Weekend Box Office: Crazy Rich Asians Has Crazy Good Hold, Happytime Murders Bombs

By Chris Kavan - 08/26/18 at 06:26 PM CT

While it was an amazing weekend for the holdover films the exact opposite could be said for the two new films openings. Late-summer smash Crazy Rich Asians and The Meg both crossed major milestones while showing remarkable staying power. Meanwhile, Melissa McCarthy had the lowest opening in a lead role in the critically-maligned puppet noir. Things weren't rosy for boy-meets-robot dog flick A.X.L., which was lucky to even find a spot in the top 10. But it wasn't all bad news for new releases, as the limited release of Searching (a week ahead of its wide-screen debut) was a knockout.

1) CRAZY RICH ASIANS

Crazy Rich Asians had no problem topping the box office in its second weekend, and it did so in a highly impressive fashion. With a mere 5.7% drop over its debut weekend, the film had one of the best second-week holds among films - an even more impressive hold when you consider most of the previous best holds counted on a holiday (usually Christmas) to help out. In fact, if you eliminate holidays, Crazy Rich Asians has the best hold among live-action films (Mother's Day has is beat with a 32% increase over its opening - but only because the second weekend fell on Mother's Day - technically a holiday). That gave the film a $25 million weekend and a new $76.8 million total. With an extended Labor Day Weekend coming up, Crazy Rich Asians should have no problem making it three weeks in a row with a total that is likely going to top $150 million - with a chance to go much higher depending on how much of an audience it can continue to bring in. Speaking of audiences, the film continues a slow international expansion, now playing in 18 markets where it brought in $6 million (with a record romantic comedy opening of $1.8 million opening in Singapore). The $30 million film isn't going to have any issue making a profit, the only question from here on out is how much it's going to make.

2) THE MEG

Warner Bros. is having a great end-summer run. Besides the breakout of Crazy Rich Asians, they also have a winner in The Meg. Also holding on to its second-place position (off 38.4%), the shark attack film brought in $13 million, enough to cross the $100 million mark with a new $105.3 million total. That makes The Meg the 17th film of the year to top the century mark. It's really also the first Jason Statham film where he is the solo lead to top that mark. But if The Meg is doing a great job on the domestic front, it's absolutely killing it on the international front. With a $32.7 million overseas total, it brought the international mark to $303 million, which means a $408.6 million worldwide - topping the likes of Solo: A Star Wars Story and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Who knew a massive shark and well-rounded cast would be able to top Star Wars and a killer Meryl Streep cameo musical? I probably wouldn't have predicted anything of the like but here we are and the Warner Bros. studio must be bursting with joy.

3) THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS

Suffering from a plague of harsh critical reviews, the unique puppet-themed noir (or maybe dark comedy?) starring Melissa McCarthy rolled out to a frankly terrible $10 million opening. That is easily the worst opening for McCarthy, well below Life of the Party ($17.8 million). Audiences were in line with critics, where the film earned a dismal "C-" Cinemascore. I don't expect audiences to support this for more than a week or two and in all honesty, the film will be lucky to hit $30 million in the long run. Brian Henson may have wanted to push the envelope with this, but without committing to one true vision (are we trying for a hard-hitting, gritty crime or over-the-top novelty gross-out here?) the muddled mess of a picture didn't please anyone. It's not going to be the biggest disappointment of the year, but it will surely rank up there with the best of the worst of them.

4) MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT

The Tom Cruise franchise film actually jumped a spot over last weekend, even after dipping another 25.7%. Back in the fourth position, Fallout earned $8 million, giving the film a new total of $193.9 million - and it will have no issue hitting that $200 million mark over the coming holiday. It's still trending just ahead of Mission: Impossible II by $5 million - and it has a good shot at becoming the new franchise best (currently $215 million) before it ends its run. That would also make it the second-best film for Tom Cruise behind just War of the Worlds ($235 million). The action film continues to kick butt oversea as well, with $588 million worldwide thus far, it is also looking at a total near $700 million in the long run, depending on how its opening in China winds up next weekend. All told, the franchise has never looked better and I think it's going to hang around a long time.

5) CHRISTOPHER ROBIN

After falling out of the top five last weekend, Christopher Robin managed to make its way back with a $6.34 million weekend (off 28.5%) raising its total to $77.6 million, crossing the $75 million mark in the process. It also crossed $100 million worldwide ($112 million and counting). With no major family films on the horizon, Christopher Robin looks to have the audience on lock-down for the near future, so a total of $90 million seems within reach. While it is still not going to join the ranks of the best live-action Disney offerings, it has shown good legs among its target audience and will wind up in the black.

Outside the top five: While The Happytime Murders disappointed, A.X.L. was an unmitigated disaster. The sci-fi family tale earned a mere $2,93 million - barely joining the top 10 in 9th place. It may also be the last nail in the coffin for Global Road (who also released the blink-and-you missed them Midnight Sun and Show Dogs). They have two upcoming films, but it wouldn't surprise me if another studio ultimately takes control.

In better news, Searching, starring John Cho as a father investigating the disappearance of his daughter that takes place entirely via computer screens, smartphones and online videos, earned $360,000 from just 9 screens for a weekend-best $40,000 per-theater average - one of the best of the year. The film expands nationwide next weekend, and with social-media savvy audiences out there, I think it should play well.

Besides Searching, the long Labor Day Weekend will also see the release of Kin and the true-life drama Operation Finale.

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