By Chris Kavan - 07/16/17 at 08:35 PM CT
The weekend went pretty much as expected, but, as with so many other films this year, to slightly muted numbers. War for the Planet of the Apes had some of the best reviews of the year, and while it opened in first, it didn't make a huge splash. After Spider-Man: Homecoming opened big, it also took a big hit in its second weekend. The Big Sick broke in to the top five but not as big as its limited numbers would suggest and horror film Wish Upon should have wished for a better opening as it opened outside the top five. Overall, the weekend suggests that audiences are getting tired of the same old thing - even if the new thing is better all-around, and we'll see how the rest of the summer plays out.
1) WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
Despite have the best reviews out of any of the new films in the Apes franchise, War for the Planet of the Apes took in $56.5 million. Good enough for first place and topping the original Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($54.8 million) but falling well short of the opening for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ($72.6 million). In fact, the closet comparison we can make is to Star Trek Beyond, which also got great reviews, also opened well under the previous entries and went on to score $158 million from a $58 million debut. War for the Planet of the Apes looks to follow a similar track, and will probably wind up with around $150 million itself. Audiences gave it the same Cinemascore (A-) as the previous two entries and was made up of mostly male (57%) with 63% coming in at 25 or older. Still, the film cost $150 million (as opposed to the $170 million for Dawn) so if it can muster up enough force here and overseas, it will still come out ahead. It's just another sign of franchise fatigue though, once again, not as dire as Transformers and the Pirates franchise have shown.
2)
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
After poster the best single-story opening for any MCU film, Spider-Man: Homecoming can now also boast a new record - though not one to be proud of. The 61.4% second-week drop is the largest for any film in the Marvel franchise to date. With $45.2 million, Homecoming still raced across the $200 million mark with a new $208.27 million total. That drop equals the second-week drop for Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. If it follows a path similar to previous Spider-Man films, its total will be about on par with The Amazing Spider-Man ($262 million). But don't despair, the film is still likely going to wind up as one of the highest-grossing films of the summer and its $175 million budget is much less than the $235-$255 million budgets for the Amazing Spider-Man films and it has already earned $261 million overseas. So while the drop is a bit concerning, it's not going to break the new Spider-Man franchise or the MCU and Tom Holland can rest easy - he's going to be wearing those tights for quite awhile.
3)
DESPICABLE ME 3
Also dropping one spot, Despicable Me 3 took a 43.6% hit and brought in $18.9 million for a new $187.9 million total. It also crossed the $400 million mark in the international market for a $619.4 million worldwide total. It is actually holding up better than both Despicable Me 2 and Minions, playing closer to The Secret Life of Pets and, if the film can hold out, will be looking at a $255-$275 million total. It will have no problems catching up to Sing ($632 million worldwide) and should wind up in about the same position as The Secret Life of Pets ($875 million worldwide) by the time it ends its run. So, obviously, franchise fatigue isn't hurting the animated sector at this point.
4)
BABY DRIVER
Edgar Wright's Baby Driver continues to rev its engine with a $8.75 million weekend and a new $73.1 million total That is an exceptional total for the $34 million film and there's a decent chance for Wright to have his first $100 million picture before the summer ends. In any case, for an original film that relies on its soundtrack as much as its star power, this is going to be one of the best original films of the year and I have a feeling Wright is going to be able to dictate his projects for the near future, which is fine with me if he can deliver like this every time.
5)
THE BIG SICK
After enjoying some big love in limited release, Big Sick opened wide with a $7.6 million weekend and was able to crack the top five in the process. That is up 112.5% compared to last weekend and a very fine $2,926 per-theater average. If it can catch as good of word-of-mouth among general audiences as it has among the more limited audience, it can build upon its $16 million total and wind up with around $25-$30 million which, for an original rom-com would still be quite the achievement. I suspect that the Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan films isn't going to have much in the way of direct competition and should hold up relatively well in the long run.
Outside the top five: The horror film Wish Upon was pretty much a non-factor, coming in at 8th place with just $5.58 million. Hardly screened for critics, it earned a "C-" Cinemascore (common for horror films). The $12 million picture won't likely make more than that budget and will be lucky to stick around the top 10 for a couple of weeks, let alone more.
No big milestone news this week - though Wonder Woman is very close to surpassing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as the summer's biggest hit - but we'll have to wait until next for sure. Speaking of next week, we'll get the war film Dunkirk, the visually-stunning sci-fi Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and the female-driven comedy Girls Trip.
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