Weekend Wrap-Up

Dunkirk Leads Three New Releases to a Combined $100 Million

By John Hamann

July 23, 2017

Queens of the Mardi Gras!

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Dunkirk is going to be a similar performer compared to Interstellar, but it should do even better in the end. It turned its opening day of $19.8 million into a weekend gross of $50.5 million – a solid number considering that this is Oscar bait being released in July, doesn't have any focused star power, and is structurally different that a lot of films. I thought adding Harry Styles was a great idea – the matinee idol throwback – but I thought it added more to the film than the box office. Dunkirk cost Warner Bros. $150 million to make, and critics believe every penny is up on the screen. Dunkirk is 92% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, with many believing we have the film to beat for Oscar out in release already. Audiences were a little unsure, with the Cinemascore coming in at an A-. Overseas, where Dunkirk is likely to really shine, the war film took in $55.4 million, putting it in a position to reap huge rewards for the studio, especially if it finds some legs domestically.

While Dunkirk did great this weekend, Girls Trip is the real winner. The comedy cost Universal only $19 million to make, and it had an opening day gross of $11.7 million (combined with Thursday previews, of course). After a summer of terrible comedy results, great reviews and excellent word-of-mouth pushed Girls Trip out of Tyler Perry mode and into something much, much bigger. It easily outgrossed that production budget by the end of the weekend, pulling in $30.4 million over three days. That weekend total outdoes films likes Bridesmaids ($26.2 million opening) and Bad Moms ($23.8 million), and matches films like Think Like A Man ($33 million opening) and The Best Man Holiday ($30.1 million opening). Legs should be strong – the 89% fresh rating got audience's attention pre-release – and the A+ Cinemascore could make it a breakout hit and drive it forward for a long time to come.




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Spider-Man: Homecoming is third this weekend and is our top holdover, which is bad news for both Valerian and War For the Planet of the Apes. This weekend, Spidey's third, the webslinger earned another $22 million – so while the third place ranking is great, the weekend-to-weekend drop of 50% is higher than Sony would have liked. The domestic total has now hit $251.6 million, and combined with overseas results, Spidey easily crossed the half-billion worldwide mark this weekend. It cost $175 million to make, and marketing costs were heavy as well. Nonetheless, it will still make money.

War For the Planet of the Apes hit a bit of a cliff and fell hard from its $56.3 million opening frame. In its second frame, the well-reviewed Matt Reeves flick earned another $20.4 million but fell a hard 64%. The last film in the series, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, repeated at #1 in its second frame, and fell only 50%, earning $36.3 million. War, against its $150 million budget, has earned $97.8 million after two weekends of release, and has another $52 million from overseas theaters.


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