Facebook Watch: ‘Blair Witch’ Repeats Atop Facebook Charts

Monday Afternoon Update: For the second week in a row Blair Witch led all upcoming films in new likes with 66,045. A new trailer coupled with new TV spots helped to propel it forwards and at its current pace it should easily be able to hit 800,000 likes by its release. By comparison The Visit had 669,683 likes on the eve of its release while last weekend’s Don’t Breathe had 189,256. Big things are in store for Blair Witch and at this point $10 million on opening would appear to be its basement which is a great position for a low budget remake to be in. Of course chances of lightning striking twice again here are slim (the first film famously made $248 million from a $60,000 production budget) but the buzz surrounding it is undeniable and its basically a given that its going to turn profit.

Other September openers led by Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children did particularly well on the week as well as their marketing campaigns all kicked it up a notch and gave their awareness levels a shot in the arm. Miss Peregrine and Bridget Jones’s Baby in particular were very strong in both their increases and total numbers and appear set to join Blair Witch as some of the winners from the month.

Overall the top 10 accounted for only 230,876 new likes which was by far the lowest total on the year. In fact single movies (see Deadpool & Suicide Squad) have had bigger weeks by themselves in 2016. The slowdown in the box office revenues has definitely been reflected in the social media footprint of the films as is customary. Expect to see numbers uptick in a few weeks when the marketing for the holiday and award season slate picks up.

Facebook Top 10 Movies by Like Increase for the last week Ending Sunday August 28