Taylor Swift's Blockbuster Concert Movie Outshines 'Killers of the Flower Moon' in Box Office Debut

Summary

Killers of the Flower Moon had a solid opening weekend, but was surpassed by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in box office earnings.

The film, helmed by Martin Scorsese and featuring Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, is a cinematic adaptation of actual murders that occurred within the Osage Nation during the 1920s. In spite of its comparatively lower box office revenue, Killers of the Flower Moon faced stiff competition from Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which experienced a noteworthy decline in earnings but nonetheless surpassed the film's performance.

Killers of the Flower Moon had a solid opening weekend at the box office, but it was outperformed by the Taylor Swift concert doc, The Eras Tour. The film, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is based on a nonfiction book by David Grann and tells the story of a series of murders in the 1920s that shook the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, following the discovery of oil on their land.

According to Deadline, Killers of the Flower Moon earned $23 million in its first weekend in domestic theaters. However, it was unable to secure the top spot, as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour brought in $32 million in its second week. Despite a significant 66 percent drop from its impressive opening weekend total of $92.8 million, the global pop star still drew in larger crowds than the Martin Scorsese movie. Both films have lengthy run times, which limits the number of theaters able to screen them each day.

How Does Killers of the Flower Moon Compare With Other Recent Scorsese Movies?

Despite not reaching No. 1 at the box office, the release of Killers of the Flower Moon has achieved the director's third-best opening weekend of all time. It falls behind two previous successful collaborations between Scorsese and DiCaprio: The Departed in 2006 with $26.9 million and Shutter Island in 2010 with $41 million. The next highest-grossing film after Flower Moon is The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013, which earned $18.4 million and also starred DiCaprio.

It should be acknowledged that the performance of Killers of the Flower Moon cannot be equated to Martin Scorsese's grand 2019 film, The Irishman. While The Irishman, which went on to receive 10 Oscar nominations, had a limited theatrical release before its Netflix debut, its box office numbers cannot be compared to the newer film. However, both movies achieved a similar level of critical acclaim (with Killers of the Flower Moon receiving a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes compared to The Irishman's 95%) and had somewhat comparable commercial success, albeit measured on different scales.

Nevertheless, considering Martin Scorsese's highly esteemed career, Killers of the Flower Moon is performing well. Though both Shutter Island and The Departed claimed the top spot during their respective opening weekends, Killers of the Flower Moon is showing significant financial potential. It is worth noting that Shutter Island faced no major competition during its opening weekend, while The Departed only competed with the comedies The Last Kiss and Employee of the Month, as well as the horror prequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

Source: Deadline