Barbenheimer continues to dominate, while Haunted Mansion's opening is downright scary.
For a while, even before the pandemic, it has been a hard world for films not part of existing franchises. Over the past twenty years, only two times has the year's top movie not been a sequel, prequel, or spin-off: Avatar in 2009 and American Sniper in 2014. While there is still a lot of year (and a lot of franchise cogs) left to go, it's looking increasingly likely that 2023 could be the third time that happens.
Of course, it's not all that accurate to call Barbie "original". After all, the film is based on one of the biggest toy lines of all time, Barbie was a prominent supporting character in two Toy Story movies, and there have been over 40 straight-to-video CGI Barbie movies. But there's a big difference between cheap, disposal CGI and a mega-budgeted live-action motion picture, and Barbie is scoring in spades with the last one. In its second weekend, it racked up a whopping $93 million to bring its 10-day total to $351.4 million. It will pass Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse this week to become the summer's biggest film, and has its sight firmly set on The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which it's currently less than $225 million behind. Come on Barbie, let's go party indeed.
Most movies have, to some extent, wilted in the face of Barbie. Not Oppenheimer, which came in second for the second weekend in a row with an impressive $46.7 million. That results in a ten-day total of $174.6 million. $200 million is assured, and $300 million is certainly in the picture. Its run is looking similar (if a bit behind) the last $300 million R-rated movie, Joker, but even if it ultimately falls short, Oppenheimer will be anything but a bomb.
In the face of overwhelming competition, it's not too surprising that Haunted Mansion, Disney's second attempt in two decades to turn the beloved Disneyland ride into a movie franchise, was ghosted by its audience. The horror-comedy opened to $24.1 million, which is a bit less than the 2003 version with Eddie Murphy made during the Friday-Sunday portion of its opening weekend (the film opened on Wednesday of Thanksgiving week). With mixed word-of-mouth, its very likely that Mansion'23 finishes well short of Mansion'03's $76 million total.
The overwhelming success of Barbenheimer has, to a large extent, overshadowed the success of Sound of Freedom, but make no mistake, the action drama is holding its own (even if questions linger as to just how many of the tickets sold to it are being used). The summer's conservative cause célèbre took in $12.8 million to bring its total to $149.4 million, and still has a decent shot at $200 million. While it is (probably very loosely) based on real events, it does not appear to be an adaption of existing IP, not even a book, which makes it the biggest original movie of the year, having passed Elemental. And there's not many original movies left this year that look like it could top it (September's sci-fi thriller The Creator and Illumination's Christmas release Migration might be the only serious candidates).
I'm pretty sure no one at Paramount thought that Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One would be looking up at Sound of Freedom on both the Top Ten chart and the overall gross chart, but here we are. Tom Cruise's latest stunt show took in $10.6 million to bring its total to a very disappoiting $139 million. For a film that some thought would open to $100 million, the fact it appears to be heading to the franchise's second-lowest gross (only ahead of M:I III) has to be quite bitter. The twin strikes have put production on Dead Reckoning Part Two on hold, and Paramount might not be too eager to see it resume once labor peace has returned to Hollywood.
Opening decently in 6th is Talk to Me, a relatively low-budgeted Austrailian horror movie whose biggest cast name is Miranda Otto. Bouyed by good reviews, the film took in $10.4 million, and should finish between $25 and $30 million, a solid total for this type of movie.
Disney's summer disappointments come in at 7th and 8th. Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny brought in $4 million for a total of $167.1 million, and might have trouble surpassing Temple of Doom's gross from 1984. Elemental, which of course has recovered nicely after its disappointing start, but is still going down as one of Pixar's lowest grossers, brought in $3.5 million for a total of $145.1 million. It should still pass Cars 3 in the next couple of weeks.
Insidious: The Red Door has faded fast, bringing in $3.2 million for 9th. Still, it has taken in $78.1 million and should pass Insidious: Chapter 2 in the next week or so to become the franchise's highest grosser. Rounding out the Top Ten, top summer movie (for now) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earned $1.4 million for a total of $378.8 million, and could officially double the final gross of Into the Spider-Verse in the next few days.
Can Barbie, or even Oppenheimer, be toppled? Two new films will try their best this weekend. Opening today is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Meyham, the 7th feature film starring the titular quartet. This latest reboot returns the Turtles to their animated roots, and was co-written by Seth Rogan, who also provides a voice and has rounded up some of his famous freinds, including Maya Rudolph, John Cena, Rose Byrne, Ice Cube, Paul Rudd, and Jackie Chan, to also provide voices (the Turtles themselves are voiced by four relatively unknown teen actors, the best known being Brady Noon, who co-starred in the Rogan-scripted Good Boys). The Turtles will be joined on Friday by Meg 2: The Trench, the sequel to the surprise hit from 2018 about a giant prehistoric shark wrecking havoc in the modern world. Jason Statham returns, this time battling an even bigger prehistoric shark that sets its sight on a tropical resort. Could Meg chomp its way to #1? Will Turtle Power be enough to break Barbie's stranglehold? Or will Movie Star Barbie reign for a third straight weekend? We'll find out next week.
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