Spider-Man: Far From Home’s 51% sophomore decline from its $92.6 opening looks a bit better than it is. Remember that Far From Home opened on Tuesday, which reduced its first weekend revenue, so when compared with superhero films that opened on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, it’s 51% drop is not as good as Amazing Spider-Man’s 44% slip, or Batman Begins’ -45%, or Spider-Man 2’s -48%. But that said, Far From Home’s $274.5 million domestic total is impressive, especially in what has been a down year at the box office.
The big question right now is whether Far From Home can demonstrate enough “legs” in the face of intense competition over the next few weeks from The Lion King, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Hobbs and Shaw to push its total past the $404 million record for Sony releases set by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle?
There is no doubt that Far From Home is doing well overseas where it earned an additional $100 million this week to drive its total to a Spider-Man franchise best $572 billion (this is not adjusting for inflation, Spider-Man 3 earned $555 million way back in 2007—and that was without the Chinese market where Far From Home has earned $192 million so far). With a global total of $847 million so far, Far From Home is almost certain to earn over $1 billion, and it has a decent chance of topping Skyfall’s $1.108 billion to become the studio’s biggest global hit of all time (not adjusting for inflation).
Disney also had the #2 film as Pixar’s Toy Story 4 earned $20.66 million, a decline of just 39%. With a domestic cumulative sitting at $346 million, Toy Story 4 has a good chance at topping the $400 million mark here in North America, though it will face intense competition over the next few weeks.
Internationally Toy Story 4 added $48.1 million to drive its overseas total to $425 million and its global haul to $771 million. TS4 will need to demonstrate very impressive “legs” to make the $1 billion mark, but so far it has been more than holding its own—though next weekend The Lion King will present very formidable competition.
Paramount mysteriously withheld Alexander Aja’s eco-thriller Alligator from the critics. The film currently has an 88% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so withholding it from reviews hardly seems warranted. Ironically Alligator, which takes place in the midst of a hurricane, opened just as Hurricane Barry was closing theaters along the Gulf coast. Produced for just $13.5 million, Alligator is this year’s equivalent of 47 Meters Down, which opened with $11.2 million in 2017 and went on to earn $44 million.
The R-rated Crawl earned $12 million, attracting a crowd that skewed slightly male (51%), with 60% of the audience in the 18-34 age bracket. Moviegoers gave Crawl a “B” CinemaScore, the kiss of death for a comedy, but a solid grade for a “horror” film. While it appears that Paramount botched the opening, Crawl still has a chance to become a modest summer hit.
Disney is releasing the Fox-produced R-rated buddy comedy Stuber, which stumbled and bumbled its way to an estimated $8 million opening. With results like this the Mouse House, never known for producing edgy movies, probably won’t continue making this sort of film. Are romcoms and R-rated comedies no longer viable in the streaming era, or are all these ribald comedies that have flopped at the box office over the past two years just bad films?
Fifth place went to Danny Boyle’s Yesterday, which declined just 33% as it earned $6.75 million to bring its domestic total to $48.3 million. Yesterday has become a modest summer counter-programming hit with its targeted audience of older adults.
Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin remained in the top ten for the eighth straight weekend, earning $5.9 million to bring its domestic total to $331.5 million. Having passed Suicide Squad’s $325 million, Aladdin is now the highest earning film of Will Smith’s career (not adjusting for inflation). With a worldwide total of $960 million, Aladdin could become yet another Disney release to earn over $1 billion.
Speaking of Disney films that have earned over a billion dollars, Avengers: Endgame has now earned $2.7808 billion, which is just $7.2 million away from Avatar’s box office record (not adjusting). Disney loves its box office records, and will keep Endgame out there as long as possible, but it’s still a tough slog to #1 after 12 weeks in theaters.
Be sure to check back here next weekend as Disney will devour its own, ending Spider-Man’s box office reign with the release The Lion King in over 4,500 theaters.
