This weekend, both new wide releases fared well, but Warner Bros.’ Dunkirk marched to victory yet again.
Coming in first, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk pulled $26.6 million from 3,748 venues, a -47.3% decline from its $50.5m debut. With regards to similar films, Dunkirk’s second weekend drop was slightly worse than Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor (-41.7%) and David Ayer’s Fury (-43.6%), and it was well below Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper (-27.6%). Dunkirk now sits on a strong $101.3m domestic total, which is +31.7% above Nolan’s Interstellar at the same point ($76.9m).
The gap between Dunkirk and Interstellar will close as the weeks progress, however – Interstellar had the benefit of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to maintain legs. Regardless, Dunkirk is a lock for $160m+, and could challenge Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor ($198.5m) as the second highest-grossing WWII film in North America. Internationally, Dunkirk grossed $45.8m from 63 markets. Overseas and global cumes now stand at $131.5m and $232.8m. If Dunkirk can eclipse Saving Private Ryan’s $481.4m global total, it will be the highest-grossing WWII film worldwide. Top five foreign markets for Dunkirk are the U.K. ($35.4m), South Korea ($16.7m), Australia ($9.8m), France ($9.8m), and Spain ($4.7m).
In second place, Sony’s The Emoji Movie was “meh” with a $24.5 million debut from 4,075 locations. Tony Leondis’ animated flick opened +15.1% above Warner Bros.’ Storks ($21.3m). The Emoji Movie broke one interesting record: it had the lowest opening weekend for a film debuting at 4,000+ theatres. Reception for Emoji Movie has been scathing – it boasts a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 6% (avg. critic score being 2.3/10 from nearly 50 reviews), and a 1.4/10 rating on IMDb from nearly 7,800 scores.
Regarding Emoji Movie’s abysmal IMDb score, it’s worth taking with a grain of salt (this isn’t the first time a movie with unfavourable buzz garnered an abnormally low score), but it is still indicative that people aren’t taking to the film. Despite the above, The Emoji Movie isn’t a flop for Sony – the film cost a reasonable $50m to produce, and if it follows the performance of this April’s Smurfs: The Lost Village (another panned animation from Sony), it will gross around $80m. A number that high comes off as unlikely, but Emoji Movie should still close with $60m-70m. There are no international numbers to report for The Emoji Movie, but it swarms the U.K., Germany, Korea, and other markets this week.
In third, Universal’s Girls Trip fell a light -37% to gross $19.65 million in its sophomore weekend. In comparison, STX’s sleeper hit Bad Moms fell -41.2%. Girls Trip has revved a $65.1m domestic cume thus far, and should hit $100m in the coming weeks – a fantastic success. Internationally, Malcolm D. Lee’s comedy opened to $2.1m in the U.K., its only overseas market for now. Global total for Girls Trip is $67.2m.
Blasting into fourth, Focus Features’ Atomic Blonde delivered $18.3 million from 3,304 locations. Blonde’s performance is identical to that of John Wick’s, albeit with slightly higher numbers. If Blonde keeps that up, it will gross around $55m in North America. Atomic Blonde’s debut may come across as underwhelming, considering many predicted it would open above $25m, but bear in mind a couple of factors – it is a non-sequel in an action-saturated theatrical landscape, and Girls Trip is still drawing audiences. With that and the fact it cost a healthy $30m to produce, Atomic Blonde’s opening is fine. Reception for Blonde is decent; it has a 75% score on Rotten Tomatoes (avg. critic score being 6.4/10 from over 140 reviews) and a 7.2/10 rating on IMDb from nearly 7,700 scores. If Blonde doesn’t tumble next weekend, it should perform well through August. Overseas, the David Leitch/Charlize Theron/James McAvoy thriller opened to $5.94m from a few markets – Russia being the highest-grossing territory (don’t have actual numbers yet). Global cume for Atomic Blonde is $24.2m.
Swinging in fifth, Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming held on with a $13.26 million fourth weekend from 3,625 venues. Homecoming marked a -40.1% drop, its lowest so far. Jon Watt’s Spidey film has totalled $278.2m in North America, and it should hit the $300 million milestone in August. Internationally, Homecoming slung another $19.7m from 64 markets, giving it overseas and global totals of $355.4m and $633.6m, respectively. Spider-Man’s top five foreign markets are South Korea ($50.6m), the U.K. ($31.9m), Brazil ($29.7m), Mexico ($25.9m), and Australia ($18.4m). Homecoming still has China and Japan to come.
HOLDOVERS
6. War for the Planet of the Apes (Fox) – $10.47 million (-49.9%), $118.78m cume
7. Despicable Me 3 (Universal) – $7.59 million (-41.6%), $230.29m cume
8. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (STX) – $6.36 million (-62.6%), $30.19m cume
9. Baby Driver (Sony) – $3.97 million (-34.6%), $91.97m cume
10. Wonder Woman (Warner Bros.) – $3.34 million (-27.5%), $395.24m cume
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for this week’s box office forecast, featuring Sony’s The Dark Tower, Annapurna’s Detroit, and Aviron’s Kidnap.
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