Weekend Box Office: Cars 3 Manages to Top Wonder Woman, All Eyez on Me Opens Strong

By Chris Kavan - 06/18/17 at 09:10 PM CT

It was a question of whether Pixar could top Wonder Woman, and they did, but the big news out of this weekend continues to be just how good Wonder Woman is holding up. The other really big story is that All Eyez on Me, the long-in-the-making Tupac Shakur biopic managed to ride a wave of pretty scathing reviews to appeal to audiences and come out far ahead of what was predicted. The Mummy took a beating in its second weekend, but continues to show much more promise overseas while the female ensemble comedy Rough Night lived up to its name and opened outside the top five. All in all, it was a good weekend and with Transformers and Despicable Me on the horizon, the good weekends should keep right on coming.

1) CARS 3

Like most Pixar movies before it, Cars 3 opening in the top spot with a $53.54 million weekend. While that total is below both Cars ($60 million) and Cars 2 ($66 million) its weekend multiplier was actually a big better, hopefully leading to better long-term results. The film also earned an "A" Cinemascore from audiences - every Pixar film aside from Cars 2 ("A-") has scored the same or better, thus the streak is kept alive. It is also on the lower end of Pixar in general - the fifth lowest to be exact but don't fret, Cars will more than make up for that in merchandising, the series bread-and-butter anyway. Still, I think Cars 3 took itself more seriously and looks by and far to be the best of the bunch. It is still looking at a probable $150 million total, with a good chance to go higher (up to $200 million) though we'll know more when we find out how much Despicable Me 3 takes out of it in a couple of weeks. It is rolling out slowly on the international front, with just $21.3 million thus far from a handful of markets. Cars 3 may not be a standout for Pixar, but it's going to wind up just fine in the end.

2) WONDER WOMAN

While Wonder Woman may not have topped the box office in its third weekend, that doesn't mean the film didn't continue to impress. With $40.77 million, Wonder Woman dropped a scant 30.3%. That is the second-best third weekend for Warner Bros. behind just The Dark Knight ($42 million) and the fourth best third weekend among all superhero films, again behind just The Dark Knight, The Avengers ($55 million) and Spider-Man ($45 million). It scored the 11th best third weekend among all films and the film now stands at $274.6 million total. That drop is the third smallest among all films opening with $100 million or more behind just Rogue One (22%) and The Jungle Book (29%). Both of those figures are truly impressive and it all points to Wonder Woman being able to top $400 million on the domestic front. It is also not outpacing both Man of Steel and Suicide Squad and should have no problem becoming DC's highest grossing domestic release. Even with Transformers and Despicable Me 3 coming up, Wonder Woman is going to continue strong and looks to be the real deal.

3) ALL EYEZ ON ME

The long-awaited Tupac Shakur biopic was a dud with critics (24% on Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences didn't seem to mind much. With an "A-" Cinemascore, All Eyez On Me opened well above expectations with a $27 million debut. That audience was mostly male (53%) and older (62% over 25). The team was a bit savvy, opening the film on what would have been Shakur's 46th birthday. The film was, however, front-loaded with a frankly terrible 2.11x weekend multiplier meaning, unlike Straight Outta Compton, this may not be looking at long-term viability but rather a great opening and a fast decline. In any case, even if it falls off a total in the $50-$60 million range is still a good possibility and for a film that cost around $40 million, that total will play out just fine. Once again, the big tell is going to come next weekend where we'll find out how much staying power it has.

4) THE MUMMY

After a fairly disastrous opening weekend, this didn't get any better for Tom Cruise and the Dark Universe franchise starter, The Mummy. With a 56.1% drop (as much was expected), The Mummy could only scrounge up $13.9 million, giving it just a $56.5 million total. The saving grace for the film continues to be its international numbers, where it continued to top the overseas market with $53 million. Its worldwide total stands just shy of $300 million. It still puts the future of this franchise in murky waters, but the show will most likely go one - though I have a feeling the budgets may be pared down a bit after this response. This one is going to wind up making money, it's just not going to make much of an impact on the domestic front.

5) 47 METERS DOWN

The shark thriller also managed to top expectations as the Mandy Moore/Claire Holt film opened to $11.5 million, ahead of the studio's $10 prediction. While that isn't exactly an out-of-the-park opening, it's looking pretty good for a film that was originally going to go VOD. With the marketing costs and such, this still has a bit to go before it can be considered a success, but it's not going to be an unmitigated disaster, either. It may not be able to challenge The Shallows for female vs shark supremacy, but, then again, that's a pretty specific genre to be worried about.

Outside the top five: Rough Night had a rough weekend as the Scarlett Johansson-led R-rated comedy opened to just $8.04 million, well below the estimated $20 million it was expected to bring in. Blame Wonder Woman and Cars 3 for drawing in women and family crowds and significantly cutting in to its target crowd. It also didn't help the film drew mostly negative reviews, backed up by the lowly "C+" Cinemascore. This one is a non-started and barring some late-comers, will likely leave theaters very soon.

Speaking of non-starters, Jurassic World (and upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX) director Colin Trevorrow's Book of Henry opened just outside of wide release in 579 theaters, but maybe that's for the best as the poorly-reviewed film earned a scant $1.4 million (13th place) and a likewise poor $2,431 per-theater average. I doubt this is going to get any more expanded.

Next week there is only one big gun coming out, but it's going to be Transformers: The Last Knight, which will dominate both the domestic and foreign box office.

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