If you had flagging faith that audiences would show up in numbers to a movie that wasn’t based on a comic book or brand, or a sequel, “Dunkirk” will restore your hope. It’s the first non-franchise film to win the weekend at the box office since March.
Christopher Nolan‘s nerve-jangling WWII movie battled its way to the top of the box office this weekend with an impressive $50.5 million. Outside of franchise films “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” it’s the director’s second best opening of his career behind “Inception.” It’s a feat made all the more remarkable considering there are no major stars in the film, Tom Hardy‘s face is mostly covered and his few words of dialogue are muddled for most of it, and where Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance arguably get the biggest emotional scenes. So, chalk this one up to a strong campaign by Warner Bros. and by the enduring draw of Nolan. Few filmmakers can pack a cinema simply based on name recognition, but Nolan is one of them. Warner Bros. will continue to let him do whatever the hell wants with their money. Internationally, “Dunkirk” made another $50 million plus and it stands at $105.9 million worldwide.
Universal scored a counter-programming victory with “Girls Trip.” The well received raunchy comedy opened impressively with $30.3 million, and yes, that means the first two slots at the box office were both movies not based on spandex superheroes, TV shows, or followups to something you saw a couple of years ago. Again, you can chalk this up to smart marketing, and just making a movie that audiences clearly wanted to see and critics enjoyed. Hey, maybe this movie making thing isn’t so difficult after all…
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the comic book adaptation “Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets” divided critics and audiences clearly had little interest. Luc Besson‘s massively expensive sci-fi opus flopped with $17 million. With a budget north of $200 million this will be one of the year’s major misfires, at least domestically. The film is expected to fare better internationally, where I guess Dane DeHaan is huge, but this, combined with “A Cure For Wellness” perhaps suggest the actor is more suited for supporting roles. Besson has already said his production company EuropaCorp won’t bite the dust if ‘Valerian’ fails because they made back most of the budget from pre-sales, but clearly this movie isn’t going to make anybody money either. He can probably go ahead and bin those sequels he was writing too.
READ MORE: French Press Criticize Historical Accuracy Of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’
In week two, “War For The Planet Of The Apes” fell -63.7%, but the good news is the movie’s nearly hit $100 million in North America. The bad new is at $174 million worldwide after two weeks, ‘War’ is down a dramatic -43% compared to where “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” was in its second week of release. ‘Dawn’ made a remarkable $710 million worldwide in 2014. But the split was an incredible 70/30% split in favor of the international audience (in China it made more than $100 million on its own). The ‘War’ split so far is 55/44% in the favor of U.S. audiences which suggests that the lucrative international market isn’t as hot for the film as the previous picture. China is still to come as well as other big markets such as France, Japan and Mexico, but right now, you’re looking at a picture that could be down a massive 40% from the former movie unless it hits huge in China again. In its fourth week of release, “Baby Driver” has zoomed past the $80 million mark and maybe it’s got enough gas in the tank for $100 at home, but that could be a stretch.
What’s interesting is watching “Transformers: The Last Knight.” The film raced to the $430 million mark in two weeks and it seemed poised to put up some major numbers (it’s already made $226 million in China alone), but the picture has really stalled. After four weeks of release, the picture stands at $541 million worldwide. The domestic drop off has been huge each weekend and it’s been making about a $1 million from week to week. Do the math at that trajectory: at $127 million after four weeks of release making a million or less each weekend you have a movie that might make a generous $137 million total. That’s down a massive 44% from the last picture. What seems to be clear, ‘The Last Knight’ is putting a severe cramp in the franchise’s former box office glory.
In box office milestones, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” hit $571 million worldwide after three weeks in theaters; it’s already the fourth highest grossing film of 2017 domestically. Notably, “Wonder Woman” surpassed “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” at the domestic box office ($389 million and counting). It’s the 2nd highest grossing film of the year at home after “Beauty and the Beast” and it could still crack $400 million). Worldwide the Patty Jenkins-directed movie stands at $779.4 million and will be able to cross $800 million before the summer is done. ‘Guardians 2’ hits DVD in August so it’s box office run is almost over, but with $860 million in global receipts, it’s not complaining. You probably haven’t given “Despicable Me 3” much thought, but after four weeks in release and its global tally is already at $727 million.
At the arthouse, it was modest debuts for the dramedies “Landline” and “The Midwife.” And quietly, “The Big Sick” has become the indie box office hit of the summer reaching a massive $24.5 million.” A huge coup for Amazon studios and its theatrical partner Lionsgate.
1. “Dunkirk” — $50.5 million
2. “Girls Trip” — $30.3 million
3. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” — $22 million ($251.7 mil.)
4. “War For The Planet Of The Apes” — $20.4 million ($97.7 mil.)
5. “Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets” — $17 million
6. “Despicable Me 3” — $12.7 million ($213.3 mil.)
7. “Baby Driver” — $6 million ($84.2 mil.)
8. “The Big Sick” — $5 million ($24.5 mil.)
9. “Wonder Woman” — $4.6 million ($389 mil.)
10. “Wish Upon” — $2.4 million ($10.5 mil.)