening weekend.
"Oof, Marone."
Certainly, it would be interesting to see data on how Many Saints performed on HBO Max.
Enough people may have watched it on the streaming service for Warner Bros. to be
happy with it. And HBO just inked a massive new overall deal with David Chase, too,
so they definitely seem bullish on the potential for future Sopranos content. Nobody can really
say for sure whether the movie was a total flop until those HBO figures are released.
The other reason why the movie might not be crushing at the box office
could be word-of-mouth. There are a lot of young Sopranos fans out there,
but they didn't show up, either. The movie has a mediocre C+ audience rating from CinemaScore,
and has gotten a lukewarm response from Sopranos fans on social media.
If that's the case, then any Sopranos fans who do want to check out the new movie might
do so on the streaming service they already pay for, instead of shelling out for movie tickets.
More than anything else, however, there's a 250-pound symbiote-shaped elephant in the room,
here; a massive rival to The Many Saints of Newark
that undeniably sucked up the box office oxygen on this balmy October weekend.
"There's gonna be carnage."
The Many Saints of Newark landed in theaters and on HBO Max on October 1st — the same
day the Woody Harrelson and Tom Hardy flick Venom: Let There Be Carnage got its release,
amid much fan anticipation. Notably, Let There Be Carnage did not receive
a day-and-date streaming release from Sony Pictures, one of the major studios
most reluctant to embrace the dual-release strategy preferred by Warner Bros. and Disney.
In the end, Sony's gamble on a pandemic weekend at the theater paid off,
dethroning Black Widow to become the highest-grossing theatrical release of the
pandemic era. With so many moviegoers flocking to see Hardy's Venom square off against Harrelson's
Carnage, it seems like there just wasn't much market share left for Many Saints to claim.
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