Movie theaters are looking more and more like wastelands this summer. Neither ” Furiosa: A Mad Max saga ” neither ” The Garfield Movie » could save the Memorial Day weekend, which is heading towards its lowest level in two decades.
” Furiosa“, the Mad Max prequel starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, took the top spot for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday weekend with $25.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Warner Bros. waits Monday to release its four-day estimates.
The family-friendly animated “The Garfield Movie” was the other big release this weekend from Columbia Pictures and Sony’s Alcon Entertainment. It claims the top spot for the four-day holiday weekend with an estimated $31.9 million in ticket sales through Memorial Day. Sony estimates three-day profits at $24.8 million.
Aside from Memorial Day in 2020, when movie theaters were closed due to COVID-19, these are the lowest-earning No. 1 films in 29 years, as “Casper” earned $22.5 million (no adjusted for inflation) during its first four days in 1995. Big earners are more typical for the holiday weekend, which saw ten films take home $100 million, led by “Top Gun: Maverick’s” launches record $160 million in 2022. Last year, the live-action “The Little Mermaid” joined the group with a debut gross of $118 million. The public was even more numerous during the pandemic weekend in 2021 for “A Quiet Place Part II,” which grossed more than $57 million.
“It was a pretty slow memorial weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Some things didn’t happen that created this situation: we didn’t have a favorable wind going into summer. We started the summer without a Marvel movie. In a way, we’ve been catching up all year.
“Furiosa” was not expected to join the $100 million opening club, which Warner Bros. aired on 3,804 screens in the United States and Canada. But it was expected to perform slightly better, in the range of $40 million, in its first four days. That would have been more in line with its predecessor, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which opened to $45.4 million in May 2015. “Fury Road,” starring Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, went on to gross nearly 380 million dollars worldwide.
This new origin story in which Taylor-Joy plays a younger version of Theron’s character also had a lot going for it, including strong critiques of the The Cannes Film Festival has just ended (it has an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes) and a splashy international press tour with plenty of buzzy first looks from Taylor-Joy. Internationally, it grossed $33.3 million, representing a worldwide debut of $58.9 million. With a reported production budget of $168 million, not including marketing and promotion, “Furiosa” has a long road to profitability.
“The Garfield Movie,” meanwhile, had a more modest budget, at $60 million, and is considered a strong launch for the franchise. It has already opened internationally and has grossed over $66 million to date. Its domestic launch far exceeded the opening weekends of previous attempts at Garfield films.
Chris Pratt plays the lasagna-loving, Monday-hating orange cat in the film, which received scathing reviews from critics (it has a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes). Meanwhile, audiences gave “Furiosa” and “The Garfield Movie” a B+ CinemaScore and 4.5 out of 5 stars on PostTrak.
In its second weekend, John Krasinski’s “IF” dropped 53 percent, adding $16.1 million through Sunday and $20.7 million through Monday, bringing its domestic total to $63.3 million. Worldwide, it exceeded $100 million. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” now in its third weekend, added $13.4 million through Sunday, bringing its worldwide total to $294.8 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of the year.
All this adds up to a summer movie season not only will it fall short of the normal $4 billion, but it may even struggle to reach $3 billion. Earlier this week, trade industry The Hollywood Reporter asked, “ what happened to opening $100 million? » Notably, 2024 hasn’t had one yet. The biggest of the year was “Dune: Part Two,” which opened to $82.5 million and went on to earn over $711 million worldwide.
“Cinema begets cinema,” Derarabedian said. “Every studio encourages every other studio to achieve great success.”
The lack of a recent runaway success only puts more pressure on upcoming films to pick up the slack. Always on my way are a host of potential blockbusters like Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” (June 27), Universal’s “Despicable Me 4″ (July 3) and ” Twists » (July 19) and two Disney heavyweights: “Inside Out 2” (June 14) and “ Deadpool and Wolverine » (July 26).
“It’s not over yet,” Dergarabedian said. “There are a lot of great films on the way. The summer heat is here to make sure June and July movies really hit the mark.
Estimated ticket sales Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final national figures will be released on Monday.
1. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”, $25.6 million.
2. “The Garfield Movie,” $24.8 million.
3. “SI”, $16.1 million.
4. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $13.4 million.
5. “The Fall Guy,” $5.9 million.
6. “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” $5.6 million.
7. “Sight,” $2.7 million.
8. “Challengers,” $1.4 million.
9. “Babies,” $1.1 million.
10. “Back to Black,” $1.1 million.
Gn entert
News Source : apnews.com
