Weekend Wrap-Up
by Tim Briody
July 8, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
It's an opening weekend of $76 million for the superhero sequel. While that seems low, especially compared to the last two Marvel films which happened to be the third and fourth biggest movies in history, it is an increase from Ant-Man's $57.2 million opening back in 2015. It's just yet another example how Marvel takes their B- and C-list characters and turns them into gold.
Ant-Man finished with an impressive $180.2 million domestically (and $338.7 million internationally), but there's a couple signs Ant-Man and the Wasp will not quite match that total despite the higher opening weekend. The first film started with a $22.6 million Friday and $57.2 million weekend, a 2.52 multiplier. The sequel began with $33.8 million, which means it had a 2.24 weekend multiplier, which is pretty bad. It did have $11.5 million from Thursday night showings included in the Friday earnings, and when you take that out, it was basically flat from Friday to Saturday. That generally doesn't indicate a lot of staying power. That said, the rest of July is looking fairly weak, with the biggest release for the rest of the month looking to be Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and that's not for three more weeks.
The Incredibles 2 holds onto second with $29 million, down 37% from last weekend and crossing the $500 million mark with a total of $504.3 million after four weekends, making it the biggest Pixar film of all time. It's also now the 11th biggest film of all time, and is looking to crack into the top ten by next weekend, with tenth place currently held by Rogue One with $532.1 million (where it will then also immediately take ninth place as The Dark Knight has $533.3 million).
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom continues to collapse, dropping another 53% to $28.5 million and giving the dinosaur sequel $333.3 million in three weekends. It's now halfway to the $652.2 million earned by Jurassic World. It will, uh, not get there. $400 million is looking like its most likely landing point right now.
Our other opener this weekend places fourth as The First Purge earns $17.1 million. Opening on Wednesday (to take advantage of July 4th), it earned $31 million over five days. The fourth film in The Purge series, The First Purge goes the prequel route and shows us how it all began. While this is the lowest opening weekend in the franchise's history (though the five-day total would be right in line with the other three movies), the series has always been very cheap to make and very profitable. In this case, The First Purge carried a reported price tag of just $13 million, so it's already more than doubled its production budget in its opening weekend. Why yes, it is a Blumhouse production, why do you ask?
The Purge franchise is not known for longevity (or good reviews), and I'm looking at a quick flameout here for The First Purge. Even with a domestic total of $55 million, Universal won't complain.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado concludes the parade of sequels in fifth place dives 62% from its opening weekend to $7.3 million and $35.3 million in two weekends. It's headed to match the $46.8 million of the original.
Uncle Drew also predictably drops 57% to $6.6 million and $29.9 million after two weekends. I'm stunned that a one note joke commercial turned into a full movie didn't have very good legs.
Ocean's 8 adds $5.2 million in its fifth weekend, down just 37% and giving it $126.7 million to date. With this weekend, it finally surpasses the $125.5 million of Ocean's Twelve to become the second best performer in the franchise. Based on the established pattern, we now look forward to Ocean's 9 in 2021, Ocean's 10 in 2024, before rebooting again with Ocean's 5 in 2035.
Tag earns $3.1 million (down 47%) to take eighth place and give the R-rated comedy $48.3 million after four weekends. Jeremy Renner probably decided the broken arm wasn't worth it for the box office returns on this one. To make matters worse, he wasn't used as Hawkeye in Infinity War and filming that meant he wasn't able to return in Mission: Impossible.
The Mister Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? ticks up a spot this weekend with $2.5 million in 893 theaters and $12.3 million so far. This passes the other documentary to crack the top ten this year, RBG, for the most successful one of 2018. Truly the feel good movie of the year according to everyone who sees it, the Focus Features release continues to take advantage of the weak top ten and there may continue to be some further expansion over the next couple of weekends.
Deadpool 2 wraps up its run in the top ten with $1.6 million and $314.5 million in eight weekends. The Marvel entry that's not part of the MCU fell short of the $363 million of the original.
The top 12 films this weekend earned $179.5 million, down from last year's $200.6 million when Spider-Man: Homecoming launched with $117 million.
Next weekend we get an animated sequel in Hotel Transylvania 3, and after months of wating, we finally get to see if The Rock made that jump as Skyscraper arrives in theaters.