TAGGED AS: Box Office, movies, news
Studios mostly cleared the deck again this weekend, putting out a few limited-release challengers rather than get in the way of last week’s summer season kickoff. That’s certainly good news for many of the holdovers, all getting some good news in one way or another. One wonders how Another Simple Favor might be doing if Amazon/MGM put it in theaters instead of their streaming service. But that’s another story. Right now, it is still about a trio of films that have boosted the box office and theaters in a big way over the past six weeks.
No one is going to accuse Thunderbolts* (aka The New Avengers) of one of Marvel’s bigger successes. But it’s doing fine. After $32.3 million in its second weekend (a 56.4% drop), the film rests at $127.7 million after ten days. The original Thor had a $34.7 million second go and $119.4 million after ten days. It is also one of the lowest-grossing Marvel films and had a per-theater average of $8,757 in weekend two. Thunderbolts* is at just $7,459; the 10th weakest of all the MCU films. The good news is that Thunderbolts* is starting to trend up over Captain America: Brave New World despite being about $14 million behind its pace so $200 million domestic is still in the cards. That will get it close to halfway to covering its budget. Add another 25% to its final international haul which stands currently at $143 million, Marvel and Disney can declare victory on their latest.
Sinners continues to be a whole other story entirely. Here we are in weekend four and we’re talking about another $22 million. That is the 6th best fourth weekend ever for an April release and the five in front of it all opened to $103 million or better. Sinners is about $9.5 million behind where Captain America: The Winter Soldier was after 24 days and it bested even that fourth weekend by about $6 million. This weekend did reduce the odds of the film reaching $300 million. It should still fly past $250 million and is currently the 17th highest-grossing “R”-rated release ever. Not too shabby even if it would need $277 million to enter the top ten of all-time and best The Hangover to become the all-time “R”-rated release with an original screenplay. Up next it will pass Saving Private Ryan, Ted and Beverly Hills Cop. Internationally the film has made another $68.9 million, which apart from the two Black Panther films is the highest international gross for a Coogler film. The first Creed made $63.8 million overseas while Creed II represents Michael B. Jordan’s best leading haul to date with over $98 million.
A Minecraft Movie may be saying “hold my chicken jockey” in regards to what is the biggest box office story of 2025. Surely this is winning in sheer calculable numbers, adding another $13.7 million to its take and bringing its total over $398 million. This week it will be welcomed into the $400 million club as it moves toward $1 billion globally. After a month the film sits between The Dark Knight Rises and Captain America: Civil War on the all-time 31-day list, besting both of their fifth weekends. Minecraft’s is closer to the live-action Beauty and the Beast, though that film is over $55 million ahead. That still suggests it has another $50 million in its domestic haul, which, now at $873 million globally, would need the international audience to kick in another $100 mil to join that billion-dollar club.
Fourth place belongs to The Accountant 2, hitting a much smaller milestone as it crossed the $50 million line with another $6.1 million. The film is closely following the Hellboy path, which made $5.6 million in weekend three and brought its total to $50.3 million. That was a $66 million production back in 2004 that made only $99.3 million worldwide. The Accountant 2 is an $80 million production, is over $76 million globally at the moment, and is ultimately headed to a bit over $60 million domestically. Hellboy lost money. The Accountant 2 will be in the red too and looking to find a bigger audience again at home.
IFC managed to open Clown in a Cornfield in fifth place this week where it earned $3.6 million in 2,277 theaters. The bigger news is that is the best opening weekend they have ever had, better than their releases of Late Night with the Devil ($2.8 million) and In a Violent Nature ($2.1 million). Clown is just their sixth release to open in over 1,000 theaters (and their first to start in over 2,000) so it is great to see their films being projected in more venues. Lions Gate’s Shadow Force, on the other hand, is well down on their charts. On the bright side the Kerry Washington/Omar Sy action film made $2.15 million in theaters this weekend which is $2.15 million more than just releasing solely as an On Demand title.
Lions Gate gave Shadow Force an estimated $2.01 million over the weekend to keep it just ahead of the rest of the top ten. Sony’s horror video game adaptation, Until Dawn, made $200,000 less than Shadow Force and has made $18 million, but with a global take of $4.3 million should be in the black for them. Vertical Entertainment is also putting Fight or Flight with Josh Hartnett in the $2 million camp in over 2,000 theaters. 20th Century Studios’ The Amateur made $1.1 million and stands with $39 million domestic.
A solid start for Friendship, Andrew DeYoung’s comedy with Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. The A24 release began with $451,000 in just six theaters. That amounts to the highest per-theater-average of the year so far at $75,166. Only Anora and Kinds of Kindness debuted better than that in 2024 and it’s the 8th best ever for A24. The film will expand next week and into wide release on May 23. Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides made $33,000 in just two New York theaters. It expands further next week. Briarcliff’s release of the critically lambasted Juliet & Romeo (24%) made $350,000 in 1,350 theaters, an average of just $259.
Next week, Warner Bros. is hoping to keep the horror going with Final Destination: Bloodlines. It has been 14 years since the last film in the franchise and it is going to be angling for a #1 finish. Lions Gate is also opening the latest film from Trey Edwards Shults (Krisha, It Comes At Night, Waves) with a surreal thriller starring The Weeknd, Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan. Hurry Up Tomorrow is being kept from most critics until fan screenings being setup on Wednesday.
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Marvel Studios
