In the wild and crazy summer months of box office reporting, there are actually weekends that can be labeled as boring and predictable. This weekend surely is one of those times. Not only did the films in the top 10 all fall where anticipated, but there really weren’t any surprising numbers at all.
For the second weekend in a row, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” earned the #1 spot. This weekend the dino actioner pulled in an estimated $60 million, for an expected drop of -59.5% from its big opening. When you have films open well over $100 million, it’s hard to overcome that 60% drop. However, this does show that ‘Fallen Kingdom’ should have decent legs moving forward, as the film looks to cross $1 billion worldwide shortly (current worldwide total sits at $932 million), despite fairly negative reviews. Could we be looking at another rare example of a “critic-proof” franchise?
“Incredibles 2” had yet another impressive weekend, finishing at #2, with $45.5 million in its third weekend of release. That pushes the Pixar film to $439.7 million domestically, and a mighty fine $646.8 million worldwide in three weeks. It looks like “Incredibles 2” is going to surpass “Finding Dory’s” animated domestic record of $486 million in the next week. The next big hurdle will be the $1 billion mark, but it definitely feels as if the sequel should have the legs to earn Disney another entry in the Billion Dollar Club.
The two big new releases this weekend came in at #3 and #4, respectively. “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” earned a total of $19 million, and comedy “Uncle Drew” came in right behind it with a total of $15.5 million. For ‘Sicario 2,’ this is a decent-enough total, given the film’s R-rating and the competition above it. The film easily bested the first ‘Sicario’s’ first weekend in wide release and should be able to earn more than the first film’s $46.9 domestic total, despite not having many of the first film’s principal creators.
“Uncle Drew’s” $15.5 million is a little more than what was expected from the Lionsgate basketball film. With a cast of basketball players in old-age makeup and Lil’ Rel Howery coming off his scene-stealing performance in last year’s “Get Out,” the film looks to have found a decent sized audience and a good ‘A’ CinemaScore. This means we could see “Uncle Drew” sticking around the top 10 for a decent amount of time.
The only other new release to hit the top 10 this weekend is the film, “Sanju,” which is an import from India. The film came in at #8 with $2.55 million. If that total doesn’t sound impressive to you, keep in mind the film only opened in 356 theaters, with a per-theater-average of $7,163, which puts it only behind “Three Identical Strangers,” ‘Fallen Kingdom,’ and ‘Incredibles 2.’ Not too shabby, at all.
And as for “Three Identical Strangers,” the film might not have landed in the top 10, but NEON has to be thrilled with the doc’s performance. In only 5 theaters, the film earned $163,023, which equals an average of $32,605, which is one of the top averages this year. We’ll have to keep an eye out as the film expands to see if the momentum continues. With “RBG” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” all surprising this year, perhaps 2018 is showing that documentaries can still be a strong draw at cinemas.
The rest of the top 10 is as expected, however, we do have to say goodbye to “Hereditary” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” who both dropped out of the rankings for the first time. However, ‘Infinity War’ was able to stay in the top 10 for an impressive 9 weeks, while “Hereditary” only lasted 3.
Next weekend, should see a shakeup in the top 10, with “The First Purge” getting a Wednesday release for Independence Day and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” coming Friday. While we don’t expect these two films to fight for #1, as ‘Ant-Man’ will clearly lead the way, it’ll be interesting to see how the new competition fares against ‘Fallen Kingdom’ and ‘Incredibles 2.’
Here’s the top 10 for June 29 – July 1:
1. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – $60M ($264.8M Domestic Total)
2. Incredibles 2 – $45.5M ($439.7M)
3. Sicario: Day of the Soldado – $19M (Debut)
4. Uncle Drew – $15.5M (Debut)
5. Ocean’s 8 – $8M ($114.7M)
6. Tag – $5.6M ($40.9M)
7. Deadpool 2 – $3.5M ($310M)
8. Sanju – $2.55M (Debut)
9. Solo: A Star Wars Story – $2.3M ($207M)
10. Won’t You Be My Neighbor – Focus- $2.29M ($7.5M)