Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
June 17, 2017
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Cars got super dark.

Four new wide releases shake up the box office, as Pixar's latest leads the way, along with one surprise breakout and one decently sized flop.

Cars 3

Pixar returns with Cars 3, and it’s an easy Friday win with $19.6 million. That’s down a bit from the $25.7 million Cars 2 earned in 2011, but right in line with the 2006 original film. The Thursday evening take was pretty minimal (it actually got beat by All Eyez on Me) but the recurring theme with Pixar films is that there tends to be a bit of a Friday rush factor which leads to lower than the expected high weekend multipliers for the animated genre (Cars managed about a 3.0 but Cars 2 landed with just a 2.57 weekend multiplier). The first two entries cracked $60 million opening weekend, but Cars 3 is probably going to end that streak as it’s headed to a $56 million weekend.

All Eyez on Me

The Tupac Shakur biopic is a surprise second place on Friday with $12.7 million, with $3.1 million of that coming from Thursday night showings (ahead of Cars 3’s $2.8 million). Despite terrible reviews, there was still an audience for this (the Notorious B.I.G. biopic opened to $20.4 million back in 2009) and they showed up. Friday was probably its strongest day, but $29 million for the weekend is way ahead of even the most optimistic forecasts.

47 Meters Down

Underwater thriller 47 Meters Down started with $4.3 million on Friday, a relatively disappointing number when you look at the similarly themed The Shallows from last year, which started out with $6.8 million. Then again, Mandy Moore is no Blake Lively. It’s headed to an okay weekend of $11.1 million.

Rough Night

The female dark comedy is the flop of the weekend with just $3.3 million on Friday. Despite the impressive cast, nobody’s much of a draw and this is the type of movie that really needed strong reviews to carry it and they just weren’t there. Look for a weekend of about $9 million for Rough Night.

Wonder Woman

Knocked down to third place after two weekends at the top, Wonder Woman still holds well, off just 31% from last Friday to $10.8 million, giving it $244.6 million to date. It’s going to take back second place from All Eyez on Me as it creeps closer to $300 million and positions itself nicely to finish with $400 million domestically. This weekend, Wonder Woman adds another $37.8 million to its total.