Weekend Wrap-Up

Cars 3, Tupac and a $120 Million Top 3 Drive Box Office

By John Hamann

June 18, 2017

Is he speed or is he sideways?

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Can this version of Cars earn the $191.5 million the second Cars film made? I doubt it, but the overseas amounts have grown since the mini-franchise began, with the first making $218 million overseas, and the second film hauling in $370 million. The budget for Cars 3 was a serious $175 million, but less than the sequel's $200 million budget (before advertising). An overseas disappointment will end this franchise, solid toy sales or not, as the Pixar brand is not used to this level of failure.

Finishing in a very strong second is Wonder Woman, which is lighting the box office on fire. The DC product fell only 31% Friday-to-Friday, earning $11 million to start its third weekend of release. That embarrasses its DC/WB brethren, as Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad were all earning about $6 million at this point in their runs. With a weekend take of $40.8 million, Wonder Woman comes out of nowhere, recording the 11th best third weekend of all time, beating major films like Avengers: Age of Ultron's third frame ($38.9 million) , as well as Zootopia's ($37.2 million). The weekend drop came in at 30%, an outstanding hold compared to last weekend. The domestic total is already at $274.6 million – it took Batman v Superman 20 days to hit the $300 million mark, Wonder Woman will be close to that, and it didn't have the $166 million opening frame that BvS did. Overseas, Wonder Woman has pulled in almost $300 million, easily turning its $149 million production into a profit for DC and Warner Bros. The question now is how do you position Wonder Woman in the DC Universe to take advantage of the popularity?




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All Eyez on Me, the biopic about Tupac, finishes a healthy third this weekend after taking down the powerful Wonder Woman on opening day. Tupac got started at Thursday previews, earning a remarkable $3.1 million on Thursday night. Expectations were for a debut in the mid-teens, and this kind of preview had to make a few people at Lionsgate quite excited. The combined Thursday/Friday came in at $12.8 million, almost guaranteeing the lately beat up distributor a return on the $40 million production budget. The weekend was estimated at $27.1 million, and while this is not Straight Outta Compton's $60 million open, everybody involved has to be happy with this result. Eyez has a no name star, a first time director known for music videos, and really not much else – the audience simply responded.

Given the number of rookies involved with All Eyez on Me, it is likely no surprise that critics weren't thrilled. It currently has a 24% fresh rating at RT, however with only a total of 28 reviews. The Cinemascore on the other hand, is where the good news lives. Eyez earned an A- Cinemascore, very close to the A that Compton earned. Lionsgate has been shrewd with the marketing here, as this one will likely not play well overseas. The studio does have room to expand the film domestically.


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