In a twist no one saw coming, Downton Abbey reigns supreme in its opening weekend. According to Variety, the film debuted to a strong $31 million, beating out both Rambo: Last Blood and Ad Astra, who stand at $19 million and $19.2 million respectively. With a budget of $20 million, the film has already found profitability, while Rambo: Last Blood and Ad Astra, both of which had heftier budgets at $50 million and $80 million respectively, it will take a longer cinema run before both are out of the red.
It doesn’t help that Rambo: Last Blood has been slaughtered by the critics, scoring an abysmal 28% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this article. Ad Astra fares better at 83%, but it’s audience score at a mere 45% isn’t exactly saying let’s head to the movies. In comparison, Downton Abbey has done well both critically and with audiences, at 84% with the critics and 96% with the audience.
According to Focus Pictures President of distribution Lisa Bunnell, they achieved this success with Downton Abbey because for “for older moviegoers, quality makes a difference”. 60% of Downton Abbey’s ticket buyers are above 35 years old, older audiences who are willing to shell out the money if they feel the movie is worth their time.
With the increasing prevalence of technology in our lives, movie reviews are now everywhere, in the newspaper, on movie sites and of course you have YouTube reviewers as well. We have become more discerning with our tastes due to greater access to information, so like Bunnell said, movie studios should focus on making quality films if they want us to trek to the cinemas.
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