Whenever there’s not a clear #1 film opening over a weekend, other films show up trying to compete and make a name for themselves. We’ve just had two weekends like that in a row with one clear winner, one mid, and two notable oops.
F1 had a “maybe it can be minor hit like Ford vs. Ferrari” vibes coming into last week, but it ended-up doubling its early projections with a swift $57 million debut. That’s almost double what Ford vs. started with in 2019. The Brad Pitt starrer became his biggest opening weekend ever and the film looks like it might cruise through July as a nice alternative to the big dino and superhero flicks.
28 Years Later entered the season as an oddball summer release. Cult status and big box-office don’t often go hand-in-hand (i.e. Blade Runner 2049), so in some ways a 10-day total of $50 million seems impressive for the film. Still, it dropped 67% in its second weekend, meaning there’s not going to be much “laters” left for this film to stay in theaters.
Megan 2.0 tried to ride the wave of being a surprise low-budget, teen friendly, horror hit in 2022 and instead took a detour toward action, comedy, and Terminator 2. This was clearly a pitstop no one wanted to stay at as Megan 2.0’s $10.2 million debut was $20 million less than the original version! Yikes. It’s one of the biggest drop-offs for horror film sequels ever. Maybe they can add a patch and call it 2.1 when it starts streaming at home.
The ad-nauseum film of the summer has already become Elio. The Pixar film that only The Good Dinosaur will be thankful for was a bust of a bust for Disney. 25% of my Google home page feed is “why did Elio tank” and “what was Disney thinking.” In case you were wondering, the other 75% is usually about Nintendo, the NBA, and which craft brewery is closing this week.
Regardless, Elio had the worst opening ever for a Pixar film ($20.8 million) and is at $41.9 million after 10 days on a $200 million budget. For all the massive success of Lilo & Stitch, all the naysayers are going to talk about are this year’s Snow White and Elio duds. Dem’s the breaks.
Speaking of L&S, it did cross the $400 million mark! Kudos to 626.
Meanwhile, How To Train Your Dragon crossed $200 million as family films are doing great this summer… As long as you’re not Elio.
Also, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is about $3 million away from Thunderbolts* and looks like it should reckon past it over the 4th of July weekend.
This week, we’ll see if there’s a new trilogy brewing for our Jurassic friends or whether Rebirth leads to Reboot.
The Top Five If Today Was Labor Day:
#1. Lilo & Stitch - $400 million
#2. How to Train Your Dragon - $200.2 million
#3. Thunderbolts* - $189.7 million
#4. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - $186 million
#5. Final Destination: Bloodline - $136.7 million
