How Universal moviegoers got hooked on ‘Cocaine Bear’: Elizabeth Banks horror comedy launches at $23 million

“‘No one likes to see people being eaten by lions.’

That was apparently the late Sumner Redstone’s reaction at his National Amusements exhibition days after seeing a screening of the 1981 Tom Skerritt lion film. Wild Harvestrelayed to me by an exhibition source who heard it.

As funny as Redstone’s answer was, it’s an axiom that has come true: certain movies that make people eat animals just don’t work. Moviegoers chew on shark movies like Jaw And Megahowever, other treacherous wildlife films do not lend themselves to wide openings, such as Paramount’s alligator film Crawl ($12 million, last $39 million domestic) and more recently Universal with his Idris Elba title animal (Open $11.5M, Final $31.8M) – which was a huge jump.

However, this weekend Universal proved that everyone loves watching people get eaten by bears, like their R-rated Elizabeth Banks film cocaine bear opened at $23 million.

How did Universal beat the odds and make it work? Cross-genre films, and this one is a horror comedy, are typically feathered fish, which means they market nightmares for the studio.

But for Universal, it didn’t get any better than a cheesy title like cocaine bear. Whatever the pitch, the title was a gift moviegoers couldn’t shake.

cocaine bear is another low-budget (production cost in the neighborhood of $30 million) win for Universal after Atomic Monster/Blumhouse M3GAN ($30.4 million opening, $94.5 million domestic) in January and the studio’s partnership with 87North violent night ($13.4 million opening, $49.8 million) in early December.

cocaine bear scored a big shiny win for low-budget original theatrical releases at the box office this weekend, along with Lionsgate’s crushing faith-based title Jesus Revolution ($15.5 million opening) ahead of Disney/Marvel’s second weekend Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania which posted the biggest drop for an MCU title at $32.2 million, a -70% drop. Normally a studio is too crazy to go before or after a Marvel movie considering how they saturate the market. Wow, that still doesn’t seem to be true.

So how does a wild bear movie fare at the box office? For which the public queued cocaine bear stems from the fact that the picture was not completely gruesome or gory Gravitas-esque animal, rather a very cheesy comedy. Laughter also worked in his favor M3GAN And Heavy nights congratulations. The sale of the photos in trailers and digital pieces was highlighted by Banks, who occupied the popular social media (3.1 million followers on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter), as well as the cheeky stand-up comedian Scott Seiss, who acted in the film. his coming

The picture boasted an ensemble cast that included The American With Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Margot Martindale, as well as the late Ray Liotta and even Star Wars: A Solo Storyby Alden Ehrlichreich. But the university did not sell the photo on it. Rather, it believed that it became abundantly clear that the only star of this film was Cokey the Cocaine Bear. She became the figurehead in city ​​of sinOne Sheets and billboards with style.

While Uni fuels his young female fan base with his creepy dancing robot doll MEGAN on TikTok, late-night shows and public dance troupe stunts, the studio hasn’t been able to simply copy-paste from a genre marketing playbook since. cocaine bear dubbed another original film. While marionettes danced on TikTok, it was good for that M3GANthe youthful crowd, cocaine bear was aimed at older people, so a Super Bowl spot before the game was great to get to this demo. RelishMix reported that social media traffic for this trailer was nearly 15 million across all platforms within 24 hours of the game, in a social media universe that was nearly 150 million for the Banks-directed title.

cocaine bear was inspired by a true story from 1985 when cocaine disappeared in a Georgia forest after a drug smuggler’s plane crashed and a black bear devoured the merchandise. In the film, the animal goes about killing police, criminals and walkers. Sure, social media is vital to any marketing campaign, and what Uni did was give Cokey a voice.

It was reported on Twitter and TikTok that 3.5 tons of cocaine had been discovered in the Pacific Ocean off New Zealand, and “cocaine shark” became a trending topic throughout the day. Cokey wasted no time digging into the conversation, including a response from AMC Theaters for a bear-and-shark showdown. This exchange has received over 50,000 views and 1,000 likes. On a digital and social level there was also a retro 1980s style PSA, This is a bear on drugsalong with a helpful online video, Tips for meeting a bearmoderated by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Margo Martindale.

Then there was the trailer that hit like a nuclear blast on November 30, 2022 with over 90 million views worldwide. The trick for the future of the university was to keep this awareness and interest alive. The trailer ran ahead of other college genre pictures violent night And M3GAN.

Heading into the Super Bowl, @cocainebear continued to comment on pop culture, first honoring the Big Game with a photo of her sniffing the white streaks on the field that was widely picked up and 67,000 likes, 5,000 retweets and got more than 2, 5. got millions of views on social media.

TV spots have also aired on AFC & NFC Championship Games, NBA, WWE Raw, NCAAB, Premier League, UFC 284 Sponsorship, NHL, Liga MX, UEFA Champions League and shows like The Bachelor, American Auto, Celebrity Special Forces, Bob’s Burgers, 9-1-1 Lonestar, and the snowfall Premiere.

A Rise of Pablo Escobear 8Bit Game launched where users become victims of cocaine bear hunt pacman inspired video game.

To date, M3GANit’s PG-13 and on Peacock, rose to more than 3x ($94.5 million) a B Cinemascore, 78% Rotten Tomatoes score and 3 1/2 stars on Comscore/Screen Engines PostTrak. cocaine bear is in the same neighborhood, with a B-CinemaScore, 75% RT rating and 4 stars on PostTrak.

Equivalent M3GAN, the forecast is this cocaine bearLong-term box office prospects outpace audience exits. A projection for cocaine bear Stateside is north of $60 million.