No one can break Beyoncé’s soul or defeat her at the box office.
“Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” — released through a direct distribution deal with AMC Theatres — nabbed the box-office title this weekend by bringing in $21 million domestically.
The “Cuff It” singer’s movie performed well within initial box-office projections of $20-25 million.
The concert film placed well ahead of second-place finisher “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” which hauled $14.5 million in its third weekend. The film has now brought in $121.2 million in the North American box office.
“Renaissance” opened to the fifth-best domestic debut weekend for a concert movie, finishing behind “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” which opened to $92.8 million; “Miley Cyrus’ “Best of Both Worlds,” $31 million; “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” $29.5 million; and Michael Jackson’s “This Is It,” $23.2 million.
Rounding out the top five at the domestic box office were Toho International’s “Godzilla Minus One,” which stomped its way to $11 million in its opening weekend; Universal Pictures’ “Trolls Band Together,” which scored $7.6 million in its third weekend for a North American cumulative of $74.8 million; and Disney’s “Wish,” which summoned $7.4 million in its sophomore outing for a North American total of $42 million.
Written, directed and produced by the inimitable Beyoncé, “Renaissance” is a filmed compilation of the “Alien Superstar” artist’s latest international concert tour. The film captures segments of performances from the last year, including her three-night run at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium. The movie also gives viewers a sneak peek of all the backstage work that goes into planning a concert experience on such an impressive scale.
The film scored a flawless 100% critics score and a 100% audience score on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. It garnered an equally unblemished A-plus grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
“[T]he nearly three-hour-long ‘Renaissance’ wants to take the viewer behind the scenes to reveal the hard work that’s made Beyoncé unquestionably the greatest live performer of her generation. It’s a celebration of talent, yes, but also of the commitment, the sacrifice, the sheer tenacity required to pull off the illusion of effortlessness,” writes Times pop music critic Mikael Wood.
“‘Renaissance’ keeps coming back to Beyoncé — to her voice, to her body, to her mind,” Wood continues. “As the movie’s star, she occupies every inch of the spotlight she’s labored for decades to fill. As its director, she knows she has something no other filmmaker’s got.”
Releasing next weekend is the Kino Lorber French crime thriller “La Syndicaliste,” which stars Oscar nominee Isabelle Huppert. Next weekend, “The Boy and the Heron,” Hayao Miyazaki’s first film in a decade, distributed in the U.S. by GKids, expands beyond New York and Los Angeles, where the film opened on Nov. 22 to rave reviews.
