Coming into August, many box office analysts looked at this weekend as another easy win for Melissa McCarthy. Her R-rated puppet raunch-fest, aka “The Happytime Murders,” had a trailer that was getting all sorts of buzz on social media and judging by her track record, was going to be a clear winner in a weekend with no other major openings. Boy, oh boy, that is definitely not the case here.
There are a couple major storylines this weekend, and the biggest one has nothing to do with Melissa McCarthy. Repeating from last weekend “Crazy Rich Asians” took the weekend with another $25 million at the box office. Now, if you’re reading this and thinking, “Hey, that sounds an awful lot like what the film earned last weekend!” then ding, ding, ding, you have a great memory! In fact, this weekend’s $25 million is only -5.7% off of last weekend. No, I didn’t mess up my decimal spots, that is just below 6% difference between last weekend’s $26.5 million and this 3-day total.
A drop of only 6% is unheard of this time of year. Summer films always feature inflated opening weekends with drops of approximately -50% in the following frame. When a film drops -40% or even -30%, that’s newsworthy. But -6%? That’s just uncharted territory. Sure, we see drops like this in the Christmas season, but even then it’s pretty startling. Needless to say, this is a major feather in the cap of those behind-the-scenes of “Crazy Rich Asians,” and further proof that WB is smart with already beginning development on the sequel. With a domestic total of almost $77 million after two weeks, ‘CRA’ will easily eclipse $100 million and could be looking at $150 million. Not bad for a rom-com.
As for the other major story, there’s no happy ending. “The Happytime Murders” fell well below expectations with an estimated $10 million for its opening weekend. Clearly, not even Melissa McCarthy could save this puppet film from bad reviews and not good word-of-mouth. This is by far the lowest opening weekend for a film starring Melissa McCarthy. The spring release, “Life of the Party,” reached the supposed low for McCarthy earlier this year when the film earned $17.9 million. But ‘Happytime’ almost dropped half from there.
And as alluded to, the word-of-mouth is definitely not going to save this comedy. ‘Happytime’ scored a not great C- Cinemascore, showing that audiences aren’t connecting to this high-concept comedy. It’s obvious that the filmmakers involved were hoping this film would shock audiences and become a word-of-mouth sensation, but maybe the puppet jizz-filled trailer just scared everyone away?
READ MORE: ‘The Happytime Murders’ Reviews Hilariously Tear These Muppets To Pieces
The only other film to debut in more than 1,000 theaters is the kids film “A.X.L.” Even with a respectable B+ Cinemascore, showing that those people who ventured out actually enjoyed themselves, the robot dog flick only earned $2.9 million, and barely made the top 10 at #9.
As for the holdovers, the big news is that “The Meg” is still not sinking as much as people might have thought. The Jason Statham-starring shark film pulled in another $13 million for an easy #2 finish this weekend. The domestic total now eclipses the century mark with $105 million total. This also pushes the worldwide gross to $408.6 million, as it moves closer to that coveted half-a-billion dollar mark. We’ll see if this shark has enough legs (jeez) to reach that total in the coming weeks.
Another milestone that’s fast approaching is the $200 million mark that “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” is teasing. After a #4 showing, with $8 million, this weekend, ‘Fallout’ is now at a domestic total of $194 million and should reach $200 million by next weekend.
And just for fun, we have to point out that “Mile 22,” the actioner starring Mark Wahlberg, dropped -56% in its second weekend, with only $6 million. This brings the domestic total to a dismal $25 million after 10 days. For comparison’s sake, Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” which plays in almost half as many venues pulled in $5.3 million and has a three-week domestic total of $32 million.
Next week will be another interesting week as studios start to dump their “what is that?” films such as “Operation Finale,” starring Ben Kingsley and Oscar Isaac, and “Kin,” starring Jack Reynor and Dennis Quaid. Also of note, John Cho’s “Searching,” which had a very small opening this weekend is going wide with over 1,100 theaters next week. We’ll have to see if “Crazy Rich Asians” can do it for a third time in a row.
Here’s the entire top 10 for August 24 to August 26:
1. Crazy Rich Asians — $25M ($77M Total)
2. The Meg — $13M ($105M)
3. The Happytime Murders — $10M (Debut)
4. Mission: Impossible — Fallout — $8M ($194M)
5. Disney’s Christopher Robin — $6.3M ($77.6M)
6. Mile 22 — $6M ($25M)
7. Alpha — $5.6M ($20M)
8. BlacKkKlansman — $5.3M ($32M)
9. A.X.L. — $2.9M (Debut)
10. Slender Man — $2.8M ($25.4M)