In an incredibly weak weekend, Deadpool & Wolverine seized the opportunity to return to the top spot on its fifth weekend. There were three newcomers and there were mixed results; Blink Twice became another Channing Tatum blunder, The Forge performed well, while The Crow unsurprisingly became a feast for crows.
The Top 10 earned a combined $82.5 million this weekend. That's up 5.8% from last year, when Gran Turismo cheated its way to #1.
Deadpool & Wolverine got back to the top spot, dropping just 39% and adding $18.3 million this weekend. With $577.2 million in the bank already, the film is going to close with over $620 million, which is just extraordinary.
Last week's champ Alien: Romulus was more front-loaded than anticipated. The film fell a steep 61% and added $16.3 million. That drop is better than Covenant (70.6%) but is worse than Prometheus (59.4%). That's kinda surprising considering the film's good response so far, but it looks like the franchise has a ceilling. Through ten days, it has amassed $72.8 million, and it has no chance of topping Prometheus ($126.4 million). It will close with over $100 million, but it won't be by much.
Sony's It Ends with Us added $11.6 million this weekend. That marks another rough 51% drop, which suggests the film won't be as leggy as other book adaptations like Where the Crawdads Sing. But the film has made $120.6 million so far, so it's not like it really matters anyway.
In fourth place, Amazon MGM's Blink Twice debuted with $7.3 million in 3,067 theaters. That's not far off from Tatum's previous box office blunder, Fly Me to the Moon, which failed to take off with just $9.4 million just one month ago.
The film cost just $20 million, so it's not a bad debut. But it's not a great one either. Yet it's tough to ask for higher numbers, given that the trailers have been very vague over the film's content, and outside Tatum, the rest of the cast are not box office draws. And even Tatum, as mentioned, has had his share of bombs in the past. Zoë Kravitz, on her directorial debut, is also not a draw either. So it's a film that, at the end of the day, it's doing the best it possibly can.
According to Amazon MGM, 56% of the audience was female and 62% was in the 18-34 demographic. While critics liked the film, the audience didn't feel the same; they gave it a very weak "B–" on CinemaScore. It is reported that audience members felt uncomfortable with the film's surprisingly bleak tone, which might explain it. We'll see how it goes, but so far, we don't have signs of a hit here.
Sony/Affirm's The Forge debuted with $6.6 million in 1,818 theaters. The film cost just $5 million, so it will comfortably be in the green. A massive 80% of the audience was 35 and over. They gave it a strong "A+" on CinemaScore. It should hold well.
Twisters dropped 39% and added $6.1 million. That takes its domestic total to $248.5 million, passing the original Twister's unadjusted gross. If only the foreign performance matched this performance.
In seventh place, Fathom Events' Coraline dipped 49% and added $5 million this weekend. That takes its lifetime total to $106.9 million. In some big news, it officially passed Chicken Run to become the highest grossing stop-motion animated film domestically.
It's not until the eighth spot where we find Lionsgate's The Crow, which flopped with just $4.6 million in 2,752 theaters. For reference, the original Crow debuted with $11.7 million back in 1994, and that's just unadjusted. In fact, the reboot's opening weekend is less than the original's third weekend.
This was one of the easiest flops to predict this summer. There's so many reasons why the film was left to the crows, but there's a big one here: it simply didn't look good. In fact, every single image and trailer of the film looked awful. When you compare it to the original film, it's even worse. The lead character's make-up and design looked incredibly reminiscent of Jared Leto's Joker, which is the worst compliment you can give.
The original Crow attained a cult following, particularly as the film was Brandon Lee's final film due to his tragic death during filming. In the eyes of the public, Brandon Lee is The Crow, making it very difficult for any other actor to take the mantle. Which is why the reboot was stuck in development hell for decades and saw the involvement and subsequent exit of stars like Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum, Ryan Gosling, James McAvoy, Tom Hiddleston, Alexander Skarsgård, Luke Evans, Norman Reedus, Jack Huston, Nicholas Hoult, Jack O'Connell, and Jason Momoa.
Now, the public is not aware of production problems, they simply want to watch a film. But the amount of delays suggest there's problems with finding the right script. It didn't fully gain traction till a few years ago, when Bill Skarsgård finally signed. And as proven with Boy Kills World, he is not a big name at the box office. And when you have Rupert Sanders as director, you're set for failure in the reception; it's currently sitting at a poor 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. Combine it with a reboot that no one was really interested, and you've got a flop.
According to Lionsgate, 58% of the audience was male and 58% was in the 18-34 demographic. The audience gave it a poor "B–" on CinemaScore, suggesting very lukewarm word of mouth. With putrid reception, the film is destined to fall quickly. There's a strong chance the film's lifetime gross will be less than the original's opening weekend. Lionsgate won't be hugely affected; they paid $10 million for the film and only spent $15 million on marketing. But they will still lose money on the film.
Universal/Illumination's Despicable Me 4 eased just 32%, grossing $4.2 million. Its domestic total stands at $348.1 million.
Rounding up the Top Ten was Disney/Pixar's Inside Out 2, which dropped 41% and adding $2 million. Its domestic total is now $646.2 million, and it should see a great hold this incoming weekend.
OVERSEAS
Alien: Romulus once again led the box office with $41.6 million overseas, taking its worldwide total to $225.6 million. The big story is China, where it became the second-biggest Hollywood movie in the country this year, behind Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. In fact, it's already making more money there than in the United States. The best markets are China ($73.3M), UK ($10.7M), Korea ($9.7M), France ($7M) and Mexico ($5.6M).
It Ends with Us added $22.3 million overseas, taking the worldwide total to $242.4 million. Its best markets are the UK ($20.5M), Australia ($11.8M), Mexico ($10.8M), Germany ($9.1M) and Brazil ($8.1M).
Deadpool & Wolverine added $20.2 million, and its worldwide total is now $1.211 billion. The best markets are the UK ($66.6M), China ($58.7M), Mexico ($42.4M), Australia ($38.7M) and Germany ($33.1M).
Despicable Me 4 added $18.6 million, and its worldwide total stands at $886 million. The best markets are China ($54.9M), UK ($53.8M), Mexico ($44.5M), Germany ($35.9M) and France ($30.7M).
Inside Out 2 added $9.1 million. The big news, is that it became the first animated film to cross $1 billion at the overseas box office, with its worldwide total now at $1.648 billion. It's just a few millions away from passing 2019's The Lion King to become the biggest animated film ever. The best markets are Mexico ($102.2M), Brazil ($80M), UK ($72.7M), France ($62.6M) and Korea ($60.8M).
Blink Twice debuted in 73 markets, although it was also soft with just $6.7 million overseas. That takes its worldwide debut to $13.9 million.
You may notice The Crow's insanely low worldwide numbers. So far we don't have actual numbers. They'll be posted as soon as possible.
FILMS THAT ENDED THEIR RUN THIS WEEK
| Movie | Release Date | Studio | Domestic Opening | Domestic Total | Worldwide Total | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | May/10 | 20th Century Studios | $58,400,788 | $171,130,165 | $397,378,150 | $160M |
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has closed with almost $400 million worldwide. It's hard to call this a hit, given that it didn't cover its marketing expenses. But considering how it had to build interest for new characters and a new storyline, perhaps it's solid enough for Disney and 20th Century Studios to go forward with their trilogy.
THIS WEEKEND
It's Labor Day, which is notoriously a very slow moviegoing weekend. And without National Cinema Day, it's likely audiences opt to just save their money till Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
There's only one film expected to hit wide release, and that's Sony/Blumhouse's Afraid, which follows a smart home AI increasingly interjecting itself into a family's life. Buzz is not quite strong with this film, and while it should be profitable due to Blumhouse's low budget, it'd be a surprise if it truly broke out.
ANNOUNCEMENT
This week, I'm leaving for a short vacations, so I won't be able to do a post next week. But don't worry, u/BunyipPouch will cover for me for Labor Day. Then I'll be back to talk about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
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