Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Nails the Stark Internship
Did any new releases come out this weekend? I honestly can’t remember. Someone mentioned that there was a new Marvel movie in theaters - one featuring some sort of Spider-Person - but that can’t be right. I feel like I would’ve seen that, perhaps promoted on an unprecedented level for any superhero movie? Hmm. Well, anyways, here’s the weekend box office estimates as of Sunday afternoon:
Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
1 | Spider-Man: Homecoming | $117,015,000 | $26,912 | $117,015,000 |
2 | Despicable Me 3 | $33,998,875 (-53%) | $7,497 | $149,189,535 |
3 | Baby Driver | $12,750,000 (-38%) | $3,952 | $56,883,072 |
4 | Wonder Woman | $10,135,000 (-35%) | $3,279 | $368,786,191 |
5 | Transformers: The Last Knight | $6,300,000 (-62%) | $1,944 | $118,916,760 |
6 | Cars 3 | $5,636,000 (-41%) | $2,086 | $133,733,412 |
7 | The House | $4,815,000 (-44%) | $1,536 | $18,630,678 |
8 | The Big Sick | $3,650,000 (+120%) | $11,196 | $6,920,323 |
9 | 47 Meters Down | $2,768,400 (-38%) | $1,591 | $38,462,047 |
10 | The Beguiled | $2,086,225 (-34%) | $2,217 | $7,435,559 |
Seriously, though, I am shocked, shocked to discover that Marvel’s triumphant repossession of the Spider-Man franchise finished first at the box office this weekend. Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s $117 million opening this weekend is almost an exact match for the 2002 film, and while it may not have hit Avengers numbers at the box office, it’s still solidly above the second-tier Marvel titles like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. If anything, this should be viewed as a success given the franchise fatigue after the short-lived Andrew Garfield series. Compared to some of the other Marvel movies in this price range, let’s put the over-under on Spider-Man‘s domestic gross at about $350 million dollars, with Guardians of the Galaxy ($94 million opening, $333 gross) and Deadpool ($132 million opening, $363 gross) serving as the possible bookends for the movie. The word of mouth has also been pretty solid for this one - CinemaScore currently has it at a solid ‘A’ - so it’s reasonable to expect below-average declines in the weeks to come.
In second place this week with $33.9 million is Despicable Me 3, which featured a pretty average decline in its second weekend and is still going strong at the box office. I recently had a conversation with a fellow film critic where the movie evoked comparisons to one of those direct-to-video Disney titles (The Return of Jafar came up as a comparison point), but even on their best day, Disney wasn’t exactly releasing sequels that made $400 million worldwide in just two weeks. It’s possible that Despicable Me 3 will be one of the lower-performing movies in the franchise and still gross hundreds of millions of dollars for the studio. I'm sure most producers would take a 'disappointment' like that every day of the week.
Meanwhile, those hoping that strong would of mouth would keep Edgar Wright‘s Baby Driver afloat in its second weekend must be thrilled by these numbers, as the film grossed $12.7 million in Week 2 while holding pretty strong. Not only does this make Baby Driver the highest-grossing Wright film of all time, it actually allows us to start mixing and matching titles. Baby Driver has made more than Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Hot Fuzz combined! Baby Driver has already made twice what At World’s End made at the box office! Add in another $14 million thus far at the global box office and Baby Driver is all-but guaranteed to make $100+ million worldwide, giving Wright his first honest-to-goodness blockbuster to go along with all that critical acclaim.
Speaking of movies that hold pretty strong, Wonder Woman pulled in $10 million in its sixth week, good for fourth place overall. There’s probably nothing more to say about Wonder Woman that hasn’t already been said, but here’s another milestone: Wonder Woman just squeaked past Suicide Squad to become the second-biggest DC film worldwide, $745.7 million compared to the latter’s $745.6 million. It seems unlikely that the film can catch Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice given that movie’s $100+ million lead, but this is still nothing but great news for fans of the film.
In fifth place this week is Transformers: The Last Knight, which would have to be considered a disappointing - falling under $10 million in just its third weekend - if it weren’t for those impressive international numbers. Transformers has already grossed $375 million abroad, and while that doesn’t exactly put Transformers: Age of Extinction‘s $858 million foreign box office numbers in sight, it will ensure that Paramount makes its money back on Michael Bay‘s final (maybe?) turn behind the Transformers director’s chair. In sixth place is Cars 3 with $5.6 million, pushing the film’s domestic and international grosses up to $133 million and $60 million, respectively. Those would be fine numbers for a movie like Captain Underpants, but for this Pixar movie - which reportedly cost $175 million to make - those are some pretty franchise-ending metrics. That international number is particularly damning; someone smarter than me should examine what changed on the market between 2011 and 2017 for the third movie to drop so far behind its predecessor.
The House finished in seventh place with a sorta bounce-back weekend, grossing $4.8 million and weathering a decent decline. Had the movie opened bigger, that would be a good sign - but right now, The House would have to double its box office to just break even against its budget. Here’s hoping the VOD market is particularly kind to this comedy. In eight place, and breaking into the Top 10 in a big way, is The Big Sick, which grossed $3.6 million in the third week of its expanded release. Not impressed by that $3.6 million? Let me put it to you another way: The Big Sick played in only 326 theaters over the weekend, meaning that the film earned $11k on a per-theater basis, as much as Baby Driver, Wonder Woman, Transformers: The Last Knight, and Cars 3 combined. Anecdotally, I convinced my in-laws to see The Big Sick this weekend instead of The Beguiled - they’re, um, not a Beguiled kind of couple - so I’m going to await my congratulatory tweet from Kumail Nanjiani.
In ninth place this weekend with $2.7 million is 47 Meters Down, which has had some pretty ridiculous staying power, all things considered. If the budget estimates I’ve seen online ($5 million) are accurate, then the film has now made $38 million with limited marketing. That’s not exactly Get Out money, but it might be time to declare that Entertainment Studios has effectively copied the Blumhouse model, at least out of the gate. And hey, speaking of The Beguiled, that film claimed the final spot in the Top 10 this week with $2 million, making The Beguiled officially Sofia Coppola‘s third highest-grossing film of all time. We’ll see how far that one goes, especially with a potential award season re-release waiting for it this fall.