Weekend Wrap-Up
by Tim Briody
June 17, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The Incredibles 2 arrived in theaters this weekend and blew away a few records, earning an, um, incredible $180 million on the weekend. It’s the best opening weekend for an animated film in history (the old opening weekend record was 2016’s Finding Dory with $135 million) and lands as the eighth best opening weekend of all-time (but only third best in 2018!). The long gap between movies didn’t matter; this is one fans had been waiting for, even more so than the Finding Nemo sequel. By the way, Disney now owns ten out of the 11 largest opening weekends, and the sequel to the one (Jurassic World, $208.8 million) is out next weekend.
The Incredibles 2 was a big one from the start, as Kim Hollis reported yesterday, it earned $18.5 million on Thursday night alone, sending Friday to $71.5 million, a number that beat the original film’s opening weekend alone (to be fair, it was 2004 and Pixar films didn’t really have massive opening weekends until very recently). Combine that with a 94% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and an A+ CinemaScore from audiences, and you’ve got the makings of a record.
There’s little more that needs to be added here, as now we look to see if The Incredibles 2 can show the legs we expect from Pixar and challenge Finding Dory’s total domestic box office of $486.2 million over the next few weekends. With this sort of start and the outstanding word of mouth, $500 million is a definitely possibility right now.
Ocean’s 8 takes second place, dipping 53% from last weekend to earn $19.5 million and give the all female reboot $79.1 million after two weekends. The decline is definitely a bit higher than Warner Bros. was hoping for, and perhaps may lead to second thoughts about a sequel. It’s still on pace to match Ocean’s Thirteen’s total of $117 million from 2007, but the ceiling is suddenly a lot lower.
R-rated comedy Tag opens in third place, with $14.6 million. The based on a true story of a bunch of adults who have kept the same game of tag going since they were kids starred Jeremy Renner (not having a good year since he wasn’t even in Infinity War and also will miss the Mission: Impossible sequel, out next month), Ed Helms, Jon Hamm and Isla Fisher. While the concept and trailer were good, it was hard to shake the feeling that it contained all the good bits, and the reviews just weren’t there (56% Fresh) and those are important to an R-rated comedy. It’s going to hit its reported budget (a modest $28 million), but Warner Bros. was clearly hoping the comedy would find a bigger niche in between the family friendly tentpoles (and dinosaurs, I suppose).
Solo: A Star Wars Story slips to fourth place with $9 million, down 42% from last weekend. It’s now got $192.8 million, putting it on pace to cross $200 million with next Friday’s take. Despite losing 1,200 screens this weekend, that’s the best hold its had yet. Still, it’s not even at the figure we all thought it would open with a month ago. The worse news is that Solo hasn’t made many waves overseas either, as it’s got a worldwide total of $339 million per our friends at Exhibitor Relations. In an era where domestic box office is rapidly becoming gravy on top of the international earnings, that’s additionally stunning.
Deadpool 2 adds $8.8 million (off 38%) to its total and nears the $300 million mark as it’s got $294.6 million after five weekends. I still think a third go around is just asking for trouble, as even with $300 million for the sequel, that’s still well off the $363 million of the original. It’s all up to Ryan Reynolds, though.
Hereditary manages to beat the odds and drop only 48% in its second weekend, earning $7 million and giving it a total of $27.1 million in two weekends. Despite the absurd D+ CinemaScore from audiences, the reviews were enough to keep it afloat. It’s still got a ways to go to become A24’s highest grossing film (held by Best Picture nominee Lady Bird with $48.9 million), but it’s going to be a solid second place (where it currently ranks about $700,000 behind Moonlight) and their best performing wide release.
Another new release lands in third place as Superfly earns $6.3 million. A remake of the blacksploitation film from the 70s (where is my Black Dynamite sequel?) by music video director Director X (no, really) and starring Trevor Jackson from grown-ish, Superfly opened Wednesday with $1.2 million and earned $8.4 million over five days. It only cost $16 million, though, so Sony should be making that back, as it appeared to play well with the targeted audience.
Avengers: Infinity War continues to roll along, down 27% to $5.2 million and a grand total of $664.1 million in eight weekends. Between Marvel and Pixar (and I guess Star Wars even though Solo has disappointed), I welcome our new Disney overlords.
Adrift takes a big hit in its third weekend, dropping 60% to $2.1 million and $26.8 million to date. While Book Club wraps up the top ten, adding $1.8 million and giving it $62 million after five weekends, there doesn’t seem to be enough left in the tank for it to top Game Night ($68.9 million) as 2018’s top comedy movie.
The top 12 films this weekend totaled $258 million, a nice bump from last year’s $183 million when Pixar also led the way with Cars 3 earning a modest $53.6 million (but also had the third weekend of Wonder Woman earning $41.2 million). Next weekend we have another heavyweight, as three years after taking the opening weekend record (a figure that is now in fourth place), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom arrives.