The conversation continues to swirl around whether or not critics and Rotten Tomatoes scores are hurting the box office chances of terrible movies. Certainly, a brutal 18% score on the review aggregator, Sony was bracing themselves for the returns of “The Dark Tower” this weekend, but it looks like they have an unconvincing victory on their hands.
The Stephen King adaptation took the top spot at the multiplex with $19.5 million, barely edging out Christopher Nolan‘s “Dunkirk” which landed in second place with $17.6 million (the WWII film is now at $314 million worldwide). On the plus side, the film was modestly budgeted at $60 million. The downside is pretty much everything else. With “The Dark Tower” supposed to be the big launch of a new franchise that would include both big screen sequels and a small screen series, these numbers are hardly convincing that it’s worth anybody’s time to go down that path. Certainly, the film’s stars probably won’t be rushing to renew their options for a followup. Matthew McConaughey scored better opening numbers for movies made in his pre-McConnaissance days, while Idris Elba likely has better opportunities on the horizon. Sony will crunch the numbers, and look at overseas figures before making any final decisions, but “The Dark Tower” is already looking like a lost cause.
Another movie that arrived in cinemas with terrible reviews was Halle Berry‘s delayed, low budget thriller “Kidnap.” The movie wound up doing as respectably as anyone could hope with $10 million, and landed squarely in the middle of the top ten. It’s a nice result for indie distributor Aviron, even if it’s far from the actress’ stronger days at the box office (even “Catwoman” put up better numbers). Nonetheless, its a nice little boost for Berry before she heads back into theaters nationwide next month with “Kingsman: The Golden Circle.”
At the arthouse, the big win belonged to “Wind River,” which earned $164,167 on four screens for a per-screen-average of $41,042. “Columbus” also did well, taking in $28,000 across two screens.
Meanwhile in China, audiences have been turning up in droves for “Wolf Warriors 2” (nope, me neither — I didn’t even know a movie existed called “Wolf Warriors“). Featuring Frank Grillo in a supporting role, and with the Russo Brothers serving as consultants, the action flick has earned a staggering $406 million in just ten days. It has surpassed “The Fate Of The Furious” as the most successful movie of the year in China, and it’s already the second highest grossing movie ever in the country, and making a direct path for the record held by “The Mermaid.”
In box office milestones, “Wonder Woman” has crossed the $400 million mark domestically (surpassing “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” handily) and $800 million worldwide. The super hero movie is now the #2 grossing film of the year at home and it’s in the fifth slot worldwide. Marvel and Sony‘s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” seems to be slightly underperforming. After 5 weeks in theaters the movie has only grossed $670 million and we say only because a Marvel movie like this is usually well past $700 million by now. The upside, China is still to come (the last ‘Spider-Man’ movie earned nearly $100 million in the country) and other territories like Japan should also be able to give it another boost. But Sony was probably hoping for something close to $1 billion and ‘Homecoming’ could end up with numbers similar to the Andrew Garfield’s “Amazing Spider-Man” series which the studio perceived as a disappointment. Meanwhile, “Despicable Me 3” has quietly become the third highest grossing film of the year globally. Don’t expect this franchise to end any time soon.
1. “The Dark Tower” — $19.5 million
2. “Dunkirk” — $17.6 million ($133.5 mil.)
3. “The Emoji Movie” — $12.3 million ($49.4 mil.)
4. “Girls Trip” — $11.4 million ($85.4 mil.)
5. “Kidnap” — $10.2 million
6. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” — $8.8 million ($294 mil.)
7. “Atomic Blonde” — $8.2 million ($34.1 mil.)
8. “Detroit” — $7.2 million ($7.7 mil.)
9. “War For The Planet Of The Apes” — $6 million ($130.2 mil.)
10. “Despicable Me 3” — $5.2 million ($240.7 mil.)
