Friday Estimates: Wonder Woman Wows Again with $15.8 million
June 10, 2017
At the beginning of the month, I assumed this weekend would be a close race between Wonder Woman and The Mummy. I assumed The Mummy would at least win on Friday, but that’s not the case, as Wonder Woman remains the number one box office draw. The film earned $15.8 million on Friday, which is 59% lower than its opening Friday. It should bounce back on Saturday and finish the weekend with $53 million, which is just a 49% sophomore stint drop-off. A super hero movie falling less than 50% during its second weekend of release is simply stunning. Granted, its reviews are among the best of the year, so having better than average legs was expect. That said, a 49% drop-off is still an amazing performance and should lead to more than a few movie executives to look for ways to copy its success.
The Mummy only managed second place on Friday with just $12.03 million, putting it on pace for a $30.3 million opening weekend, according to the studio. This is by far the worst opening in the Mummy franchise—even The Scorpion King spin-off beat it. The film reportedly cost $125 million to make and it will not get anywhere near that domestically. It will earn more than that internationally by the end of the weekend (Universal is projecting $139 million overseas for the weekend), but even then its future doesn’t look good. Not only does it only have two major international markets left to open in (France and Japan) its reviews have fallen to just 18% positive and it earned a B minus from CinemaScore, so its word-of-mouth will likely be terrible. This could be the end of the Dark Universe franchise, which isn’t really shocking, as most attempts to copy the MCU have failed.
Oh, and if there are any movie executives reading this, here’s how you make a successful combined movie universe. Step one: Make a good movie, one that has a self-contained story. Step two: Only include a handful of Easter Eggs in the movie hinting at a wider universe. If moviegoers think they will have to watch a dozen movies to understand what’s going on in the first movie, then they will stay away. If they think the first movie will have to set up the next dozen movies and won’t have time to tell a compelling story, they will stay away. The MCU worked, because they told contained stories to begin with and gained the audience’s trust before creating the big interconnected stories. The Dark Universe had ten films announced before the first one hit theaters. This is why it failed.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is holding on a little better than expected with $3.56 million on Friday for $13 million over the weekend. It will take just nine days to match its production budget, so the studio should be very happy with that result.
On the other hand, It Comes at Night is not going to make A24 happy, despite its $5 million production budget. The film only managed $2.46 million on Friday and even though its reviews are excellent, it bombed with audiences, earning a D from CinemaScore. Horror films usually struggle compared to other genres when it comes to the CinemaScore, but a D is a disaster no matter what. There’s a chance it won’t open in the top five, making it the second bomb for A24 this year.
Megan Leavey isn’t doing any better, earning $1.2 million on Friday, which puts it on pace to open with less than $4 million. Unfortunately for Bleecker Street, it is playing in nearly 2,000 theaters, meaning it will miss the Mendoza Line over the weekend. Its reviews are good and it earned an A from CinemaScore, but its theater average is low enough that most theater owners will be looking to drop it as soon as they are contractually able to.
- The Mummy Comparisons
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- It Comes At Night Comparisons
- Megan Leavey Comparisons
Filed under: Friday Estimates, Wonder Woman, The Mummy, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Megan Leavey, It Comes at Night, Mummy, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dark Universe