Box office is often talked about like a zero-sum game. On a given weekend, there's a limited amount of willingness people have to go to the movies, and the titles playing at the time are competing to be the one they choose to see. Studios often do their best to avoid scheduling their big releases against each other – in cases where two competing movies are high-budget tentpoles, even the "winner" can end up losing.

Sometimes, though, movies work together. Those that cater to different audiences can coexist without cannibalizing each other, which is why a movie like Nosferatu was smart to release at Christmas. In a best-case scenario, you get Barbenheimer, where two different movies are twinned to the degree that their distinct audiences embrace seeing both – but that was hardly planne

See Full Page