Box office bombs can be a little captivating. No studio ever wants them, clearly, but they’re something of a spectator sport when they happen. I’m referring to Disney/Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, of course. A few other movies came out this weekend but didn’t make much noise. Let’s dig in.
In first (not quite worth celebrating), Solo toppled -65.2%, adding $29.4m for a disappointing $148.99m domestic tally. That’s a drop roughly on par with last year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (-64.9%) and nigh identical with 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse (-65.3%). If Solo follows the pattern of Apocalypse, it’ll end up with just below $200m, a rather embarrassing figure given the massive success of Disney’s fellow Star Wars flicks. If Solo follows Dead Men Tell No Tales from here, that gives it $231m. That’s not a bad number, no, but since Solo reportedly cost around $300m – not including marketing – and overseas is a bust (more on that in a second) it isn’t a good omen, either. There’s a chance that Solo’s domestic haul won’t even match the opening weekend of last December’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($220.01m). The reasons for this were discussed last week, but it’s still a surprisingly poor performance, even though the movie itself apparently isn’t too shabby.
Internationally, Solo: A Star Wars Story fell to #2 (behind a one Ryan Reynolds vehicle), grossing $30.3m from 54 markets. Overseas and global cumes are $115.4m and $264.39m, respectively. Even though Star Wars is one of the most eminent franchises in film history, it’s largely a Western phenomenon and hasn’t put out exceptional overseas grosses (these movies don’t typically gross a lot more overseas than they do domestically). That was probably exacerbated by the relative disinterest towards Solo and, arguably, generally negative buzz. Unfortunately, it’s not likely Solo will make a rebound on this front, thanks to the arrival of Universal’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 48 overseas markets this week. Top markets for Solo are the U.K. ($18.6m), China ($14.7m), Germany ($9.8m), Australia ($8.8m), and France ($7.5m).
In second, Fox’s Deadpool 2 dipped an alright -46.7% from last weekend, grossing $23.18m. Domestic haul for Mr. Wilson is a strong $254.51m. Deadpool 2’s decline is in line with that of the first Deadpool’s third weekend dip (-44.9%), but it’s still pacing -10.8% behind that film at the same point in release. Following that trend earns Deadpool 2 a final total around $324m. Maybe knock that down a little, what with the impending competition this month, but somewhere over $300m should be a safe bet. Still a terrific number – this was produced for a comparatively modest $110m – and more impressive when considering most comedy sequels decline quite a bit from their predecessor.
Overseas, Deadpool 2 regained its perch on the throne, adding $41.6m from 79 markets for a $343.65m cume. Global is $598.16m. Top markets for Deadpool 2 are the U.K. ($37m), South Korea ($30.5m), Australia ($22.6m), Russia ($20.2m), and Mexico ($19.1m).
Debuting in third, STX’s Shailene Woodley-Sam Claflin survival romance Adrift earned $11.6m from 3,015 venues ($3,848 per-theatre average). That’s a bit below Claflin’s last romance, 2016’s Me Before You ($18.72m opening), but a smidge above last October’s fellow romantic survival drama The Mountain Between Us ($10.55m), which starred Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. Obviously this isn’t a smashing debut, but STX reportedly covered most of Adrift’s $35m production budget via foreign presales, so anywhere over $30m total puts the movie on a decent track. Reviews for Adrift are generally fine – the movie has a 69% score on Rotten Tomatoes (avg. critic score being 6.1/10 from >80 reviews) and a 6.8/10 score on IMDb (from >1,300 ratings). If Adrift follows the performance of Mountain Between Us, it gets $33.4m. Following Me Before You gives it $34.9m. Those two comps provide a fairly comfortable range for what to expect here – not great numbers, but not exactly bad either.
Overseas, Adrift earned $381k from nine small markets for a $11.98m global gross. Scandinavia was the strongest region ($101k).
Taking fourth, Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War nabbed $10.51m (-39.2%) in its sixth frame for a mammoth $643.01m haul. That’s a pretty decent hold, beating the post-Memorial Day decline of 2012’s The Avengers (-44.2%) and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron (-47.4%). Speaking of the first Avengers, Infinity War’s playing +11% ahead of it at the same point in release. Maintaining that suggests a closing tally around $692m. Not quite enough to eclipse this February’s Black Panther, which is this close to $700m domestically, but still giant in its own right.
Internationally, Infinity War grossed $24.3m from 54 markets. Overseas cume is a massive $1.323 billion and global is an even bigger $1.966 billion. This’ll hit $2 billion in due time, becoming just the fourth movie ever to reach the milestone. Top markets for Infinity War are China ($356.2m), the U.K. ($94m), South Korea ($92.5m), Brazil ($64.9m), and Mexico ($59.4m).
Rounding out the top five, Paramount’s Book Club grossed $7.04m in its third frame, dropping a soft -30.1%. Domestic total for the $10m comedy is $47.56m, pacing -4.2% behind 2015’s The Intern at the same point in release. Somewhere in the $60m range is a good final target for Book Club, terrific legs for a movie that opened with $13.58m.
Internationally, Book Club added $1.1m from the U.K., with no other updates to report.
Outside the top five, BH Tilt’s Upgrade opened in sixth place with an okay $4.67m from 1,457 hubs ($3,206 average). BH Tilt movies are released with the mindset of $10m being a fine total and that’s probably no different here. The strong reception for Upgrade indicate it very well could surpass $10m and perhaps become the label’s highest-grossing title, beating out 2016’s The Darkness ($10.75m).
Way down in ninth, the weekend’s last debut was a bust. Paramount’s Action Point, starring Jackass dude Johnny Knoxville, was DOA with $2.39m from 2,032 venues ($1,176 average). Action Point comes courtesy of Paramount’s prior administration and supposedly the new brass were simply looking to unload this one. The majority of Knoxville’s appeal rests in the Jackass franchise, but fans of that didn’t turn out here, despite the real stunts hook. Fortunately, the movie was made for cheap-ish ($19m). Critical reception wouldn’t matter a whole lot here, but it doesn’t help that they hate the movie. Expect Action Point to vanish soon.
HOLDOVERS
7. Life of the Party (Warner Bros.) – $3.5 million (-34.9%), $46.35m cume
8. Breaking In (Universal) – $2.81 million (-34.4%), $41.34m cume
10. Overboard (Lionsgate/Pantelion) – $1.95 million (-37.8%), $45.5m cume
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