As a long-time cinephile who has witnessed the ebb and flow of the cinema landscape, I find myself both intrigued and somewhat concerned by this week’s box office performance. The diversity of titles, from indie gems like “Between the Temples” to the critically acclaimed “Sing Sing,” showcases the vibrancy of our industry. However, the relatively low grossings compared to some of the summer blockbusters make me wonder if I should have invested in popcorn stocks instead!
As summer draws to a close, it’s time to pack away our pool accessories and bring out the Halloween decorations. But before we say goodbye to this year’s blockbuster season, let’s take a look at the final weekend of August 2024. Once again, “Deadpool & Wolverine” held the top spot at the box office in its sixth week of release, earning another $15.1 million this time around, representing a minor drop of 17% from last week. With this frame’s earnings, it has now amassed an impressive $599.5 million domestically, and by Labor Day, it will surpass the $600 million mark. It’s safe to say that “Deadpool & Wolverine” has been a tremendous success, and there’s a chance it could even surpass the $623 million domestic haul of “The Avengers” before its North American theatrical run concludes.
Additionally, dear reader, the header image for this box office report is not from Deadpool & Wolverine. Instead, I opted to showcase another lesser-known film of Hugh Jackman: Bad Education. It’s truly remarkable and Jackman delivers an exceptional performance. If you haven’t seen it yet, I strongly recommend giving it a watch – it’s available on Max.
Over the third weekend since its launch, I found myself immersed in “Alien: Romulus,” which saw a 43% drop and pocketed an additional $9.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $88 million after 17 days. By mid-September, this Alien installment should easily surpass the $100 million mark. That would make “Romulus” only the second Alien movie to breach that threshold, demonstrating that even at 45 years old, this franchise has plenty of fuel left in the tank.
It’s possible that you may be questioning at the moment: “Why is all the focus on holdovers, and where are the new films?” Surprisingly, six new movies made their debut in wide release this weekend. Unfortunately, none of them left a lasting impact. The most successful among them was Reagan, earning $7.4 million. While not an enormous sum, it’s a considerably stronger opening weekend than other films with right-leaning themes from this summer, such as Sound of Hope and The Firing Squad.
Historically, it’s been challenging to make movies about presidents, even fictional ones, such as ‘Man of the Year’. In the 90s, audiences preferred escapist films over watching characters or political parallels that mirrored real-life politicians they were already bombarded with through news. This is why films like ‘The Contender’ and ‘Nixon’ had lower box office returns domestically. However, ‘Reagan’, a biopic about a president known for his racism and cruelty towards the AIDS crisis, which some refer to as a “genocide of neglect”, opening 30% better than recent indie political period piece ‘Chappaquiddick’, can be seen as a small achievement. This film was the highest-grossing new wide release for the weekend.
4DX cinemas welcomed back tornadoes in their theaters this weekend, following the sensational response during the blockbuster’s debut weekend. Crowds flocked to feel simulated raindrops and gusts on their faces amidst the turmoil of the disaster movie, with the film earning an additional $7.16 million in ticket sales this week. This represents a 17% rise compared to last weekend, raising the domestic total for the movie to a staggering $258 million.
Over its second weekend of widespread distribution, the film “Blink Twice” experienced a 36% drop and earned an additional $4.68 million. After 10 days in North American cinemas, it has now amassed $15.3 million. It seems likely that the domestic total will surpass $20 million, which is quite impressive for an original darker thriller that cost $20 million to produce. This would also make “Blink Twice” the fifth Amazon MGM Studios title to surpass $20 million in the last eight months.
In its ninth weekend, Despicable Me 4 earned an additional $4.08 million, bringing the total domestic earnings to approximately $354.1 million. This is only slightly below its predecessor, Despicable Me 2, which had made a similar amount at the same point in time. If it maintains this momentum for the next two weekends, there’s a chance that Despicable Me 4 could surpass the domestic gross of its spin-off, Minions: The Rise of Gru, becoming the highest-grossing Despicable Me film in North America. Regardless, it’s already secured a massive box office success.
The movie titled AfrAId, distributed by Sony/Blumhouse, had a disappointing start, earning only $3.7 million over the weekend. This opening is one of the poorest for films launched in more than 3,000 cinemas, and it ranks among Blumhouse Production’s lowest wide-release debuts. In comparison to other Blumhouse titles, AfrAId underperformed movies like Unfriended: Dark Web, The Belko Experiment, The Green Inferno. Even Freaky, which was released in November 2020, when many domestic theaters were closed due to COVID-19, managed to outperform AfrAId by a slight margin with its $3.6 million opening weekend.
Over the Labor Day weekend, a low-cost horror movie underperforming is roughly equivalent to learning that water is wet. Nevertheless, it’s worth considering that this trend might be hinting at…not strictly “exhaustion,” but perhaps some vulnerabilities in Blumhouse Productions. Movies like Night Swim, Imaginary, and now AfrAId have fallen short of expectations despite their budget constraints in 2024. The typical Blumhouse approach, which pairs reliable elements (a pool, a doll friend, an A.I., etc.) with an “ordinary” upper-middle-class family in suburban settings, might require some innovation. Perhaps more theatrical productions from Blumhouse should focus on a broader range of characters, such as teenagers, seniors, or individuals? The most successful horror films often emerge unexpectedly. For instance, who would have thought Longlegs, The Blair Witch Project, or even previous Blumhouse successes like Paranormal Activity would be as popular as they became. The advertisements for AfrAId mimicking the styles of M3gan, The Invisible Man, and Night Swim seem to contradict this spirit.
Despite the success of Blumhouse’s biggest film, “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” in October, you might wonder why they would heed advice from someone like me, who is a bimbo lesbian. However, the lackluster box office performance of “AfrAId” and the observation that recent Blumhouse movies, based on their trailers, appear to be set in the same location should make the studio think twice. There are only so many horror franchises like “Freddy’s” and “Halloween” that Blumhouse can capitalize on, so eventually, they will encounter a financial problem with their original films that needs to be addressed.
By the Deadline, “Coraline” concluded the top ten this week with earnings of $3.15 million (a decrease of 38% compared to the previous weekend). This brings its total earnings in 2024 to $29.4 million and its overall domestic earnings to an impressive $112.2 million. This re-release has proven to be a continually beneficial box office present. Notably, almost every summer Pixar movie (with “Lightyear” being the only exception I can think of) has significantly expanded its theater count over Labor Day weekend since 2006. “Inside Out 2” followed this trend by reappearing in 2,660 locations. This was enough to generate another $2.77 million, an increase of 36% compared to the last frame. The year’s largest movie has now earned $650 million domestically. This achievement places it as only the 11th movie in history to surpass $650 million without inflation adjustments. It is truly remarkable for the summer’s biggest movie to achieve such earnings during its final frame of summer 2024.
Speaking frankly about the second week of “The Crow’s” release, it didn’t fare as poorly as “Morbius” or “Borderlands.” However, it suffered a significant drop of 61%, earning just $1.8 million and bringing its total domestic earnings to a disappointing $8.1 million in only 10 days. It looks unlikely that this film will manage to surpass $12 million domestically, a truly dismal achievement.
1992 marked a disappointing summer for Lionsgate as it raked in $1.36 million across 875 locations. Conversely, fellow new wide-release film City of Dreams fared even worse, with only $1.27 million collected from 774 theaters. Roadside Attractions, please consider returning to the distribution of smaller, arthouse films that traditionally debut in limited releases instead of these mainstream commercial features, as your recent string of flops demonstrates. No three-day figures have been reported for sports drama You Gotta Believe as per Deadline, but it is projected to make $900,000 over the four-day weekend, translating to around a $720,000 three-day frame. While not an impressive start, You Gotta Believe could still surpass the $1 million mark domestically, making it only the 16th title from distributor Well Go USA to do so.
This weekend saw the comeback of “Shaun of the Dead” in Dolby Cinema locations, earning a strong $600,000 from 133 theaters for an impressive average of $4,511 per screen. The movie has now amassed a total domestic lifetime gross of $14.1 million. “Strange Darling” experienced a 55% drop in its second weekend of wide release, raking in $518,748, bringing its domestic total to $2.3 million.
Over the weekend, Between the Temples earned $418,636 from 304 locations, raising its 10-day domestic earnings to $1.39 million. Not a blockbuster sensation, but it’s holding its own as a late-summer indie film. Kudos are in order, as it seems poised to join an exclusive club of Sony Pictures Classics titles that have earned over $2 million domestically since the pandemic began, despite never playing in wide release.
In the fourth weekend, “Good One” expanded to 93 locations, earning $78,666 with a per-theater average of $846, bringing its total domestic earnings to $244,286. Meanwhile, “Tokyo Cowboy” opened in two theaters, generating $21,010, resulting in a per-theater average of $10,505. On the other hand, “Seeking Mavis Beacon” made its debut this week, grossing $9,062 in one theater. As for “Mountains,” it expanded to 10 locations in its third weekend but saw a drop in per-theater average, earning only $7,301 for a $730 per theater average. With this low earnings, it’s questionable if it will continue expanding, essentially putting a halt on its domestic run at $31,247.
Wow, I can’t believe it! Over the weekend, the top ten movies raked in an impressive $66.3 million! Amazingly, this wasn’t even the lowest-grossing weekend of summer 2024, which is quite remarkable given that Labor Day weekends usually break records during the summer season. This weekend actually surpassed the $60.28 million earned on May 31 – June 2, when The Garfield Movie reigned supreme at the domestic box office in its second weekend. Incredibly, this weekend only trailed the top gross of summer 2024’s opening weekend by a mere $1.7 million, which was when The Fall Guy underperformed significantly. As for August 2024, it made a total of over $890.5 million domestically, placing it as the eighth-biggest August on record. Summer 2024 also just managed to exceed $3.625 billion, which is a 10% decrease from last summer, but still a respectable figure considering the rocky start to the season.
As we transition into fall, several highly anticipated titles such as “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”, “Joker: Folie au Deux”, “The Wild Robot”, among others, will strive to boost ticket sales significantly. Considering the desolate state of September in recent years, September 2024, with its bustling lineup of new releases, seems poised to make a splash at the box office. Farewell, unpredictable summer 2024, known for its rollercoaster ride at the ticket counters.
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2024-09-02 16:15