Gran Turismo races to a narrow, if underwhelming, win, but still greatly outpaced the other newcomers.
(I am going to try to catch up with these over the course of this week.)
More often than not, late August and early September has essentially been similar to January when it came to film releases. With the summer movie season effectively over by the middle of the month and the fall movie season not ramping up in earnest until after Labor Day, this time period generally sees a combination of cheap horror titles, cheap comedy, and prestige films that aren't good enough for awards consideration. Last year, for example, the vampire thriller The Invitation, which was largely forgotten about by October, was the #1 movie of the weekend.
Sony, buoyed by the late-month success of Free Guy and Candyman two years ago, thought they had the perfect title this year to beat the late August blahs. Unlike most movies derived from video games, Gran Turismo isn't an adaption, but instead tells the true story of a ardent fan of the game who gets the opportunity to become a real race car driver. Sony promoted this one for months, including numerous advanced screenings in order to build word-of-mouth. The good news is that Turismo did grab the pole position for the weekend. The bad news is that it had the weakest opening at #1 since Magic Mike's Last Dance Super Bowl weekend, as Turismo drove into the pit with just $17.4 million. Sony better hope that word of mouth is strong on this one, because it could easily crash out with less than $50 million domestic.
Coming in at 2nd for the second weekend in a row is the queen of all she surveys, Barbie, who is now truly the box office queen, having passed The Super Mario Bros. Movie. If Barbie is able to keep her title, it would be the first time since 1987 and Three Men and a Baby that a movie with a female title character was the year's highest-grossing film. She took in $15.1 million for a total of $592.8 million.
Last week's champ, Blue Beetle slipped to third with $12.2 million, for a ten-day total of $45.7 million. Compared to the other two DC movies this year, The Flash and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, that's a solid hold. Indeed, it made more that Shazam! did in its second weekend and is only a few million behind the second weekend of The Flash. So in the rather downtrodden terms of the DCU, that counts as a win.
Oppenheimer continues to be a blinding flash at the box office, taking in $8.2 million bringing its total to $299.3 million. Also just barely on the wrong side of a big round number is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in fifth, earning $7.3 million for a total of $99.3 million.
In sixth, R-rated talking dog comedy Strays held up a bit better than Blue Beetle, but since it started from a lower spot, we really can't call it much of a success. It barked up $4.9 million for a ten-day total of $16.4 million. That's enough for it to get past fellow R-rated summer comedy Joy Ride, but is still well below the summer's R-rated comedy champ, No Hard Feelings.
Meg 2: The Trench continues to swim along, earning another $4.8 million for a total of $74.1 million, it's a disappointment, but it is still the highest-grossing non-Jurassic movie about rampaging animals since the first Meg in 2018.
Opening in 8th is Retribution, the latest in Liam Neeson's seemingly endless Old Man of Action movies of which this is at least his 15th since Taken became an unexpected smash back in early 2009. Someone must be making money off these, but it seems unlikely they'll make much of this one, as it opened to a dismal $3.5 million.
In 9th is another opening, the inspirational baseball movie The Hill, about real-life former Major League Baseball player Rickey Hill. This sounds like a cross between two of co-star Dennis Quaid's prior films, The Rookie (in which Quaid played real-life former Major League Baseball player Jim Morris) and I Can Only Imagine (an inspirational movie in which Quaid played a strict father). Both The Rookie and I Can Only Imagine were hits. The Hill isn't, as it could only manage a bloop single of $2.3 million.
Rounding out the Top 10, sleeper horror hit Talk to Me chatted up another $2.3 million to bring its total to $41.3 million.
Outside the Top 10, the 30th anniversary re-release of Jurassic Park brought in $1.7 million worth of nostalgia seekers, opening in 13th, below Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part 1 and Haunted Mansion. In 14th was Golda, starring Helen Mirren as the former Israeli prime minister. Its placement here signifies that it won't be an awards season player, as it could only take in $1.7 million.
Until 2018, Denzel Washington had not done a single sequel. He broke that streak with The Equalizer 2, and having already made one additional Equalizer, he decided he might as well make them a set. Equalizer 3 has his former CIA agent, who shares with Liam Neeson a particular set of skills, settling down in a small Italian town, at least until the local mafia decide to take over. With no real competition, it should be an easy #1. The first two had remarkably equal openings ($34.1 million and $36 million) and remarkably equal finals ($101.5 million and $102.1 million). Will this one open in the same range, or could all things not be equal for the first time? We'll find out next week.
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