Cars 3

Weekend Box Office: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

This weekend saw an old champ return to the top of the pedestal. Of the other new movies, most played well with the exception of the female-led crude comedy, which stalled out.

Although ‘Cars 3‘ topped the weekend box office, moviegoers seem to have gone into it feeling leery. After the first sequel disappointed audiences everywhere, this week’s tepid response to the second sequel seems justified. The original ‘Cars‘ debuted to $60.1 million in 2006 and ‘Cars 2‘ opened to $66.1 million in 2011. ‘Cars 3’ had a slower-than-usual start with $53.5 million, but the improved word-of-mouth ought to carry it a good distance. Internationally, the movie launched in only five markets to $21.3 million, signaling that ‘Cars 3′ might follow the ongoing trend of movies performing stronger overseas than they do domestically. We’re only 11 days away from the next big kids’ movie storming the market (‘Despicable Me 3’), so Lightning McQueen can’t just sit back in cruise control with this one. I expect to see Disney’s heavy marketing campaign keep pace until then.

Wonder Woman‘ was nudged into second place, but she’s still whipping up a lot of cash. The film is not only playing well, it’s holding over better than most comic book movies. The third week resulted in a light 30% drop and another $40.7 million. After 17 days, DC’s latest has earned $274.6 million domestically and $297.2 million overseas, raising its worldwide total to $571.8 million.

Blowing expectations out of the water, the Tupac bio-pic ‘All Eyez on Me‘ opened in third place with $27 million. Budget details haven’t been announced, but are estimated below $20 million. This debut is definitely a win for Lionsgate. No details have been released as to when the movie will roll out overseas.

Had Universal’s reboot of ‘The Mummy‘ opening big last week, this week’s 56% drop in attendance would have been justified. But it didn’t open well last week, so the domestic run is even less impressive after this decline. Finishing in fourth place, the Tom Cruise vehicle grossed $13.9 million, bringing this $125 million picture’s ten-day total to just $56.5 million. The overseas results are another story. Once again closing the weekend as the #1 film internationally, it added $53 million to its foreign total, which is now up to $239.1 million. With a $295.6 million worldwide total, Universal is likely to break even with ‘The Mummy’ over the next several days, but with very little help from North American moviegoers.

Despite opening in the wake of last year’s female-led shark attack movie ‘The Shallows’, the similar, albeit lesser, ‘47 Meters Down‘ opened quite well. Rounding out the Top 5, the thriller made $11.5 million from 2,270 locations. The movie’s budget has yet to be made public, but it couldn’t have cost too much more than that to produce. An international release schedule has also not been announced, but poorly-titled first-time distributor Entertainment Studios is pleased with these results.

Playing on 3,162 screens, ‘Rough Night‘ had a rough weekend with a $2,543 per-screen average. This marks the second Scarlett Johansson flop of the year. The R-rated comedy opened at #7 with $8 million. Overseas, it made $4.2 million, bringing its worldwide debut to $12.2 million. $20 million movies need to earn more than that – especially when playing on such a wide scale.

Colin Trevorrow’s indie film ‘The Book of Henry‘ also failed to find an audience. Playing on 579 screens, it collected a nearly identical per-screen average ($2,431) as ‘Rough Night’. With $1.4 million, it landed in the #13 spot. Budgeted at $10 million, Focus Features can’t be pleased with the outcome.

Top 10:

1. ‘Cars 3’ (Buena Vista) – $53,547,000

2. ‘Wonder Woman’ (Warner Bros.) – $40,775,000

3. ‘All Eyez on Me’ (Lionsgate) – $27,050,000

4. ‘The Mummy’ (Universal) – $13,916,010

5. ’47 Meters Down’ (Entertainment Studios) – $11,500,000

6. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ (Buena Vista) – $8,458,000

7. ‘Rough Night’ (Sony) – $8,040,000

8. ‘Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie’ (Fox) – $7,350,000

9. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ (Buena Vista) – $4,982,000

10. ‘It Comes at Night’ (A24) – $2,616,600

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