This weekend, three new releases duked it out, with Warner Bros.’ Dunkirk reigning on top, Universal’s Girls Trip impressing, and STX’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets crash landing.
At number one, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk grossed $50.5 million from 3,720 venues. IMAX showings made up an impressive $11.7m of that total. More impressively, Dunkirk is the first original film to top the box office since March, and it opened above Nolan’s last film, Interstellar ($47.5m). The adoration showered over the World War II film played a major role in catapulting it to such high numbers – Rotten Tomatoes scores Dunkirk at 92% (avg. critic score being 8.6/10 from over 240 reviews), and on IMDb it carries an 8.8/10 from nearly 52,000 ratings. If Dunkirk plays like Interstellar, it’s eying a $200m domestic cume (which also gives it a similar multiple to Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper). If Dunkirk plays akin to Inception, it’ll gross around $235m, surpassing Saving Private Ryan ($216.8m, not adjusted for inflation) as the highest-grossing WWII film in North America. Dunkirk may have a challenge reaching that milestone, but it is far from impossible.
Overseas, Dunkirk grossed $56.9m from 46 markets, scoring #1 debuts in each territory. IMAX makes up $7m of that total. Dunkirk’s global cume stands at a promising $105.9m, above the global debut of last week’s War for the Planet of the Apes ($100.5m). Dunkirk’s top five foreign markets are the U.K. ($12.4m), South Korea ($10.3m), France ($4.9m), Australia ($4.7m), and Russia ($2.7m), with plenty more major markets left to open in.
Arriving in second is Malcolm D. Lee’s Girls Trip, which revved $31.2 million from 2,591 locations. The female-centric comedy garnered positive reactions from critics and audiences alike – Girls Trip currently boasts an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (avg. critic score being 7.2/10 from over 70 reviews) and a 7.2/10 score on IMDb from over 700 ratings. Opening day audiences awarded Girls Trip a rare “A+” rating on CinemaScore polls, indicating this film will have life throughout the summer. A similar run to STX’s Bad Moms would give Girls Trip a $145m domestic total. Considering Girls Trip cost a cheap $19m to produce, that would be a huge victory for Universal and company. As of this writing, there are no international numbers to report for Girls Trip.
In third place, Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming fell -49.9% from its second weekend – a drop on par with 2009’s Spider-Man 3 (-50.1%) – to gross $22.15 million. Jon Watts’ reboot of the revered superhero icon has totalled $251.85m, and should surpass the lifetime gross of Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man ($262.8m) by the end of next weekend. While this may appear to be an underwhelming haul for Homecoming, which has the benefits of praise and Iron Man, it is an impressive total given the subpar reactions for the Spider-Man films this last decade and the franchise fatigue that has plagued this summer. Again, it is more important for Sony to rebuild Spider-Man’s goodwill than to churn out a $1+ billion grosser. Homecoming still has a chance at $300 million in North America if it can stabilize from here on out. Internationally, Spider-Man slung $33.2m from 64 markets (off -49% from its last frame), bringing its overseas cume to a hefty $320m and its global total to $571.7m. The top five foreign markets for Homecoming are South Korea ($48.4m, highest-grossing Spider-Man film ever), the U.K. ($27.3m), Brazil ($25.7m, also highest-grossing Spider-Man film there), Mexico ($24.1m), and Australia ($14.9m, pending update).
In fourth, Fox’s War for the Planet of the Apes collapsed from its debut weekend, dipping -62.9% to gross $20.89 million. Like Transformers: The Last Knight and Spider-Man: Homecoming before it, Apes has become the latest franchise to take a harsh >60% decline. In comparison, 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes fell -50.1% in its sophomore weekend, and 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes fell -49.2%. Despite rave reviews and audience approval, War for the Planet of the Apes buckled from the weight Dunkirk brought this weekend – the public chose the adult-oriented original film over the adult-oriented franchise film. In this saturated, live-or-die theatrical landscape, a movie needs to distinguish itself quickly and effectively to survive, and the marketing for War was too much like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to entice audiences. The current domestic cume for Apes stands at $98.2m, and it is on track for a $140m+ total. Internationally, War for the Planet of the Apes added $17.2 million from 27 markets. Overseas and global totals are $77.1m and $174.9m. Top international markets for War are the U.K. ($16.1m), Russia ($8.8m), Spain ($6.2m), with majors including Australia, Mexico, and China on the horizon.
Landing in fifth is also the weekend’s last new release, Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The expensive sci-fi epic grossed $17 million from 3,553 venues. This is a dismal start for Valerian, which carried a $209m production cost, per CNC. STX, who distributed Valerian after their absorption of EuropaCorp, reports a net $150m cost after subsidies. It is also reported that 90% of the budget has been covered by international pre-sales. Regardless, it is never good when a film opens with just 8% of its production budget. Valerian’s reception has been lukewarm; as of this writing, its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 54% (avg. critic score being 5.7/10 from over 130 reviews), and its IMDb rating is 7.0/10 from over 5,100 scores.
Valerian’s marketing emphasized style over substance, which can sometimes work in a non-crowded market. This year, however, we have already seen a space epic with Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and we will be spoiled again with Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi this December. With that in mind, Valerian came off as nondescript, and will accordingly struggle to keep up from here. Internationally, Valerian opened with $6.5 million from 16 markets, giving it a global cume of $23.5m. Valerian’s only major market this weekend was Germany, where it took in $2.9m at #2. Its #1 openings came from Hungary, Romania, the Philippines, and Thailand. Valerian needs to hope it’ll be embraced by international audiences to overcome its failure in North America.
That’s all for last weekend’s box office report. Thanks for reading, and watch for this weekend’s box office forecast, featuring Focus Features’ Atomic Blonde and Sony’s The Emoji Movie.
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