With a slate of weak newcomers, Deadpool & Wolverine had no trouble in keeping the top spot at the box office. In the process, it finally broke the 20-year-old record for biggest R-rated film in North America. While worldwide, the film has already amassed over $800 million. There two newcomers, but neither was particularly impressive: Trap proved to be quite front-loaded, while Harold and the Purple Crayon unsurprisingly died.
The Top 10 earned a combined $167.1 million. That's down 3.3% from last year, when Barbie was on top, and The Meg 2: The Trench and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem debuted.
Deadpool & Wolverine was still on the top spot. It earned $96 million this weekend, which marked a very solid 54% drop from its monster debut. With almost $400 million in the bank, it passed The Passion of the Christ ($370 million) to become the biggest R-rated film in North America. Of course, The Passion is still ahead in inflation ($616.6 million), and both films are still nowhere close to the all-time king, The Exorcist ($1 billion).
Through ten days, the film has earned $395 million domestically. While August will bring some breakouts, this film has enough legs to hit $550 million, and can go as high as $600 million.
Twisters stayed in second place. It eased just 35%, grossing $22.8 million this weekend. Through 3 weeks, the film has earned $195.7 million domestically. It should finish with around $250 million.
In third place, Warner Bros.' Trap debuted with $15.4 million in 3,181 theaters. That's not a bad start, but it's kinda disappointing that the film only opened a little higher than Knock at the Cabin ($14.1 million), despite the benefit of the summer season.
M. Night Shyamalan remains a well-known filmmaker; it marked another $10+ million opener for him. But considering its killer trailer, premise and $2.2 million in previews, it feels like the film could've opened much more higher than this. It was projected to open with over $20 million, then $17 million, before hitting $15.4 million. Shyamalan may be known, but it's not exactly a glowing feeling for the audience; Shyamalan's previous films have received very mixed reactions. While these films aren't as poorly received as Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender or After Earth, it's still not an indication that the audience wants to watch more from him.
Shyamalan slightly recovered with The Visit, before cementing a comeback with Split. That was the sign that he would return to his glory days, but that was short-lived. Glass made money, but it was widely considered a disappointing conclusion. He next released Old, which had worse reactions despite becoming profitable. Knock at the Cabin received mixed reactions from critics, even worse word of mouth ("C" on CinemaScore) and it just broke even at best, while also becoming his lowest grossing wide release film. Despite having fans, it looks like the general public is just not interested in Shyamalan's films anymore. And with the weak reviews (52% on RT), they knew this was not gonna be any different.
According to Warner Bros., 56% of the audience was male. Despite the PG-13 rating, there was absolutely no interest in young audiences; a massive 95% of the audience was 18 and older, with 58% in the 18-34 demographic. Critics didn't like the film, and the audience liked it even less; they gave it a poor "C+" on CinemaScore. Shyamalan's films, especially the poorly received ones, tend to fall off quickly, and with competition on its way, it's unlikely this will be any different. Don't be surprised if it fails to crack $40 million.
Despicable Me 4 eased just 21% and added $11.4 million. That takes its domestic total to $314.1 million.
In fifth place, Disney's Inside Out 2 also eased 21%, earning $6.8 million this weekend. The film has earned $626.9 million so far.
"I personally feel like the amount of content that comes out of Hollywood that is garbage — they don’t care enough to actually make it great for you guys. They don’t. How many times do you watch a trailer and go, ‘Oh my god, this looks so cool!’ Then you go to the movie and it’s like, ‘This was what I get?' They know that once you’ve already bought the ticket and you’re in the seat, they’ve got your money. And the only way for us to change any of it is to not go to the garbage. We have to actively not choose the garbage. It’ll help. It’ll help a lot.”
–Zachary Levi (2023)
It's not until sixth place where we find the other newcomer, Sony's Harold and the Purple Crayon. To the surprise of 2, maybe 3 Sony executives, the film flopped with just $6 million in 3,325 theaters. It managed to open below two animated titles that are at least one month old!
The failure is reminiscent of another box office failure, Monster Trucks. Both films marked the live-action directorial debut of a Blue Sky Animation director (Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha) and had bad press even before the film premiered. Of course, Harold only cost $40 million, so it won't lose much money compared to Trucks' $125 million budget. But it's still a failure.
As mentioned, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The book may be well known, but adapting a 1955 children's book and hoping there will be a huge market for it is asking too much. It's similar to the failure of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., an adaptation of a 1970 book. Sometimes, people may recognize a title, but that doesn't mean they will be interested. On top of that, the film was a bizarre adaptation; it's not a direct adaptation, but actually a live-action sequel focusing on an adult Harold. This makes for a tonally inconsistent film. And like previously said, the trailers have been mocked since its inception. And with poor reviews (28% on RT), families simply decided they could have other priorities for their children.
According to Sony, 54% of the audience was female and 52% was 35 and over. They were more forgiving of the film, giving it a fine "A–" on CinemaScore. There's no family competition until Transformers One, so it could hold well. But with a debut this small, it's unlikely the film can last much in theaters.
Neon's Longlegs is living up to its name, as it's legging out. It eased a light 39%, earning $4.1 million this weekend. The film has earned a fantastic $66.9 million.
In eighth place, Atlas Distribution released The Firing Squad in 702 theaters. It surprised with $1.6 million this weekend.
A Quiet Place: Day One added $1.3 million this weekend. That takes its domestic total to $137 million for now.
Rounding up the Top Ten is the re-release of Studio Ghibli's Ponyo. While it only counted for 2 days, it earned $800,000. That takes its lifetime total to $16.5 million domestically.
Deadpool & Wolverine was on top again. This time, it added $110 million overseas, taking its worldwide total to almost $824 million after just two weekends and becoming the biggest X-Men film ever. Its best markets are China ($45.2M), UK ($42.4M), Mexico ($32.8M), Australia ($24.6M) and Germany ($19.1M). By next week, it will pass the $1 billion milestone, and then it will pass Joker as the biggest R-rated film domestically.
Despicable Me 4 added $26.9 million, and its worldwide total is now $754 million. The best markets are China ($45.7M), Mexico ($40.1M), UK ($39.1M), Australia ($27.4M) and France ($24.2M). It still has Italy left.
Inside Out 2 added $20.9 million this overseas, taking its worldwide total to $1.555 billion. It opened in its final market, Japan, with $4.9 million, making it the second biggest debut for Pixar. In Mexico, it became the first film in the country to cross $100 million. The best markets are Mexico ($101.1M), Brazil ($78.5M), UK ($66.4M), Korea ($59.3M) and France ($57.5M).
Twisters may be doing very great domestically, but it's leaving a lot to be desired overseas. The film added $7.5 million this weekend, taking the worldwide total to $274.8 million. It had a weak debut in Japan, earning just $1 million. The best markets are the UK ($13.1M), Mexico ($11M), Australia ($7.2M), France ($4.6M) and Germany ($3M). Other than the first three, it's not doing quite well in the rest of the world. South Korea is its final market, and it will open on August 14.
If Trap had an unremarkable start domestically, it fared worse overseas. It debuted with just $4 million overseas, for a $20 million worldwide start. That's like half of what ***Knock at the Cabin*** debuted with last year at the overseas markets. While it still has a few big markets left, there's a lot of pressure for the $30 million film.
Harold and the Purple Crayon was even worse. It made just $3 million in 32 markets, which means it made less than $10 million worldwide. There are a few markets left, but that's a very poor start.
| Movie | Release Date | Studio | Domestic Opening | Domestic Total | Worldwide Total | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinds of Kindness | Jun/21 | Searchlight | $865,468 | $5,038,931 | $12,224,910 | $15M |
- Searchlight's Kinds of Kindness has closed with just $5 million domestically and $12 million worldwide. While Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone struck gold with The Favourite and Poor Things, this film wasn't as lucky. Whether if it was the cold nature of the film, the long runtime, the anthology format or the fine-but-not-fantastic reviews, it was simply too niche for the audience. Perhaps that's why Searchlight scheduled it in the summer and not in fall.
While Deadpool & Wolverine is set for a strong third weekend, it looks like a film will aim to steal the top spot.
That film is Sony's It Ends with Us, an adaptation of the novel by Colleen Hoover. It stars Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni (who also directs the film), Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, and Hasan Minhaj. The novel has been a huge bestseller, so clearly the interest is already there. Watch out for a possible breakout hit.
There's another newcomer, and what looks to be one of the summer's biggest bombs. That film is Lionsgate's Borderlands, an adaptation of the video game franchise, and stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis. While we're jumping the gun in calling it a bomb already, the signs are all there; the film was stuck in development hell for a decade, filming wrapped back in 2021, reshoots occurred in early 2023 without director Eli Roth, and the trailers have been widely disliked by the game's community. Oh and Craig Mazin, the writer of the film and creator of Chernobyl and The Last of Us, asked to have his name removed from the credits. Surely that sounds inspiring.
We've got a new horror film in town, and that is Neon's Cuckoo, which stars Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, and Dan Stevens. It follows a teenager who moves to live with her father in the German Alps but becomes disturbed by strange occurrences, as her father's boss embroils her family in a sinister plot. Neon is coming off their biggest hit ever, Longlegs, but it would be surprising if Cuckoo made anywhere close to that. Even with solid reviews, it doesn't have a great marketing like Longlegs.
We finally fixed the problem with flairs. We added a few more: Neon, Apple TV+, Amazon MGM, Skydance, etc. Come and get them!
