Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé experiences a huge week 2 drop and loses the #1 spot despite a lack of major box office competition from new releases.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé has taken a severe drop in its second weekend at the box office. The concert documentary, which was directed, written, and produced by the Grammy winner herself, documents the star’s Renaissance World Tour, which took place between May and October 2023. The movie opened during the typically quiet post-Thanksgiving weekend, previously taking No. 1 at the domestic box office with a tidy sum of $21.8 million.
Per Deadline, the Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé release stumbled severely at the domestic box office in its second weekend. Its week-upon-week drop will be 75%, as it is only projected to take in $5.6 million. This means it has already relinquished the No. 1 spot despite a dearth of major wide-release competition. The new movies to open this weekend were less mainstream, non-blockbuster fare including the anime feature The Boy and the Heron, the horror movie The Cello, and the awards contenders Poor Things and Eileen (in its wide expansion).
Renaissance‘s disappointing box office performance is surprising considering the fact that it was part of one of the year’s biggest box office battles after Barbenheimer weekend, in which the major releases Barbie and Oppenheimer went head-to-head on the same day. Renaissance was expected to be in competition with the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour box office after that movie opened in mid-October. Both titles were concert documentaries bringing two of the highest-grossing tours of summer 2023 to the big screen via AMC, leading to this close comparison.
In the face of this huge second-weekend defeat, it seems that the Taylor Swift vs. Beyoncé box office battle has been decidedly won. Although The Eras Tour also featured a significant drop of 64.2% in its second weekend, its opening was already significantly higher, at $92.8 million, leaving its resulting second weekend total as a not-inconsiderable $33.2 million. It wasn’t until its sixth weekend in theaters that Taylor made a 3-day total that was less than $6 million.
This box office result isn’t necessarily damaging to Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé when considered separately from Taylor Swift. Its cumulative worldwide total of more than $34 million makes it at least the seventh highest-grossing concert movie in history, including stand-up specials. However, opening so soon after the buzzy release of The Eras Tour may have diluted audience interest, preventing the new movie from becoming a blockbuster on that same level.
