Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Box Office Discussion: "Jungle" Love


 Johnson and Blunt (for the second time this summer) "cruise" into first, while Green Knight and Stillwater have quiet openings.

Jungle Cruise, the latest Disney title to be based on one of the studio's theme park attractions, won't be the next Pirates of the Caribbean.  However it won't be the next Country Bears, either.  The action comedy opened to $35 million, the fourth best opening of the year so far and by far the best not involving an ongoing franchise (assuming you don't count "Disney Theme Park Adaptions" as a franchise).  It's a few million better than Space Jam: A New Legacy and Godzilla vs. Kong opened to, and not too far off the pace of what A Quiet Place Part II, also starring Emily Blunt, did back in May.  That should mean that Jungle Cruise has a solid chance of becoming the year's 5th $100 million grosser, but it will have to avoid the incredibly steep second weekend drops that most summer movies this year have experienced.  The fact that the film's Saturday total was almost even with its Friday total is a good sign that maybe this one might have some decent legs.

Cruise utterly dominated moviegoing this weekend, making over six times what last week's champ, Old took in in its second weekend.  The M. Night Shyamalan thriller fell to $6.9 million, and has a ten-day total of $30.7 million.  It looks to be heading to around $50 million or so.

In third was the weekend's second newcomer, the medieval actioner The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel.  Despite strong reviews, it could only muster up $6.8 million for the weekend.

In fourth, Black Widow brought in $6.5 million for a total of $167.1 million.  It should pass F9 in the coming days to become the highest-grossing film of 2021.

Opening in fifth is Stillwater, which, as a serious, Oscar-baity drama opening wide in July, couldn't really compete with the action spectacles all around it, even with Matt Damon in the lead.  It brought in $5.2 million, and didn't really get the reviews needed to sustain a long box office run.

Films 6-10 consist of fast-fading franchise entry, with Space Jam: A New Legacy ($4.3 million/$60.8 million), Snake Eyes (replacing In the Heights as the flop of the summer, taking in $4.1 million for a ten-day gross of only $22.4 million), F9 ($2.7 million/$168.6 million), Escape Room: Tournament of Champions ($2.2 million/$20.6 million), and Boss Baby: Family Business ($1.4 million/$53.5 million).  In 11th was another fast-fading franchise entry, The Forever Purge, but its $1.1 million take this weekend marks the first time during the pandemic that a $1 million weekend gross wasn't enough to make the Top Ten.  

This weekend's one wide release is The Suicide Squad, not to be confused with 2016's Suicide Squad, even though it's about the same supersortahero team, and features several of the same actors, including Margot Robbie and Viola Davis.  This one has an R rating, direction by Guardians of the Galaxy mastermind James Gunn, far better reviews, and John Cena and Idris Elba instead of Will Smith.  Unless Jungle Cruise holds up extremely well, Squad should be #1 for the weekend, though it will be interesting if it can top the pre-pandemic, somewhat disappointing $33 million opening that Birds of Prey (And the Superlong Subtitle I'm Not Going to Bother Looking Up Though I Remember It Ends With Harley Quinn) had in February 2020.  We'll find out if opening better was a suicide mission or not next weekend.

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