While Hotel Transylvania 3’s debut was a bit behind it predecessor’s ($48 million for HT 2 in 2015), the franchise has been remarkably consistent with all three films opening north of $40 million. Hotel Transylvania 3 attracted an audience that skewed slightly female 52%, and quite young with just 35% over 25—and they liked the film with its big name vocal cast, giving it a solid “A-“ CinemaScore, the same grade that the first two films in the series received.
Not content with crushing Skyscraper here in North America, Hotel Transylvania 3 was also the top release in the international market, earning a solid $46.4 million. With a production cost of $80 million, HT 3 is off to a solid start in both the domestic and overseas markets.
Faced with direct competition from both Hotel Transylvania and Skyscraper, Marvel Studio’s Ant-Man and the Wasp dropped 62%, the second biggest second weekend tumble for any Marvel Studios release. Does this spell trouble for the Ant-Man franchise? Not so fast, the only Marvel film with a worse second frame decline, last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming recovered nicely after its sophomore session plunge, and ended up earning $334 million in North America.
Ant-Man and the Wasp has now brought in $132.8 million here in North America, and looks to finish its run somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million. If it earns less than Thor: The Dark World’s $206 million, Ant-Man and the Wasp will have the distinction of being the lowest-grossing Marvel Studios sequel yet in the domestic market. It also earned another dubious distinction, joining Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Incredible Hulk, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain America 1 as the only Marvel Studios films that didn’t hold the #1 spot for their first two weeks of release.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is still running ahead of its predecessor overseas where it has earned $150.1 million so far from about 51% of the markets, with China and key European markets yet to come. It is way too early to write the epitaph for the Ant-Man movie franchise, but the film’s performance over the next few weeks definitely merits close attention.
This week’s biggest disappointment was Universal and Legendary Pictures’ Skyscraper, a sort of Die Hard meets The Towering Inferno disaster film starring the ubiquitous Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. With a budget of $125 million, Skyscraper is likely the most expensive “original” production of 2018 (everyone complains about sequels, but look at what film is #1 this week). Skyscraper’s $25.5 million domestic bow has to rate as a disappointment (it was $5 million shy of 2014’s Hercules, which finished its run with just $72.7 million in North America), and the film’s $40.4 million from 57 overseas markets is not inspiring either, though the film’s big hope is China, where The Rock’s Rampage earned $156.7 million, and where Skyscraper opens next weekend.
Skyscraper earned an OK “B+” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, which skewed male (55%), and a bit older with 52% over 25. Unless Skyscraper develops big “legs” here or is boffo in China, the film will have a hard time making back its production and marketing costs.
Fourth place went to Pixar’s Incredibles 2, which earned $16.2 million to bring its best ever domestic total for an animated film to $535.8 million. Incredibles 2 is now the tenth highest-grossing domestic release of any type, having passed Dark Knight ($535 million--not adjusting for inflation), and is nearing $900 million worldwide (its overseas rollout was delayed by the World Cup).
Universal may not be setting the box office on fire with Skyscraper, but the studio’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom continues to perform well as it earned $15.5 million to bring its domestic total to $363.3 million, and its mammoth global haul to $1.134 billion.
Also holding well is the Universal/Blumhouse “horror” film The First Purge, which added $9.1 million to bring its total to $49.5 million.
Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You expanded from 16 theaters to 805, earning $4.2 million and finishing at #7, a solid showing for the indie comedy.
In limited release this week Bo Burnham’s coming of age in social media era saga Eighth Grade earned $63,071 each at four theaters, the best average so far in 2018.
Also doing well in limited action was Gus Van Sant’s biopic about cartoonist John Callahan, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far, which stars Joaquin Phoenix and averaged $20,780 at four theaters.
Be sure and check back here next weekend as two new films open in wide release, the Mamma Mia sequel, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, and the action movie sequel The Equalizer 2, which stars Denzel Washington.