The upset that I hoped for last week came along this weekend instead. Despite three new movies opening, the battle at the box office came down to Dwayne Johnson’s returning champion and John Krasinski’s quiet hit. This time, the tables turned and the little guy won.
Please note that John Krasinski isn’t a little guy at all. And although he was able to produce the scary movie ‘A Quiet Place‘ for just $17 million, it’s anything but a little film. Back at the top of the box office, it grossed another $22 million this weekend thanks to a light 33% drop. After 17 days, it has collected a very impressive $132.3 million domestically. A crazy comparison to show how well it’s performing is ‘Ready Player One’, the four-week-old, $175 million Steven Spielberg tentpole. In one less week, the domestic earnings for ‘A Quiet Place’ are already $6 million higher than ‘Ready Player One’ (although the latter is performing in a completely different league overseas). Internationally, ‘A Quiet Place’ has made $74.8 million, giving it a $207.1 million worldwide total.
The holdover for ‘Rampage‘ was also pretty good. Dropping 41%, it landed in second place with $21 million, only $1 million behind the returning champ. After ten days, the $120 million CG-fest has scored $66.6 million domestically and $216.4 million overseas. With $283 million in the bank, the video game adaptation has nearly enough to get out of the red.
The best that any of the new releases could muster was a #3 debut. Amy Schumer’s ‘I Feel Pretty‘ opened to $16.2 million. This number is low compared to Schumer’s last two features – ‘Snatched’ ($19.5 million) and ‘Trainwreck’ ($30 million) – but it’s in alignment with distributor STX’s expectations. It’s interesting how Schumer’s debut predictions continue to drop. In the case of ‘I Feel Pretty’, it’s especially surprising considering the movie carries the far more accessible and lucrative PG-13 rating, where her others were rated R. ‘I Feel Pretty’ has a lot of work to do when it opens internationally because it cost an absurd $32 million to produce. How a light comedy can cost nearly twice as much as ‘A Quiet Place’, which contains costly visual effects, is beyond me.
Thanks to loads of a buzz and a long absence from the big screen, ‘Super Troopers 2‘ nearly doubled expectations with a $14.7 million debut that placed it in fourth place. The Broken Lizard folks crowd-sourced $2 million for the comedy sequel in just 24 hours. Ultimately produced on a $13.5 million budget, this debut is a solid start. The shenanigans have yet to begin overseas.
Blumhouse’s ‘Truth or Dare‘ rounded out the Top 5. It fell far with a 58% drop in attendance, but that doesn’t matter much considering the strength of its opening weekend and the minuscule $3.5 million production budget. Its second week resulted in $7.9 million, giving it a ten-day total of $30.3 million. The international box office is up to $7.9 million, giving it a $38.2 million worldwide total.
Lionsgate’s thriller ‘Traffik‘ opened right alongside expectations, but like ‘I Feel Pretty’, the expectations were low. It debuted at #9 with $3.8 million. Fortunately, ‘Traffik’ was produced for $4 million, so it will easily make its money back by the time it hits home video.
Top 10:
1. ‘A Quiet Place’ (Paramount) – $22,000,000
2. ‘Rampage’ (Warner Bros.) – $21,000,000
3. ‘I Feel Pretty’ (STX) – $16,220,000
4. ‘Super Troopers 2’ (Fox) – $14,700,000
5. ‘Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare’ (Universal) – $7,910,000
6. ‘Ready Player One’ (Warner Bros.) – $7,500,000
7. ‘Blockers’ (Universal) – $6,985,000
8. ‘Black Panther’ (Buena Vista) – $4,642,000
9. ‘Traffik’ (Lionsgate) – $3,875,000
10. ‘Isle of Dogs’ (Fox Searchlight) – $3,400,000
