Weekend Wrap-Up
by Tim Briody
July 15, 2018
We're knee deep in July and it's the kind of weekend with a couple of mid-tier releases that remind you that movies earning $600 million are the exception and not the rule. It's nice to get back to some semblance of normality.
Hotel Translylvania 3: Summer Vacation is your number one film this weekend, earning $44.1 million. That's smack in the middle of the previous two films, with the original from 2012 coming in with $42.5 million and the 2015 sequel opening to $48.4 million. Returning the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James among others, it was a very easy weekend victory after a solid $16.7 million Friday.
Of note here is the previous two Hotel Transylvania movies were September releases, and Sony wisely moved this one to summer to take advantage of the post-Incredibles 2 void. It'll do well during the weekdays, and will be looking to top the $169.7 million Hotel Transylvania 2 earned domestically. The franchise has also been decently successful overseas, with the third entry putting it very close to $1 billion worldwide, a figure it'll get to in a couple weeks.
Ant-Man and the Wasp takes a big hit in its second weekend, down 62% from its opening to $28.8 million. It's got $132.8 million in two weekends. Ant-Man dropped 56% in its second weekend in 2015, so the decline is surprising but not alarming. It's still on pace to match the $180.2 million of the first film, but $200 million went out the window with this drop.
Our other opener this weekend lands in third as The Rock's Skyscraper crumbles with $25.4 million. Have we reached Rock (or, okay, if you insist "Dwayne Johnson") fatigue? After the biggest hit of his career with last December's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ($404 million), Rampage earned $99 million, which was clearly a sad day at Warner Bros., and now this relative disappointment for the Die Hard wannabe. Maybe audiences are seeing through his schtick now. After taking San Andreas to $155 million in 2015, he hasn't been able to match that in an action movie that's not part of the Fast and Furious franchise.
Skyscraper had a reported budget of around $125 million, and it's not going to come close to that domestically, so it'll rely on foreign grosses to carry the day, and they probably will, seeing as The Rock is still one of the biggest stars in the world. His credibility as a leading action star takes a hit here, though.
The Incredibles 2 adds another $16.2 million (down 43%) to its massive total, now at $535.8 million after five weekends. Pixar's biggest movie ever probably doesn't have enough left in the tank to give 2018 three $600 million films, but it's going to make a run at it for sure.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom takes fifth place with $15.5 million, down 46%, and $363.2 million after four weekends in theaters. The sizable gap between Fallen Kingdom's total and Jurassic World's $652.2 million means that it turns out people didn't really like the last one after all.
The First Purge drops 47% in its second weekend to $9.1 million and gives it $49.5 million to date. It's still on course to land somewhere in the middle of the Purge franchise, ranging from the $64.4 million of the first one in 2013 to the $79 million earned by 2016's Election Year. Like all the Purge entries, it's made on the cheap, as this one only cost $13 million, so it's a big win for Universal no matter where it lands.
A notable expansion jumps to seventh place on the weekend as Sorry to Bother You earns $4.2 million in just 805 theaters. A racially-themed comedy starring Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson, Sorry To Bother You has a 95% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a whole bunch of buzz to go with it. Annapurna Pictures moved it from 16 theaters last weekend to 805 this weekend, so the per screen average collapsed. I'm not sure if there's further expansion in its future after this, but it's got a heck of a concept and sure has a timely message, so it's got a chance to hang in there for a couple more weekends.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado dips another 50% to $3.8 million and has $43.2 million after three weekends. It's right behind the $46.8 million of Sicario, so mission accomplished, I guess?
Uncle Drew slips to ninth place with $3.2 million (down 51%) and $36.6 million after three weekends. That's still not bad for what's really an extended commercial. It also only cost $18 million, so Lionsgate should be happy with that performance.
Ocean's 8 rounds out the top ten with another $2.9 million and $132.2 million after six weekends.
The top twelve films this weekend totaled $155.7 million, basically flat from last year's $158.1 million when War for the Planet of the Apes led the way with $56.2 million.
Next weekend we get some more summer sequels, with the musical Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and Denzel Washington embracing the franchise for the first time in his storied career with The Equalizer 2.
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Top Ten for Weekend of July 13-15, 2018
|
Rank |
Film |
Distributor |
Estimated
Gross ($) |
Weekly Change |
Cumulative
Gross ($) |
|
1
|
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
|
Sony Pictures
|
44.1
|
New
|
44.1
|
|
2
|
Ant-Man and the Wasp
|
Walt Disney
|
28.4
|
-62%
|
132.8
|
|
3
|
Skyscraper
|
Universal
|
25.4
|
New
|
25.4
|
|
4
|
The Incredibles 2
|
Walt Disney
|
16.2
|
-43%
|
535.8
|
|
5
|
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
|
Universal
|
15.5
|
-46%
|
363.2
|
|
6
|
The First Purge
|
Universal
|
9.1
|
-47%
|
49.5
|
|
7
|
Sorry to Bother You
|
Annapurna Pictures
|
4.2
|
+485%
|
5.3
|
|
8
|
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
|
Sony Pictures
|
3.8
|
-50%
|
43.2
|
|
9
|
Uncle Drew
|
Lionsgate
|
3.2
|
-51%
|
36.6
|
|
10
|
Ocean's 8
|
Warner Bros.
|
2.9
|
-43%
|
132.2
|
|
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
|
|
|
|
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