In what has become an almost comical up-and-down summer movie season, at least in terms of box office, M. Night Shyamalan’s Old and Paramount’s Snake Eyes topped the movie charts with $16.5 million and $13.35 million, respectively. According to Deadline, those numbers were right in line with pre-release estimates, but still concerning considering the current state of moviegoing. Is this a case of COVID continuing to scare people from cinemas or was this pair of offerings not alluring enough to pull people from their homes?
With Old, you could make the excuse that A Quiet Place Part II and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It sucked up the thriller audience earlier in the summer, or maybe the mixed critical reactions scared audiences away. Ditto with the poorly reviewed Snake Eyes, which was always going to fight an uphill battle considering G.I. Joe’s mediocre franchise record, but releasing immediately after Marvel’s Black Widow and Universal’s F9 certainly didn’t help.
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Again, it certainly seems like audiences are being more selective when it comes to choosing which entertainment they flock to see. On a normal weekend, Old and Snake Eyes’ numbers might have seen a slight uptick, but there was never much excitement about either of these films to begin with. Couple that with the escalating Delta variant and there just wasn’t much reason for families to leave their homes this weekend.
Adding insult to injury, last week’s box office champ, Space Jam: A New Legacy, dropped big in its second weekend with just $9.56 million (-69%). Families who eagerly flocked to see the LeBron James flick were either not impressed or, at least, not impressed enough to spend more money to watch it on the big screen when it was readily available on HBO Max.
At any rate, Space Jam stumbled hard enough to drop to No. 4 below Marvel’s Black Widow, which earned $11.6 million (-55%) in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $154.8 million. The prequel will likely end up with less than $180 million domestic, though, again, you have to wonder how much COVID concerns and the simultaneous Disney+ release (where it grossed $60M globally on its opening weekend) played a factor here.
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Overseas, the big news was F9 crossing $600 million worldwide. The Fast sequel has certainly held firm, even if its final tally is more in line with Hobbs & Shaw ($760 million worldwide) than The Fate of the Furious ($1.2 billion worldwide).
Otherwise, Black Widow crossed $300 million WW thanks to another $14.5 million this weekend from 48 markets, while Old and Snake Eyes managed $6.5 million and $4 million from their respective international markets.
1. Old (Uni) 3,355 theaters, Fri $6.9M/Sat $5.59M/Sun $4M/3-day $16.5M/Wk 1
2. Snake Eyes (Par) 3,521 theaters Fri $5.5M/Sat $4.48M/Sun $3.37M/3-day: $13.35M/Wk 1
3. Black Widow (Dis) 4,250 theaters (-25)/Fri $3.5M/Sat $4.7M/Sun $3.4M/3-day $11.6M (-55%)/Total $154.8M/Wk 3
4. Space Jam: A New Legacy (WB) 4,002 theaters (+37) Fri $3.05M (-77%)/Sat $3.7M/Sun $2.8M/3-day: $9.56M (-69%)/Total $51.3M/Wk 2
5. F9 (Uni) 2,850 theaters (-518), Fri $1.36M/Sat $1.9M/Sun $1.43M/3-day $4.7M (-39%)/Total: $163.3M/ Wk 5
6. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (Sony) 2,815 theaters Fri $1.07M/Sat $1.33M/Sun $990K/3-day $3.4M (-61%)/Total: $16M/Wk 2
7. Boss Baby: Family Business (Uni) 2,773 theaters (-676), Fri $820K/Sat $1.1M/Sun $770k/3-day $2.7M (-43%)/total $50.1M/Wk 4
8. Forever Purge (Uni) 2,113 (-622) theaters Fri $740K/Sat $890K/Sun $670k/3-day $2.3M (-44%)/Total $40.3M/Wk 4
9. A Quiet Place 2 (Par) 1,367 (-628) theaters Fri $380K/Sat $500K/Sun $370K/3-day $1.25M (-44%)/Total $157.5M/Wk 9
10. Roadrunner (Foc) 954 (+27) theaters, Fri $250K/Sat $320K/Sun $260K/ 3-day $830K (-58%)/Total $3.7M/Wk 2
