(Photo by © Universal)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom thundered to $150 million in its North American box office opening this weekend, providing some major momentum for Hollywood’s sizzling summer.
The dinos took a big bite out of last week’s top movie Incredibles 2, which fell 56% to $80.9 million; the Disney-Pixar film had a $182.7 million opening last weekend, the best-ever for an animated film. The back-to-back box office bonanzas are easily the biggest the movie industry has seen, well ahead of the $114 million booty Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End managed one weekend after Shrek the Third launched with $122.5 million in 2007, according to Box Office Mojo estimates.
Incredibles 2 is now up to $350 million in 10 days domestically, topping the entire run of the 2004 original and making it the No. 3 film of the year behind Disney and Marvel’s Black Panther ($700 million) and Avengers: Infinity War ($670 million). The animated superhero flick added $57 million in its second week abroad, including a $21 million China debut at No. 2 behind Fallen Kingdom, to raise its foreign total to $134.7 million and global haul to $485 million.
Fallen Kingdom‘s opening did not match the $208 million launch of Jurassic World in 2015 – at the time history’s biggest – but it will still make a healthy profit for Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. It has already stomped to $561.5 million overseas and $711.5 million worldwide, thanks in part to a foreign campaign frontloaded to avoid World Cup soccer tournament.
The thriller starring Chris Pratt, Dallas Bryce Howard, with a cameo from Jeff Goldblum, and directed by Spain’s J.A. Bayona (The Impossible) impressed fans more than critics, who had Fallen Kingdom at a ho-hum 50% on the Tomatometer. Its Audience Score is currently 63% and it earned an A- CinemaScore.
(Photo by © Universal)
The Fallen Kingdom haul eclipsed that of the entire top 12 on this weekend last year ($133 million) when Transformers: The Last Knight was tops with $44.6 million. Overall, the summer of 2018 is running 17% ahead of last year’s, the worst at the box office in more than a decade – and that’s with Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6), Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (July 20), and Mission Impossible – Fallout (July 27) still to come. The five Jurassic movies have taken in more than $4.35 billion, and with its fast start, Fallen Kingdom looks to have a solid shot at becoming the third Jurassic film to top $1 billion worldwide. With franchise films driving the global box office as never before, its success is welcomed in Hollywood. Last year, 59 franchise movies brought in $22.5 billion, according to FranchiseRe, a recently launched analytics and marketing firm. That’s four times the roughly $5 billion brought in by 80 non-franchise films.
(Photo by Jim Judkis/ © Focus Features)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? cracked the top 10 with $1.87 million after expanding to 348 locations in its third week. The look at kids TV host Fred Rogers (99% Fresh on the Tomatometer) is at $4.1 million domestically for Focus Features and is on its way to joining RBG ($10.8 million total), another well-reviewed Sundance documentary (93%), as a summer hit.
With rival studios steering clear of the Jurassic-Incredibles 2 smackdown, the rest of the top 10 looked a lot like last weekend, but several films passed benchmarks. Ocean’s 8 is up to $100.3 million for Warner Bros. after an $11.6 million third-place showing. Fox’s Deadpool 2 was fifth with $5.2 million and topped $304 million domestically and $700 million globally. This week it finished behind the R-rated comedy Tag, which fell off just 45% in its second week to come in fourth with $8.2 million. Solo: A Star Wars Story sputtered to $202 million domestically after adding $4 million for sixth.
Things didn’t get better for Gotti. It dropped 59% in its second week for $812,000 and is at $3.25 million for Vertical Entertainment. Sony Pictures Classics resisted President Donald Trump’s calls to pull the Vera Farmiga-Christopher Plummer dramedy Boundaries (56% on the Tomatometer), after supporting actor Peter Fonda made offensive comments about the President’s son on Twitter. Fonda subsequently pulled the tweet and apologized, and Boundaries took in a tepid $30,395 from five theaters in New York and L.A.
Eugene Jarecki’s documentary The King (2018) launched with $29,050 on just two screens, a strong $14,525 per screen average for Oscilloscope. Damsel, an indie Western starring Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska, generated a so-so $21,000 on three screens in its debut for Magnolia. IFC’s The Catcher Was a Spy, an R-rated drama starring Paul Rudd and Paul Giamatti, managed $122,494 from 49 screens for a soft $2,500 per screen average.
(Photo by © Sony)
Sony will soon see how its violent R-rated border saga sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado (currently Fresh at 74% on the Tomatometer) will play against the backdrop of the real-life drama currently unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico line. Soldado opens Friday without Emily Blunt, but early looks suggest it’s as intense as the original that she starred in. The original Sicario opened wide modestly with $12 million in September of 2015 and built on strong reviews (93%) and positive word of mouth to hit $47 million domestically and $85 million worldwide. Uncle Drew, a Lionsgate/Summit comedy starring Shaquille O’Neal, Nick Kroll, and Tiffany Haddish, and directed by Charles Stone III, is the weekend’s only other wide opener.
Another crowded weekend looms on the specialty front, however. Jessica Chastain plays Caroline Weldon in Woman Walks Ahead, an historical biography about a headstrong NY artist who sets out to meet Sitting Bull. Sam Rockwell costars in the A24-distributed drama directed by Susanna White. Also debuting Friday is The Cakemaker, which takes a sensitive look at Israeli-German relationships through the prism of a love triangle. Finally, Ruth Wilson stars as a young woman battling painful memories in director Clio Barnard’s Dark River from FilmRise.
Four documentaries roll out next weekend. This Is Congo looks at the 2012 war and ensuing refugee crisis in the Republic of the Congo through the eyes of three survivors. Four documentaries roll out next weekend. This Is Congo looks at the 2012 war and ensuing refugee crisis in the Republic of the Congo through the eyes of three survivors. Game Changers is writer-director J. Craig Thompson’s look at TV game shows featuring interviews with several hosts and producers, hosted by Alex Trebek. Love Cecil takes a more refined approach in exploring the life of Oscar-winning costume designer (Gigi, My Fair Lady) Cecil Beaton and his controversial photography. Finally, Tim Wardie looks at identical triplets who learn of their existence only at the age of 19 in Three Identical Strangers. [Editor’s Note: This paragraph originally stated that The Game Changer, from The Cove director Louie Psihoyos, was opening on the weekend of July 29. We apologize for the error.]
[box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
