Weekend Wrap-Up

by Tim Briody

June 3, 2018

Not a scene from Westworld.

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It's the second weekend for Solo: A Star Wars Story and suddenly we have a disaster on our hands that was virtually unthinkable even a month ago.

For the first weekend of June, any big releases got out of the way of Solo, expecting domination from the Star Wars spinoff, but what they got was an absolutely absurd second weekend decline and easily this year's second biggest box office story after Black Panther, for all the wrong reasons.

After last weekend's disappointing holiday weekend opening when it barely stumbled over the $100 million mark in four days, Solo earns a second weekend of $29.2 million, a 65% decline from last weekend. Yup. That happened. In ten days in theaters, Solo has mustered only $148.8 million.

With a decline like that, suddenly $200 million domestic suddenly feels like the top end here. At the very least, Solo will not match the opening weekends of The Force Awakens ($247.9 million) or The Last Jedi ($220 million), something that I still find incredible. There will be books written about the making of the film and the end result.

While word-of-mouth seems to be "it's actually pretty good!" that doesn't seem to be saving Solo from a disappointing box office fate. The thing we don't know is exactly why. Maybe it's because Alden Ehrenreich (who joins Ansel Elgort in the Failed Palindrome Club) isn't Harrison Ford. Maybe it's Star Wars fatigue, with Solo coming less than six months after The Last Jedi. Maybe it was the vocal minority that didn't like that film electing to skip this one. Maybe it was the disastrous production (though 99% of moviegoers probably have no idea about the process). It's certainly a combination of these factors rather than one specific reason. But the utter rejection by the fanbase is still absolutely stunning. We'll keep watching Solo's box office over the next month, but it's hard to argue that it's going to continue to be a box office factor by July, something I don't think Disney was anticipating at all.




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Making it a surprisingly close race for second place is the third weekend of Deadpool 2, adding $23.3 million (down 46%) to give it $254.6 million to date. Despite the big holiday weekend decline last weekend, it's going to make a run at $300 million and is performing excellently overseas, so we'll probably see them go to the well one more time as long as Ryan Reynolds is interested.

Adrift floats to third place on the weekend, with $11.5 million. The based on a true story romantic drama starring Shailene Woodley (who is clearly a big fan of this weekend, opening The Fault In Our Stars to $48 million on the first weekend of June in 2014) slightly beats expectations, but had a $35 million price tag, and that's going to be a little bit rough to recoup. I don't like the long term prospects for the STX Entertainment release.

Avengers: Infinity War slips to fourth with $10.3 million (down 40%) and has now earned $642.8 million in six weekends as Marvel's ridiculous 2018 continues. As Black Panther (now less than $1 million from $700 million but in just 284 theaters this weekend...and also on DVD/streaming) nears a milestone, Infinity War will settle for about $675 million, which makes the sting from Solo hurt a little bit less for Disney.

Book Club manages the best hold in the top ten again, down just 32% from last weekend with $6.8 million and $47.3 million in three weekends. Comedy for old people always holds pretty well, especially when targeted towards women. Reportedly only costing $10 million to make, it's well on its way to an impressive $65 million total.

Another opener is in sixth place for the weekend, but not the one you think: Upgrade, from BH Tilt (BH is short for Blumhouse) lands with $4.4 million in just 1,457 theaters. The sci-fi horror thriller(?) is another film that's right in Blumhouse's, uh, wheelhouse, made on the cheap and getting results. It's got a reported $5 million budget and it's almost there, with minimal marketing. Even with a big dive from here, Jason Blum continues to spin straw into gold.

Life of the Party earns $3.4 million in its fourth weekend as the Melissa McCarthy disappointment has earned $46.3 million in four weekends, headed towards $50 million total, while Breaking In adds $2.8 million to its $41.3 million total (also in four weekends), but the former had expectations and cost $30 million while the latter only cost $5 million.

A third opener takes ninth place as Johnny Knoxville's Action Point flops hard with $2.3 million on the weekend. The amusement park comedy (reportedly based on a place I saw a lot of TV ads for as a kid) wasn't very appealing to viewers, and Knoxville's brand of comedy has always had a bit of a short shelf life. It will vanish quickly from here, not even coming close to its reported $19 million budget.

Overboard wraps up our top ten with $1.9 million and has quietly earned a solid $45.5 million despite peaking at 2,000 screens for just one weekend. The Eugenio Derbez/Anna Faris gender swapped remake will fall short of $50 million, but Lionsgate must still be very happy with their investment.

The top 12 films this weekend totaled $99.6 million, a figure beat by just one of last year's films, when Wonder Woman opened to $103.2 million and the top 12 took in $180.3 million.

We'll have a new #1 next weekend, perhaps a weekend sooner than expected as the all-female spinoff Ocean's 8 is next weekend's big release.


Top Ten for Weekend of June 1-3, 2018
Rank
Film
Distributor
Estimated
Gross ($)
Weekly Change
Cumulative
Gross ($)
1 Solo: A Star Wars Story Walt Disney 29.2 -65% 148.8
2 Deadpool 2 20th Century Fox 23.3 -46% 254.6
3 Adrift STX Entertainment 11.5 New 11.5
4 Avengers: Infinity War Walt Disney 10.3 -40% 642.8
5 Book Club Paramount 6.8 -32% 47.3
6 Upgrade BH Tilt 4.4 New 4.4
7 Life of the Party Warner Bros. 3.4 -36% 46.3
8 Breaking In Universal 2.8 -34% 41.3
9 Action Point Paramount 2.3 New 2.3
10 Overboard Lionsgate 1.9 -37% 45.5
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

     


 
 

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