Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley
Chiabella James / © Paramount Photos / Courtesy Everett Assortment
Paramount obtained the most effective Valentine’s Day reward any studio may hope for when Bob Marley: One Love, the biopic in regards to the legendary Jamaican musician, set a brand new midweek file for the vacation when jamming to $14 million and besting the $11.5 million grossed by The Vow in 2012.
However Valentine’s Day turned out to be solely a warm-up act because the movie reworked into an all-audience field workplace sensation in one other win for the music biopic growth sweeping Hollywood. Iconic music artists — of which there are not any scarcity — are offering studios with much-needed IP as tried-and-true genres, particularly superhero films, lose their singing powers. Barely per week goes by with no new main studio mission being introduced, together with this week’s information that Sony and Sam Mendes are embarking on an formidable magical thriller tour that may see every of the 4 Beatles get their very own characteristic movie, all to be launched in theaters in 2027.
Heading into the Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day hall, One Love was monitoring for a good six-day launch of $30 million. As an alternative, it grossed $51.5 million. And though it isn’t an apples-to-apples comparability, the Marley biopic ties with Bohemian Rhapsody to rank because the second-biggest launch for a music biopic behind Straight Outta Compton ($60.2 million).
The key to One Love’s field workplace success: it broadened out every day by way of demographics till it was taking part in to all age teams and, most notably, youthful moviegoers who weren’t even born when the musician died in 1981. The Marley household labored carefully with Paramount in making the movie, with Bob Marley’s son, Ziggy, serving as producer. And within the months main as much as the film’s opening, Paramount’s stealth advertising marketing campaign included strategically inducing crowds gathered at sporting occasions, and even subway stations, to interrupt out in music.
“As an artist, Bob Marley has had such an enormous influence throughout generations and there’s a cause why his music remains to be being performed at the moment. And once you’re in a position to rally across the music, the message, and the individual, there may be at all times the prospect to interrupt out,” says Paramount president of promoting and distribution Marc Weinstock, who additionally labored on Paramount’s hit Elton John biopic Rocketman and the Michael Jackson posthumous live performance documentary This Is It when he was at Sony.
It might be pure to count on One Love to skew older, which it did — not less than initially. On Valentine’s Day, the biggest phase of ticket consumers fell between ages 35 and 44 (22 %), in accordance with knowledge shared with The Hollywood Reporter. And by PostTrack’s depend, almost 70 % of the viewers was 25 and older. However by the weekend, extra youngsters and youthful adults began exhibiting up, even if there was a brand new superhero movie on the marquee, Madame Net. Finally, these between the ages of 18 and 24 — essentially the most frequent moviegoers — have been the biggest phase (23 %) of the opening week viewers.
“That is music that youngsters, dad and mom and grandparents can come collectively over,” says Weinstock.
One Love drew an ethnically numerous crowd from the onset, however the make-up additionally modified as the times went on. Initially, 43 % of ticket consumers have been Black moviegoers, adopted by Latino moviegoers (28 %), Caucasian moviegoers (19 %) and Asian/Different moviegoers (7 %). The ultimate weighted breakdown for the six-day openings exhibits that Caucasian moviegoers made up 38 % of all ticket consumers, adopted by Black moviegoers (30 %), Latino moviegoers (25 %) and Asian/Different moviegoers (7 %).
One draw for music biopics for theaters specifically is “the daring immersive sound that fashionable film theaters provide,” notes Comscore chief field workplace analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
The race to partake within the music biopic gold rush could be traced to Common’s N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, which grossed $202.2 million on the worldwide field workplace in 2015, not adjusted for inflation. Three years later, 20th Century Fox’s Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody surprised in incomes $910 million globally. More moderen wins embrace Rocketman ($196 million) and Warner Bros.’ Oscar contender Elvis ($288 million). However there have been misses, together with final yr’s Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Any individual ($59 million) and the 2021 Aretha Franklin biopic Respect ($32 million).
Studios are nonetheless betting large on touchdown within the successful column. Earlier this month, Paramount paid a reported $25 million for North American rights to Higher Man, in regards to the rise of celebrated singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. The movie is directed by Michael Gracey, whose credit embrace The Best Showman. And Paramount and Amblin are partnering on a Bee Gees biopic that Ridley Scott is in talks to direct. There’s an Antoine Fuqua-directed Michael Jackson biopic now filming Lionsgate and Common Photos Worldwide, whereas Focus Options is about to launch Amy Winehouse biopic Again to Black this spring.
When Paramount, the Marley household and director Reinaldo Marcus Inexperienced held the world premiere of One Love in Kingston, Jamaica, the gang erupted into applause when Kingsley Ben-Adir, who performs Bob Marley, first spoke. Whereas he isn’t Jamaican, his Patois accent was good.
“Authenticity was actually the important thing to telling this story, and Ziggy and the Marley household have been so instrumental in working alongside the filmmakers and our studio to make sure that we instructed this story in a method that does justice to Bob’s legacy,” says Weinstock.
Living proof: Whereas different actors could have regarded extra like his father, Ziggy Marley wished Ben-Adir as a result of he embodied his father’s essence.
Concludes Weinstock, “When musical biopics communicate authentically to audiences, they have a chance to grow to be part of the cultural dialog.”
