Spider-Man Could Break New Zealand’s Opening Record

Spider-Man is not just “back” right now, it’s steamrolling the conversation, the queues, and the box office. We’re recording while Ross is mid-shift at Cathay Cinemas, running on a skeleton crew, watching packed sessions roll in, and counting a truly absurd number of popcorn scoops. That real-world cinema perspective sets the tone for a grounded, numbers-driven chat about what’s pulling people off the couch and into a dark room for two hours. 

We break down the New Zealand box office result for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and why a director’s brand can add real lift even when money is tight. Then we look ahead to a smart piece of franchise planning: all five Hunger Games films returning to theaters before Sunrise on the Reaping, with ideas on how to program a marathon during school holidays. We also make space for a smaller, emotional release, H Is For Hawk, a drama about loss and healing through an unexpected bond with a goshawk. 

The main deep dive is Spider-Man Brand New Day: why this version of Peter Parker stays so watchable, how the story picks up years after the last film, and whether you need homework to enjoy it. We also get nerdy about formats, including why 3D might be the sleeper way to see it, and we zoom out to the bigger release calendar where Dune 3 and Avengers Doomsday are set to collide on the same day. Finally, we put our pride on the line with a huge opening-week bet for Spider-Man in New Zealand: $5.5M vs $6.1M. 

If you love movie news, box office forecasting, and honest cinema talk from people living it, hit subscribe, share the show with a movie friend, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find us.

Book your tickets to the movies at Cathay Cinemas Kerikeri here  -   or at Lido Cinema Hamilton here!

Transcript

Opening Banter From The Cinema

Speaker 1 0:01

Eat, sleep, movie, repeat, repeat, a podcast on all things movies with Brent Harbour and industry insider Ross Churchill.

Speaker 0:10

G'day Ross, how are you? I am busy, busy, busy. Brent, there's a new movie. There's a new guy in town, a new sheriff by the name of Spider-Man. And Spider Man is dominating all. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 0:24

And we are recording this while you're working tonight at Cathay Cinema Kerikeri How many scoops of popcorn have you done today?

Speaker 0:31

I I honestly I I could probably tell you, actually, if I did a bit of a research, but uh, oh okay, here we go. I tell you what, we have sold uh six and six, uh hundred and uh two hundred. Two hundred scoops of popcorn. 200 popcorns, yeah. Wow. That's crazy. That's a that's a that this is like a school holiday, super busy day when I would usually have about five or six staff on. Uh and we as um we talked about pre to the show, half of my staff or 30% of my staff are sick at the moment. They've all got the flu. And uh we're doing it on a a skeleton crew and we are surviving.

Speaker 1 1:10

Well, that's good. And thanks to everybody who's going to the movies, that's the important thing.

Speaker 1:14

Heck, yeah. I mean, look, and and the you know what, our town and all the people who come here have just been so good. We put it out on Facebook that we are short-staffed. You know, there's nothing we can do about all these people with the flu. And people have just been really, really decent about, you know, the the extra bit of time in the queue. Um, and we, you know, we we pretty much got them all in on time, so we're pretty happy. Oh, that's good. Alrighty, let's get into it.

New Zealand Box Office Scorecard

Speaker 1:36

All right, well, welcome folks again to episode 14 of season four of Eat Sleep movie and of course repeat. Uh I am Ross, that is Brent, isn't it Brent? Hi. And uh we're gonna talk to you about some movies uh showing here at Cathay Cinemas Carrie Carrie in Northland, and of course, Lido Cinemas Hamilton in Hamilton, your home of fine film from around the world. Okay, look, the show is about new movies getting your way. We will be talking about a couple of new movies, um, and of course, things you might want to check out in the next few weeks. But as always, Brent, as always, we will reconcile the week's box office result. And last show we talked about Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

Speaker 1 2:18

Yeah, I thought I can't remember. I haven't looked at anything, but I think I shot really high for that.

Speaker 2:23

You did, you you did, you're ridiculous. Ridiculous. It was uh 2.7 million. Right. I was much more conservative, just 1.9 million because you know, we're in a bit of a recession. Yeah, but look, I'm gonna start prefacing everything from now on by just basically saying anything with a Christopher Nolan in the film name, uh, that brand adds 15% to the box office. Honestly, before we get to the numbers, if you are listening to the show, you're probably already vaguely aware of how well this movie has gone because you probably like film. The Odyssey has absolutely dominated, or at least it did. And Brent, you are this week's winner.

Speaker 1 2:58

Excellent. So how close was I?

Speaker 3:00

You were very, very close. I mean, you were so close, it's not funny. The movie did $2,795,000. So you were only $95,000 off. Now that's not a lot considering you got the 2.7 right. Yeah. So that is a fantastic result. And worldwide, the film has taken in its first week over $264 million.

Speaker 1 3:22

That's incredible.

Speaker 3:23

Um, yeah, absolutely. Look, the rule of thumb would say that New Zealand is 1% of the world by box office, so it took $2.795, which is pretty much just on that over 1%. Um, so anything in the future, Brent, any movie that Christopher Nolan makes, I'm just gonna say it's three million dollars and hope for the best. Yeah, I think so. And you'd probably be right. So I am gonna fall on the Roman sword, and again, you have caught me up. It's nine wins to you, it's ten wins to me. So uh this could be the one that locks it all back up again. Okay.

Spider-Man Mania And What’s Next

Speaker 3:56

But as I said, Christopher Nolan can step to one side right now because Spidey is in town. Man, uh the reviews, the the money it's uh I'm taking in overseas, it's just incredible. It is insane. It is insane, and you're gonna hear a big number coming out of me when we get to the the guessing game. But look, let's just talk about a couple of things about movies coming up.

Hunger Games Marathon Returns

Speaker 4:18

So, look, in September, they are re-releasing the Hunger Games movies. All of them. All of them. All five, including the most recent one.

Speaker 1 4:26

My eldest daughter will be ecstatic, she's a huge fan.

Speaker 4:30

Absolutely. Look, the sixth film in the franchise, which is called Hunger Games Sunrise on the Reaping, opens on the 19th of November. And to get everybody, to get everybody back up to speed on the Hunger Games, our friends at Roadshow Films are re-releasing all five films in September. They think they start from around the 10th of September. We're actually going to hold them back until the school holidays, which is the end of September, because that will allow the maximum amount of audience who are going to be targeting that movie to come. Um, and we're going to play one film a day for five days in the uh evening on uh the first week of the school holidays.

Speaker 1 5:06

You know what?

Speaker 5:06

That's gonna do really well. Yeah, look, the those films have been very, very culturally relevant and they have been out there now for what, 15 odd years, if not more. The people who went and saw them as teens are now probably mums, and I can imagine we'll get a lot of uh young women or youngish women uh rocking in and a lot of um young women coming to see because it is it's very female friendly, although they go around murdering each other and killing each other and having a lovely time, but it is it's that sort of young adult literature that we saw with the Twilight movies and those sort of things.

Speaker 1 5:38

That is gonna be massive, and I think that film's gonna the new one's gonna do very well.

Speaker 5:42

Yeah, so the tickets for that will go on sale very, very soon, I'd say nationwide. Um, so if you are keen on seeing the Hunger Games, uh check your local cinema times if you want to see all five. Uh, we're probably gonna try and string it together in a way where you can see one or two or three if you want to, but we might make a pass which I'll allow people to see all five for a bit of a discount as well.

Speaker 1 6:03

Oh, brilliant.

Speaker 6:04

Yeah, see how that goes. I'm still working on that one. Let's uh talk about the movies that are starting this

H Is For Hawk And Grief

Speaker 6:09

week. There's really only two movies we need to talk about, but we're gonna start with a nice little drama called H is for Hawk. Now, have you heard of that film?

Speaker 1 6:16

I've heard a lot about it. I haven't watched the trailer though.

Speaker 6:18

Yeah, look, the film is based on a novel. Uh it's about a woman whose father um passes away and it really, really affects her. And she basically finds herself sort of a bit lost and a bit um, you know, regressing into her pain when she is um sort of bought out of her shell by making friends with a goshawk by the name of Mabel. And this is a thing that her and her father had shared as a love of watching birds, and so she ends up um connecting with Mabel and almost falling in love with this bird, and through that bond, she basically rediscovers that um you know that whole feeling of being alive and gets through her pain of losing her father. So it's a I've had a few people see it, they've kind of said it's great. Uh take a tissue, basically, Brett, if you want to go and see a really good, nice film. It's it's definitely a film for I would say for the sort of plus twenties.

Speaker 1 7:13

Okay, so yeah, there might be a bit of dust in the theatre. That happens with.

Speaker 7:17

There's a lot of there's always a lost lot of dust in our theatres. Whenever I start having a tear in my eye, uh, it's the dust. Absolutely. And of course, there's just one other film that we're going to talk about today, uh, and that is Spider-Man Brand New

Why This Spider-Man Works

Speaker 7:29

Day.

Speaker 1 7:29

Now, can I ask, have you seen the film?

Speaker 7:31

I have seen the film. In fact, I got to see it a day early, which was nice. Excellent. Yes. I attended an event for the industry and we um watched a whole lot of stuff about what's coming up, a lot of which I can't talk about. But uh afterwards we all sat down and watched Spider-Man No Way Home, and then I drove back here the three and a half hours back from Auckland, and it was um totally, totally worth it.

Speaker 1 7:53

Look, the trailer looks amazing. Everything I've read about it saying this is the best Spider-Man movie ever.

Speaker 7:59

Yep, absolutely. Now, um look, the franchise has always been successful. Spider-Man as a character, he sort of stands apart from all the other Marvel characters because he sits within the Sony side of the franchise. However, his movies are consistent. All the Spider-Men, you know, all the men who have played Peter Parker, all those films have always been consistent and they've always been popular. Because I just don't think Spider-Man has any of the hang-ups and the hassles and the baggage that a lot of the Marvel characters come with. Um, Peter Parker's positive, he's you know, he's young, he's just trying to make his way in the world, and he hasn't really got a bad word to say about anybody. He's just a nice guy, and I think that really, really works. That's why they call him the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Speaker 1 8:44

Yeah, and I remember like growing up, there was a Spider-Man TV series in the 70s and early 80s.

Speaker 8:50

I can sing you the theme. And it was really good.

Speaker 1 8:52

I can I know every word by heart, I am not going to sing, but it was it was it was a good, like for for me as a fan of the superhero, yeah, a superman and a Spider-Man on TV. And I was all good. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 9:06

Well, look, this film takes place four years after the previous film. Okay. Uh, this is where the previous film was where Peter sacrificed uh the memory of him with all his friends and people who knew him to protect his identity, but more so to protect the love of his life. And so now he's an adult, he's living alone, he is basically erased from the memories of the bigly loves. He's crime fighting in New York, he's got a whole, you know, they do a quick little recap on all the people he's caught, you know, the hand and scorpion and all these other great um classic Spider-Man characters. And then he suddenly has this um run-in with a new character. And of course, I'm not gonna say who it is. Some people have actually easily worked it out, but for those of you who are not up with your law, it'll take a bit of uh connecting the dots. But um the strange pattern of crimes starts and it becomes the most difficult thing that Peter Parker has ever had to face. So Spider-Man brand new day, um, absolutely dominating the global box office right now.

Speaker 1 10:09

Do I have to watch the one previous to try and catch myself up, or uh can you go into it cold and you should be sweet?

Speaker 10:16

Oh, look, I think you can go into it cold. Um, if you've never seen any of the previous Spider-Man films um with Tom Holland as Spider-Man, you'll still really enjoy this film. It's playing in 2D. Uh, I understand there's about six or seven cinemas around the country also playing it in 3D. Um and funny enough, we are one of them. And what's it look like in did you see it in 3D? I saw it in 2D, and I've I've actually had one customer, and I'm I'm not kidding when I say this, they've already seen the movie four times and they watched it in 2D and 3D and they thought the 3D was better. Oh, okay. Yeah, they are real fans. And I mean, when I say they're fans, they literally turned up wearing a Spider-Man coffee.

Speaker 1 10:54

Oh, that's good. I mean, and maybe the glasses and just the effects, maybe you see some extra things you don't see in the 2D. Who knows?

Speaker 11:00

Yeah, absolutely. But look, you know, there I don't know why people aren't embracing the 3D on this particular film, because there are several films that I think will work well in 3D. This just happens to be one of them. So look, um, Spider-Man brand new day, that is gonna be the one we're gonna have a guest on the box office in just a minute. And I will uh I'll go first on this because when I tell you my number, you might fall out of your chair. But before we get there, we're just gonna very briefly talk about um Marvel at the end of the year and of course Dune.

Dune Versus Avengers And The Big Slate

Speaker 11:30

Now, the Dune 3 trailer dropped the other week, as did the Avengers Doomsday trailer. Um, and I've got a real quandary going on because they are opening on the same day. Which of these two films are going to basically win the box office? Because Dune has come off the back of two other extremely successful sci-fi films. Um, Everybody Loves Dune. Okay. Well, almost everybody. Avengers Doomsday. This is going to be tricky because it's basically bringing together the last three movies that Marvel put out, all of which underperformed at the box office. So that would be um the Black Panther movie, the Fantastic Four movie, and the Thunderbolts. So it's bringing those three people groups together in a movie, and there's a couple of other characters in there as well. Um, and this is not spoiling it because this is in the trailer. You've got some X-Men in there as well. And I've got a real question, is bringing three movies that possibly underperformed together going to bring this movie up and lift it up and get it really hitting the mark? Or is this going to be another struggle for Marvel? I don't know.

Speaker 1 12:40

I don't think it's going to be a struggle. There's something about this year. I mean, look at Spider-Man. There was superhero fatigue, right? There was no doubt. But look at the success we've had with Superman, Supergirl, perhaps not a huge success, but still pretty popular. Spider-Man is massive. I think people are going, you know what? Seeing them all together, this is gonna be good.

Speaker 13:02

Well, look, there is one thing I would say about Spider-Man films, and it seems to me, and this is just coincidence, but it almost feels like every time there is a really big, terrible thing that happens in the world, a Spider-Man film releases not long afterwards, and everybody uses that film to feel better. Uh, and it's happened on several of the releases of Spider-Man where things have gone wrong. Like, and the the classic one was um September 11 in America. Uh, the movie was meant to release, and then they had that terrible tragedy in America. They had to recall the trailer because the trailer featured the Twin Towers, and then when they did finally release Spider-Man a couple of months later, it dominated the box office globally because it made people feel better. And there's been a lot of of those Spider-Man releases that have just landed at times when people need to feel better. I think this is one of those times.

Speaker 1 13:57

Spider-Man massive leading into school holidays leading into the end of the year, which has not been a great year. I think escapism at the movies, that's why I love to go to the movies, just to turn my phone off and sit there in the dark for two hours, three at a stretch, and eat my Eminem's.

Speaker 14:16

Well, look, I will say I I personally, having looked at the slate that's coming up for the rest of this year and into now 2027, deep into 2027 and even into 2028, I don't think I've seen a stronger slate since 2018, 2019. And our end of the year, okay, so our end of the year, and these movies will not obviously appeal to every single person, but just hear me out here for a second. Uh, so you've got End of Oak Street coming up, which is a movie about time travel, uh, taking um some people from the 70s, early 80s, by the way, they're dressed into the prehistoric times and dealing with dinosaurs. Everybody loves dinosaurs, everybody loves time travel. Um, there's uh Spa Weekend, uh, which is just a great sort of girls' night out for the ladies. Uh, there's the Dog Stars coming out, which is a um uh based on another novel uh that looks really good about a post-apocalyptic um world. It's not zombies, but it's it's just mankind has fallen apart. There's the Mutiny movie with Jason Statham, and that's just August. We roll into September with the Joan Olomu movie, and I know loads of people are interested in that. There's a movie called Fall 2, which is part two of Fall. That looks really strong. Then you've got Practical Magic, you've got School Holidays rolling in, Sean the Sheep, and a really fantastic animated film which I love called Forgotten Island. Um, and I have seen that, and it's fantastic, I can tell you that much. Um, and then we roll into October, and you know, the British and Irish Film Festival comes in, you've got uh Kiwi Big Girls Don't Cry movie coming out, which opened the New Zealand International Film Festival this week. Uh, and then we've got a couple of other big films that roll into again, the Hunger Games comes out, and then of course we get into December and we're into Avengers, we're into Dune, we're into Angry Birds 3, and of course, Jumanji, which just dropped its trailer.

Speaker 1 16:09

I have watched that trailer about 10 times. It's so good.

Speaker 16:13

I can tell you right now, when when Dr. Bravestone starts to talk, and he's and he's speaking Spanish, and then him and It's my Charisma. Yeah, Charisma. And then Kevin Hart, and of course, The Rock is playing that guy, and Kevin Hart's the foil, and Kevin Hart and him are just arguing in Spanish with these great big subtitles. It's absolutely hilarious. So anybody who thinks The Rock and Kevin Hart have lost their luster can think again because that film is gonna be massive.

Speaker 1 16:42

I I mean, watch the trailer just to see them run in demo mode. That's the thing that got me brilliant.

Speaker 16:48

Yeah, absolutely. I uh it's and I love I love everything about that franchise, and I think it's gonna be ever since Robin Williams was in it back in the day, I've always enjoyed that franchise. Um, and even Zethura, which was the version where they went into the space. I don't know if you ever saw that movie or not. Yeah, I did, yep. Yep. So look, all of those movies aside, they're all fantastic and great, but let's talk about the guests, the box office guests, because this Okay, sure. Okay,

Spider-Man Opening Week Predictions

Speaker 17:13

Spider-Man Brand New Day is going to make in New Zealand in one week. Now bear in mind, what did we say, Christopher Nolan made? What 2.7 or something off the top of my head?

Speaker 1 17:23

2.7 million, yeah, yep.

Speaker 17:24

It's gonna make $5,500,000.

Speaker 1 17:27

Wow.

unknown 17:28

Wow.

Speaker 1 17:29

That is the biggest of the year by by any movie.

Speaker 17:33

The biggest number I think I've ever put forward on any movie ever, ever, on a box office on the podcast.

Speaker 1 17:40

Okay. I reckon it's gonna make six point one million dollars.

Speaker 17:46

You know the scary thing, folks, is that he might be right. And that would, I will be so unhappy if you're right. I'll be happy for Sony. I I wrote an email to the industry to thank them for the thing that they'd shown us the other day. It was I like just to say thank you. Uh, and I wrote this thing, I sent it out to all the major studios just to thank them. And uh I said, Oh, by the way, um I think I think you're gonna make over five million dollars this week. And the general manager of Sony, lovely uh lady, emailed me back and she just said, I really hope you're right. They are going to absolutely crush it this week. And you know what? This we were saying it before, um, and it's been kind of whispered around the corridors a fair bit that Spider-Man would be the highest-grossing movie of this year, and I think they are well on the way worldwide to doing that. Now, here's the other thing it is possible that Spider-Man Brand New Day is going to break the box office all-time record for an opening week, which was held by, strangely enough, Avengers from the last Avengers, the big Avengers from in 2019. And we all keep hearing, boy, wouldn't it be nice if the movies were like 2019. You know what? Watch this space. I think this movie could break $400 million in one week. Wow.

Speaker 1 19:03

So well over it's gonna be well over the billion. Well over the billion, two billion, maybe?

Speaker 19:09

They should they should easily get into the $1.3 billion worldwide. Um, because not only is the you know, not it's not just the hype, but everybody walking out of the movie is telling me how great it is, and I know for a fact that other people, besides the one super fan, I know that people are going and seeing that film two or three times, and it's only been going a couple of days. So my guess is pretty good 6.1 million. 6.1. All right, well, I'll go with 5.5, you go with 6.1. I really need a wind, but you know what? If you're right, again, I'm happy because at the end of the day, folks, you know, this is why we're in this industry.

Movies Are Back Closing Notes

Speaker 19:45

We're in there to entertain people, and I can tell you right now, people are being entertained, and the movies are back in a big way. It's crazy how everything is starting to lift. The rest of this year is probably gonna be 10, 15, 20% up on the previous year from August to December. So that's fantastic.

Speaker 1 20:03

So that is our catchphrase now. Movies are back in a big way. Thanks for listening to Eat Sleep Movie. Repeat, repeat a movie podcast available at Buzzer Brown, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.