Paramount Pictures’s decision to turn Smile, which was originally meant to be a streaming-only film, into a wide theatrical release has continued to pay handsome dividends for the studio. Smile 2, the critically acclaimed sequel, managed to (narrowly) outgross its predecessor’s opening weekend, making a handsome $23 million this weekend (just slightly ahead of our predictions). With a budget in the $27 million range, that’s a solid result for what could become the studio’s first big horror franchise since the Paranormal Activity series ran out of steam some years back.

For the sequel, director Parker Finn expanded the scope, with star Naomi Scott (in an excellent performance) playing a Taylor Swift-style pop star who winds up cursed. Given the ending, Finn may return for a third film with an even broader scope, but one has to wonder how long he’ll stay committed to the franchise. He’s getting some big directing jobs (including the star-studded Possession remake) and might want to leave the franchise as is – although Paramount likely will make a third with or without him.

According to the Comscore numbers, The Wild Robot pulled ahead of Terrifier 3 for a third-place finish, making $10.1 million for a $101 million North American haul. Terrifier 3 had a good hold in its second weekend, only slipping 51%, with a $9.3 million weekend and an excellent $36 million domestic total. Given the movie cost in the single-digit millions, this franchise (check out our rankings) has been minting cash, and it will likely be one of the year’s most profitable movies. 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice mania also continued this weekend. Despite being on VOD, it earned $5 million for a $283 million total, with a $300 million domestic total within reach, especially with Halloween coming up. A24’s romantic weepie We Live in Time made a strong $4.5 million despite being open on less than 1000 screens. Younger audiences are embracing this date movie, which is carried by the star power of Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. 

However, star power isn’t saving Joker: Folie a Deux, which fell another massive 69% this weekend to gross only $2.1 million for an atrocious $56 million total. Rumor has it the movie might lose WB $200 million. The Lego-animated Piece By Piece, which is a documentary about Pharrell, made $2.1 million for a $7.6 million total. Poor Transformers One is winding down its run, with a $1.9 million weekend, for a total of just over $56 million. It’s too bad audiences didn’t embrace this pretty good animated prequel. 

Another good movie struggling to find an audience is Saturday Night, about the early days of SNL. It lost 47% of its audience and only made $1.8 million for a domestic total of just over $7 million. Finally, the Tim Burton re-release, The Nightmare Before Christmas, made a solid $1.13 million for a $4.8 million total (to note, this only reflects the gross of the re-release).

Next weekend, we should see the first $50 million-plus opener in some time, with Sony’s latest addition to the Spider-Verse, Venom: The Last Dance, coming out. Do you think it will end the franchise with a bang? Let us know in the comments! 

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The box office numbers are coming in, and one thing is for sure – Joker: Folie à Deux is officially DOA at the box office. How does a movie go from being the most anticipated film of the year to one of the biggest box office flops ever? I guess by making it a musical and showing absolute disdain (if not loathing) for the fans that made the first one a billion-dollar box office smash (and an Oscar winner to boot).

Indeed, the battle between Terrifier 3 and Joker: Folie à Deux wasn’t even close. The $5 million budget, unrated Terrifier 3 way outpaced expectations (including our own) to make just over $18 million this weekend (according to Deadline), despite no stars or studio support. When all is said and done, studios are going to have to sit up and take notice of the fact that two of the year’s most profitable movies, Terrifier 3 and Longlegs, wound up being smash hits because they became must-see events for their respective audiences. Why is it that seemingly only horror audiences can be mobilized this way? Maybe an enterprising studio can try to apply this formula to other, somewhat dormant genres, like lower-key action and comedy. Rebel Ridge was a smash for Netflix. Maybe something similar could gain a foothold in theaters?

Joker: Folie à Deux didn’t even manage a second-place finish, with it easily beaten by the well-reviewed The Wild Robot (now getting a sequel), which made $13.45 million for a strong $83.7 million total. It will likely cross the $100 million mark by the end of next weekend. Joker slumped into third place, falling a shocking 82% in its second weekend for a $7.055 million weekend, and an abysmal total just north of $52 million. When the final numbers are in, it could theoretically be beaten by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which made over $7 million this weekend for a $275 million total. It’s pretty interesting that Warner Bros has both the biggest hit of the fall season and the biggest flop. 

The Lego-animated Pharrell doc, Piece By Piece, managed an ok fifth-place finish with $3.8 million. Transformers One continued to underperform (spectacularly) with $3.65 million for a $52 million total. In pretty sad news, Jason Reitman’s excellent Saturday Night, about the early days of SNL, totally whiffed at the box office this weekend, making a poor $3.4 million for a total of just over $4 million. It will be lucky to break $10 million domestically, although it should find an audience on VOD. 

The anime My Hero Academia: You’re Next (which our own Steve Seigh reviewed here) did well enough to hit eighth place, with $3 million. A re-release of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas turned out to be an event fans were dying to see, with it grossing a solid $2.3 million, bringing its lifeline gross to $89.9 million. Finally, the controversial Donald Trump movie, The Apprentice, was bombed (badly) and came in tenth place, with only $1.58 million despite playing on over 1500 screens. Yikes. 

Next weekend sees the release of Parker Finn’s Smile 2, which could give us our first $50 million plus opening since Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Do you think Art the Clown will be able to slash his way to a second-place finish next weekend? Let us know in the comments!

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Despite being a sequel to a movie that made a billion dollars worldwide, Joker: Folie à Deux has posted a truly disastrous opening. According to Deadline, the film didn’t even crack $40 million this weekend, with them estimating a horrible $39 million finish. That’s over $20 million less than we expected in our box office predictions, which is crazy as just a few months ago, no one would have thought it conceivable that the film would open to anything less than $90 or so million. The $39 million opening is even worse than the $55 million opening posted by The Flash, and The Marvels, which opened with $46 million. Both openings were considered disastrous, and Joker: Folie à Deux looks like it might not even cross $100 million domestically.

So what happened? It seems fans didn’t go for Todd Phillips’s rather ambitious idea to make this a musical, with it peppered with fantasy musical sequences in between some rather dull courtroom melodrama. The star pairing of Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga wasn’t enough to win over fanboys or general audiences, who slammed it with an almost unheard of (for a comic book movie) D CinemaScore rating. With word of mouth like this, expect this Joker film to quickly crash and burn at the box office over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, The Wild Robot held up quite well this week, making $18.7 million, a fall of just 46%, for a $63.9 million total. While it’s not going to be a huge blockbuster as far as animated movies go, expect it to have strong legs in the weeks ahead thanks to its terrific reviews (including a rave from our own Steve Seigh). Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also held firm at the box office, with it dipping 36% to $10.3 million and a massive $265.5 million total, which is a much-needed win for WB, who are no doubt reeling from Furiosa, Horizon, and Joker 2 all flopping.

Sadly, Paramount’s very decent Transformers One continued to struggle to find an audience despite good word of mouth. It only made $5.35 million this weekend, with a $47 million total. Blumhouse’s Speak No Evil continued to pull in solid numbers, with a $2.8 million fifth-place finish and a $32 million domestic total.

In a surprising move, YouTube stars Sam & Colby managed to eke out a sixth-place finish for their film, Sam & Colby: The Legends of Paranormal, which made $1.77 million, for a $2 million total. With more YouTubers expanding their reach, expect more movies like this to start showing up in the top 10. In seventh place was Deadpool & Wolverine, which made $1.55 million for a $633.8 million total, with it also showing up on digital this week (Disney made a wise move holding it for so long). Lionsgate had yet another flop this weekend, with their Wonder prequel, White Bird, having an abysmal $1.5 million opening. Mubi’s The Substance has proven to be a solid art-house horror hit, with the $1.4 million weekend almost allowing it to crack the $10 million mark. Finally, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis lost a whopping 73% of its audience to earn just over $1 million this weekend for a terrible $6.45 million total.

Next weekend seems like it will be disappointing, as it’s fairly light on new releases, and Hollywood no doubt thought Joker 2 would be packing them in. There likely won’t be any real fireworks until Smile 2 opens in two weeks.

Did you go see Joker 2 this weekend? Let us know in the comments! 

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Dreamworks Animation’s The Wild Robot performed way ahead of our expectations at the box office this weekend. Even the most optimistic industry estimates had this only making about $25 million (we pegged it at significantly less). Still, it looks like the excellent reviews (and the fact that it’s based on a universally beloved book) played in its favor. Its $35 million opening weekend is a pretty big coup for a non-sequel these days, with it all earning a terrific A CinemaScore rating, promising that it should have good legs in the week to come.

However, another animated movie about robots with solid word-of-mouth wasn’t so lucky. Transformers One, which also earned an A CinemaScore and boasts an all-star voice cast, collapsed in week two at the box office. It plummeted a massive 62% to a $9.3 million total and a $39 million domestic tally. It will be lucky to break $55 million in North America and will rank as the lowest-grossing Transformers movie since the original animated film way back in 1986. Perhaps this franchise needs to be retired for a while (do we really need a G.I. Joe/ Transformers crossover?).

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also sported another strong showing at the box office, earning a rock-solid $16 million and crossing the $250 million mark domestically. Not bad for a movie WB almost consigned to a streaming debut on Max. 

Of course, the opening everyone will be talking about this weekend is Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, which turned out to be the disaster everyone thought it would be with a $4 million opening. Sporting a putrid D CinemaScore rating, the movie also proved to be the latest box office dud from Lionsgate, a studio which, sadly, cannot seem to catch a break these days. 

Megalopolis was soundly trounced by a few movies this weekend, including the Indian blockbuster Devara Part 1, which stars RRR’s N. T. Rama Rao Jr, and made a hefty $5.6 million for fourth place. Blumhouse’s Speak No Evil also continued to show some serious legs, making  $4.3 million (only a 26% week-to-week decline), with it likely to end its theatrical run in the $40 million range. 

Deadpool & Wolverine, despite its imminent home media bow, made another $2.65 million, which landed it in seventh place, with a $631 million total. Amazon/MGM’s My Old Ass, which has been doing well in limited release, expanded to over 1000 screens and made $2.24 million. Lionsgate’s Never Let Go lost 50% of its audience and sank to ninth place with $2.2 million (and a sub $10 million domestic tally – horrible for a horror flick). Finally, The Substance, despite great reviews, hasn’t been able to attract much of a theatrical audience, with it making only $1.8 million in tenth place and a $6.8 million total. Ouch.

Next weekend should give the box office a much-needed shot of adrenaline, with Joker Folie A Deux primed for a $60 million-plus opening. Did you see anything this weekend? Let us know in the comments! 

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Industry estimates for the weekend had Paramount’s Transformers One, the critically acclaimed animated prequel, easily winning the weekend box office race with about $40 million. In our box office predictions, we were somewhat more conservative, expecting the animated pic to earn about $30 million. Yet, in a surprise twist of fate at the weekend box office, the film underperformed pretty drastically, allowing Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to win the box office crown for the third week in a row, with the hit sequel making $26 million compared to Transformers One’s $25 million.

So what happened? It could be that audiences have just grown weary of the Transformers franchise, which has been on a downslide at the box office since back in 2017 when Transformers: The Last Knight earned about half what the previous instalment, Age of Extinction, did domestically. Since then, none of the Transformers movies have performed all that well domestically, with the highest grosser being Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, with $157 million. Yet, the franchise is still strong overseas, particularly in China, which is why the studio is still making them.

Transformers One was expected to reverse the downslide, being animated and sporting an all-star voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, and Scarlett Johansson. But, despite an amazing A CinemaScore rating, audiences just did not turn out to see the movie. The audience reaction could mean that the movie will be a word-of-mouth hit, but it faces steep competition next weekend from The Wild Robot, which earned raves out of TIFF.

All told, this is a fabulous result for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which now has a huge $225 million domestic total and should have no trouble passing about $270-ish, with a $300 million finish not out of the question. Blumhouse’s well-reviewed Speak No Evil fell a modest 49% to $5.8 million this weekend, which is good for a genre flick. It’s made just over $21 million so far and should end up with a $30 million-ish gross.

It managed to beat Lionsgate’s Never Let Go, which continued the studio’s disastrous reign at the box office with a poor $4.5 million opening. At the end of the day, the movie’s hook just wasn’t enough to pull in a genre audience despite the presence of Halle Berry in the lead. The studio’s slate isn’t likely to get any better, with them also distributing Francis Ford Coppola’s critically maligned Megalopolis next weekend. 

Another horror flick, Mubi’s demented (and awesome) The Substance, underperformed this weekend, only making $3.1 million despite amazing reviews. It was beaten by Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which made $3.9 million for a smashing $627 million plus total. The controversial documentary Am I Racist?, earned $2.53 million, bringing its total to a decent $9 million (quite good for an independently distributed doc). At the same time, the biopic Reagan added another $1.7 million to its coffers for a $26.5 million total, with a potential $30 million finish in reach. Finally, the K-pop concert film Jung Kook: I Am Still made $1.42 million for a $2.57 million total, while Alien: Romulus started to close out its theatrical run with $1.32 million and a $103 million domestic total.

Next weekend sees the release of The Wild Robot. Will it be able to finally take down Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? Let us know in the comments!

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The weekend box office numbers have begun rolling in, and it looks like Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice held up much better than anyone (except us) expected in week two. According to Deadline, the popular sequel grossed $51.6 million this weekend, which is the second-best sophomore weekend for a fall movie since It back in 2017. Notably, the film only dipped 54% this weekend, a strong hold for a movie that opened north of $100 million. 

With a $188 million domestic total, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice seems certain to end its domestic run with a $250 million-plus final gross. It is another winner for Warner Bros, who are having a good year. Wonka, Dune: Part Two, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire were all major worldwide hits, with only their underrated Furiosa and Horizon: Chapter 1 box office misfires for them this year. They also have Joker: Folie a Deux coming up in a few weeks, which should be another hit, even if the buzz has been muted after the movie was met with a surprisingly chilly reception from critics in Venice. 

Universal and Blumhouse’s Speak No Evil opened within expectations, making $11.5 million, which isn’t that far off from what their movies Night Swim and Imaginary opened with earlier this year. This dark remake of the Danish horror film is targeted at an older audience, with its R-rating, and reviews have been largely positive (our own Tyler Nichols enjoyed it), so word of mouth should be good. Given that the studio is thrifty with their budgets, Speak No Evil should be a solid moneymaker for them.

However, the weekend’s other big new release, The Killer’s Game with Dave Bautista, is shaping up to be Lionsgate’s third massive flop in a row (following Borderlands and The Crow), only grossing $2.6 million (good enough for sixth place). Given how it was financed, The Killer’s Game isn’t even playing in Canada. It is likely destined for a streaming debut in a few months, similar to what happened with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Lucky for them, their horror flick, Never Let Go, opens next week and is getting solid buzz. Horror seems to be a good genre for them, with The Strangers: Chapter 1 also a moneymaker earlier this summer. 

While Deadpool and Wolverine added $5.2 million to its coffers in third place (for a massive $621.5 million total), the rest of the top five was dominated by two specialty releases, the Matt Walsh documentary Am I Racist? and the biopic, Reagan, which has proven to be a sleeper hit. Am I Racist? is The Daily Wire’s first wide theatrical release, and the $4.75 million opening is pretty solid, although it’ll be interesting to see whether or not it’s front-loaded at the box office. 

Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th President of the United States, has proven to be surprisingly popular. While critics largely disliked it (it has a deadly 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences have turned this one into a pretty big sleeper hit, earning another $2.96 million this weekend towards a $23 million gross. While that may not sound like a huge number, this is big for a lower-key, grassroots release. 

Meanwhile, Alien: Romulus crossed the magic $100 million mark at the domestic box office, making it only the second movie in the franchise (after Prometheus) to do so. That said, both Alien and Aliens, adjusted for inflation would easily surpass that number, having been major hits in their time. The Blake Lively romantic drama It Ends With Us has started wrapping up its run, making just over $2 million this weekend for an eighth-place finish and a $144 million domestic total. It was neck-and-neck with Sony’s faith-based, The Forge, which has earned $24.1 million so far. Another faith-based movie, God’s Not Dead: In Good We Trust, rounded out the top 10, making $1.46 million. Further down the list, A24’s The Front Room plummeted a whopping 73% at the box office, with only $427K in grosses over the weekend (according to Exhibitor Relations).

Do you think Lionsgate’s Never Let Go will finally break that studio’s losing streak at the box office? Let us know in the comments. 

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Even though summer is officially out of the way, the box office was still something to keep an eye on this weekend. Labor Day proved to have a pretty lackluster outing at the movies but as we near spooky season, we knew one movie would help bridge the gap between the beaches and the haunted houses.

After strong daily outings and major buzz, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice expectedly took the #1 spot this weekend, pulling in $110 million and marking not only the third-best opening weekend of the year but one of Tim Burton’s biggest box office openings ever, trailing only Alice in Wonderland. For the record, 1988’s Beetlejuice took in $8 million on its opening weekend. Even when adjusted for inflation, the sequel pulled in more than five times that over the course of just one weekend.

Since we all pretty much knew that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice would be the ghost with the most at the box office this weekend, it became a bit more fun trying to figure out how the rest of the top 10 would pad out. So, let’s take a look…

The second-highest-grossing movie of the year, Deadpool & Wolverine, is still holding remarkably strong at the box office, with the MCU entry taking in an additional $7.2 million at the #2 spot, further securing it as the biggest money maker of any R-rated film, with over $1.27 billion worldwide so far. Coming in at #3 is a movie of a very different tone: biopic Reagan, which bumped up a spot from last week via another $5.2 million. Rounding out the top five this week were Alien: Romulus, which is crawling towards the $100 million domestic mark courtesy of another $3.9 million, and It Ends With Us, the Colleen Hoover adaptation which took in nearly as much this weekend and has done quite well despite some behind-the-scenes controversy. 

The bottom half of the top 10 at the box office was led by The Forge, which made $2.9 million, just enough to beat Twisters, which has yet to fall from the top 10 even though it has been eight weeks. The only other movie to break the measly $2 million mark this week was Blink Twice, which made $2.1 million and came in at #8. Despicable Me 4 also held on, although its $1.8 million won’t do anything to get it near the $1 billion worldwide mark, which is officially out of reach. Coming in at #10 was A24’s The Front Room, which took in just $1.6 million on more than 2,000 screens, with audiences clearly disinterested in Brandy leading a horror movie in 2024 (although we will always dig her in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer).

Next week will see a handful of new releases, including the American remake of Danish thriller Speak No Evil, the Dave Bautista-headed actioner The Killer’s Game, Sundance hit My Old Ass, and Kevin Smith’s The 4:30 Movie. These will probably have fairly calm outings at the box office as we await the noise of Transformers One, with the Demi Moore sensation The Substance and Clooney-Pitt pairing Wolfs also coming out on September 20th, although you can expect the latter to suffer because it heads to Apple TV+ the following week.

Did you catch anything at the cinema this weekend? Which movie did you help bump the box office numbers for?

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The blockbuster summer of 2024, which started slowly but rallied (big time) with movies like Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Twisters, came to a quiet end this weekend. As we predicted in our weekly predictions report, Deadpool & Wolverine easily won the weekend, with it grossing $15.1 million for the three-day weekend (tomorrow is a holiday). That puts its domestic total at a gargantuan $604 million, which is unheard of for an R-rated movie. The second highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time is The Passion of the Christ, which made $370 million, although adjusted for inflation, that would be like $616 million. However, within a week or two, Deadpool & Wolverine should be able to close that gap, which is, overall, an absolutely amazing showing for the summer’s most popular movie with the JoBlo audience (check out our summer poll here).

Another R-rated movie, Alien: Romulus, also had a solid weekend, with it grossing $9.3 million, which is only a 43% drop since last weekend. Its domestic total now stands at $88.7 million, but it will easily pass the $100 million mark. Overseas, it’s been a blockbuster, with the international cume likely to cross $300 million by next weekend, meaning a sequel seems to be a no-brainer.

Meanwhile, the popular Blake Lively vehicle, It Ends With Us, which is an adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel, continued to rake in big business, adding another $7.42 million to its coffers. It’s made $133 million (so far), making it one of the summer’s biggest word-of-mouth hits. 

Reagan, a biopic about the famed U.S. President, overcame terrible reviews to become something of a sleeper hit this weekend, grossing $7.4 million despite a lower-key release from indie label Showbiz Direct. Following hot on its heels is Twisters, which has really cemented Glen Powell’s stardom this summer, adding $7.1 million to its huge $258 million domestic total. Oddly, the movie has struggled to find an international audience, with it only grossing slightly north of $100 million overseas (thus far), putting sequel talk into jeopardy given the big budget. 

Last weekend’s Blink Twice, which stars Channing Tatum and was directed by Zoe Kravitz, showed signs of life at the box office, dipping only 36% for a $4.6 million weekend. While it will only end its run slightly north of $20 million, this Amazon/MGM release should be a major hit once it hits streaming in a month or two. The faith-based release, The Forge, also had a decent hold, dipping about 32% for a $4.6 million weekend. It’s possible Reagan might have gobbled up some of its audience. 

Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 added another $4 million to its $355 million domestic total, with it on track to end its run as the third highest-grossing film in the franchise to date. However, the weekend also had a MAJOR flop, with the poorly reviewed AfrAId (which our own critic slammed) only grossing a tepid $3.7 million despite being open on over 3000 screens. It’s a relatively rare box office misfire for Blumhouse, whose movies can usually overcome bad reviews to deliver respectable grosses. Not this time, it seems. It came close to losing the weekend to the summer’s biggest box office champ, Inside Out 2, which made another $2.7 million, for a staggering $650 million domestic total.

Notably, this weekend also spelled doom for Lionsgate’s The Crow, a much-maligned reboot, which opened to pretty grim business last weekend. It dropped over 60% this weekend for a $1.8 million weekend well outside the top 10. Its domestic total is only $8.6 million so far, and it likely will only clear $10 million domestically by the end of its run. Ouch. Certainly, The Crow and Lionsgate’s other big August release, Borderlands, will go down as the year’s two biggest box office disasters. 

Next weekend, we will see the long-awaited (like 36 years) release of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. A lot of folks think it might crank $100 million for the weekend. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

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The box office numbers are starting to roll in, and the weekend gross for the controversial reboot of The Crow could not be worse. At the moment, ComScore has the film in eighth place for the weekend, with a $4.6 million gross and a shocking per-screen average of just over $1.6k. No matter how bad the box office outlook for the movie was in the lead-up to its opening weekend, no one thought it would crash and burn this badly. In our predictions, we figured it would open with $7 million and at least finish in the top 5, but it was not meant to be.

This is a disastrous result for Lionsgate, with it following hot on the heels of their mega-flop Borderlands. These two would-be franchise starters not only posted terrible grosses, but Borderlands was despised by audiences too, with it posting a rare D+ CinemsScore. At least as far as audience reaction goes, The Crow is doing better, with a B-minus score, proving that at least some viewers are liking it (our own readers seemed pleasantly surprised by the film).

Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet weekend at the box office, with Deadpool & Wolverine recapturing the top spot from Alien: Romulus with an $18.3 million gross. Last week’s champ, Alien: Romulus, fell 61% $16.2 million in second place. With a $72 million gross, the movie has a good chance of potentially passing the $100 million mark domestically, which is a fair result and should lead to more modestly budgeted Alien movies being greenlit. The Blake Lively drama, It Ends With Us continued to post hefty grosses, with an $11.8 million weekend and a $120 million plus running gross. This has been a real word of mouth hit, and it should end up grossing at least $150 million domestically (or perhaps even more).

The weekend’s other new release, Blink Twice, directed by Zoe Kravitz and stars Channing Tatum, had a modest opening, with a $7.3 million gross. With a B-minus CinemaScore, this one will likely drop off a lot in the weeks to come, but given that it’s an AmazonMGM release, it will hit streaming before too long and should generate some decent buzz, as it’s actually not a bad little movie.

The faith-based film, The Forge, had a solid $6.6 million opening. Coming from The Kendrick Brothers, it’s a spin-off of their ultra-successful film, War Room, although its weekend gross was comparatively modest. However, with an A+ CinemaScore, this could have some staying power at the box office.

Meanwhile, Universal’s Twisters continued to perform well, grossing $6.2 million for a $248 million total. The anniversary re-release of Coraline has proven to be a blockbuster, with it earning just over $5 million for a $24 million gross. Finally, the chart was rounded out by the two biggest animated hits of the summer, Despicable Me 4, which added $4.4 million to its $348 million gross, while Inside Out 2 added $2.1 million to its massive $646 million domestic gross.

Next weekend promises to be one of the slowest in recent memory, with Dennis Quaid’s Reagan the only wide release. Do you think Deadpool & Wolverine will continue to hold the top spot? And what do you make of The Crow’s box office performance? Let us know in the comments!

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As expected, after several weeks at the top of the box office heap, Disney’s superhero blockbuster, Deadpool & Wolverine, finally dropped out of the top spot this weekend. According to Deadline‘s numbers, it was beaten at the box office by Fede Álvarez’s well-reviewed Alien: Romulus, which opened right within our expectations with a $41 million opening.

While somewhat modest by tentpole standards, this opening is actually the second biggest ever for an Alien movie, behind Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, which opened to $51 million in 2012. Given the modest $80 million budget, Romulus will no doubt be seen as a major win for the studio, especially given that it’s having an unexpectedly huge weekend internationally, with a $108 million global debut. No one expected it to do that kind of business overseas, but it’s playing extremely well in China, despite a general downturn at the box office there as far as American films go.

While only in second place, Deadpool & Wolverine still posted a terrific $29 million weekend, with it now having a mighty $543 million domestic gross. Blake Lively’s It Ends With Us also cleaned up at the box office this weekend, making a terrific $24 million, which is a modest 52% drop since last weekend. This one is turning out to be a date night favourite despite rumoured strife behind the scenes…

However, the box office picture was a lot less rosy for Eli Roth’s video game adaptation, Borderlands. It posted a disastrous 74% drop, grossing only $2.2 million this weekend—landing it in ninth place. With a $13 million domestic gross, this will undoubtedly go down as one of the worst box office disasters ever.

Meanwhile, Universal’s Twisters, despite already being available on VOD, made $9.2 million this weekend, for a strong domestic total of $237 million. Another box office surprise was the 15th-anniversary re-release of Coraline, which posted huge numbers for Fathom Events, grossing $8.3 million. It ate into some of the family audience for hold-overs Despicable Me 4 and Inside Out 2, with the former making $5.5 million in sixth place, with a $339 million total, and the latter $2.9 million for a huge $641 million total. Between them was M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, which grossed $3.25 million for a $35 million domestic total, which has to be disappointing for distributor Warner Bros. The top ten was rounded out by another Bollywood film, Stree 2, which made $2 million.

With the dog days of summer upon us, next weekend promises to be a quiet one at the box office, with Lionsgate’s reboot of The Crow and the Channing Tatum thriller Blink Twice vying for the top spot at the box office. Do you think either has a chance of dethroning Alien: Romulus? Let us know in the comments. 

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