It was a barn-burner for most of the weekend, but good ultimately overtook evil at the box-office as Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk legged it out for the top spot while The Emoji Movie faded as the weekend wore on. In its second weekend, Dunkirk — as predicted — had strong legs, falling only 46 percent (as opposed to the 60-70 percent for most blockbusters), ending the frame with $28.1 million. After ten days, that pushes the Nolan film over $100 million and it still has the rest of the summer with relatively little competition to continue pulling in audiences. The film has also added over $100 million in international money before the weekend, so $100 million budgeted film is sitting pretty.
As for The Emoji Movie? Kid flicks are typically review proof, but in some cases, the reviews and word of mouth are so powerfully bad that parents successfully resist their kids’ efforts to see them. My guess is that this weekend, there were a lot of parents offering to take their kids to the beach or outright lying. “Sorry Timmy! The movie theater is closed this weekend.” Cinemascore for the movie was a B, which is outright terrible for a kids film (how bad does a movie have to be for a kid to say, “It was meh”?) And yet, for all of that, The Emoji Movie still pulled in $27 million, and with Nut Job 2 as the only other animated offering in the next month, parents are given no good outs if they want to kill 2 hours with the kids in a movie theater.
In at third place this weekend is another strong weekend for what may become the sleeper hit of the summer, Malcolm Lee’s hilarious Girls Trip, which put up another $20 million this weekend on the strength of great word of mouth. That’s a mere 36 percent drop in its second weekend and after 10 days, it’s earned $65 million, well on its way to $100 million on only a $20 million budget (or what the cast alone will be able to command for a sequel).
Fourth place goes to Charlize Theron’s Atomic Blonde, which put up $18 million at the box office this weekend, on the slightly lower end of expectations. It’s still an impressive number for a $30 million film, and even more impressive that it earned that on the basis of its action sequences alone, because the plot is fairly incoherent. However, it is moody and very European, so it should have no problem more than breaking even once worldwide box office is accounted for. I’m not sure there’s enough here for an Atomic Blonde franchise, but if Lionsgate and Focus Features want to get together, Theron’s character would make a great addition to the John Wick universe (director David Leitch connects the two pics). I’d love to see a sequel to Atomic Blonde that also doubles as a prequel to John Wick, which sees Theron’s hitman character as a mentor to Wick’s hitman character in the 1990s.
Holdovers took spots 5 through ten this weekend. Spider-Man: Homecoming continues to hum along, adding $13 million to bring its stateside total to $278 million. That’s better than The Amazing Spider-Man ($262 million) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($202 million), but it’s worldwide total ($630 million) is still short of the worldwide totals of the Andrew Garfield films ($757 million and $702 million).
Sixth place goes to War for the Planet of the Apes, which adds $10 million to bring its domestic total to $118 million. Despite great reviews and positive word of mouth, this franchise has clearly run out of gas, as it will ultimately fall well short of its predecessors both domestically and worldwide.
Despicable Me 3 lands in 7th place, adding $8 million to bring its total to $230 million, which is less than one third of its worldwide total, which now stands at $743 million and counting.
The summer’s biggest box office bomb, Valerian and the City of One Thousand Planets, continues to fade in its second weekend. It falls 72 percent to a meager $6 million. That’s $30 million total after 10 days on a $210 million budget. It still has not opened worldwide, so the ultimate fate of the Luc Besson film remains to be seen.
Closing out the top ten is Baby Driver, which has pushed its overall total to $92 million (on a $40 million budget) and Wonder Woman, the summer’s biggest hit, which has accumulated $395 million and should cross the $400 million by next weekend.
One other note: The Big Sick, purchased for $12 million, has now crossed the $30 million mark, so everything else is gravy (and it should do very well in the home streaming market). Congratulations Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon for reviving the romantic comedy.
Next weekend sees the release of The Dark Tower, which should be huge, but that short runtime (95 minutes) has some people concerned. Meanwhile, Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit, which did well this weekend in limited release, opens wide along with Halle Berry’s Kidnap.
(Via Deadline and Box Office Mojo)
