The Box Office Report July 11th

Welcome back to The Box Office Report! Each week I give a recap to the previous weekend box office numbers and go over which films sit at the top domestically and worldwide charts. This week we had a pretty big release, so join me after the break as we dive right in.

Everyone knew that Spider-Man: Homecoming was going to be a pretty big hit. In past years, even what are considered to be some of the worst Spider-Man films had huge opening weekends but Homecoming’s opening weekend is the best since Spider-Man 3 ($151 M). Both of The Amazing Spider-Man movies failed to top $100 M on their opening weekends (TASM1 – $62 M, TASM2 – $91 M) so Spider-Man: Homecoming is already on a better path than those films. In truth, Homecoming’s $117 M domestic opening is over half of what The Amazing Spider-Man 2 made in its entire domestic run ($202 M). Having seen it already I can fairly state that it’s at least the best Spider-Man film since Spider-Man 2 although I personally believe that it’s the best Spider-Man film we’ve ever had. Rotten Tomatoes, CinemaScore, and Metacritic have all been pretty positive towards the film (RT – 93%, CS – A, and MC – 73) and I’ve no doubt that this film will put Spider-Man back on the top as one of Marvel’s top players, as long as Sony cooperates and doesn’t get too greedy. The film should have good legs moving forward thanks to good reviews and word of mouth but it has a minefield to maneuver through for the rest of the July. The real question is will people continue to see Homecoming as much as people have continued to see Wonder Woman? Probably not. Next week War for the Planet of the Apes releases and I’m expecting a rather standard 48%-52% second week drop for Homecoming. Truthfully I think the film will follow a similar route as Spider-Man 2 and could easily see it making $325 M before its run in theaters is up.

I find it interesting how Dreamworks/Illumination/Universal has taken such an anti-Pixar approach to making animated movies. These animated films they are cranking out are actually really cheap compared to what Pixar tends to do and it’s been paying off really well for them so far. Despicable Me 3 is going to easily double its production budget ($80 M) and the fact that the movie has already made $444 M worldwide means that this is a success. Now I don’t see it making the lofty numbers that Despicable Me 2 or even Minions made domestically (DM2 – $368 M, Minions – $336 M) but DM3 will essentially mean that we get at least another Minions film (slated for a 2020 release) and maybe one more Despicable Me type film. Also, Minions made over $1 billion worldwide. There is no way they stop making these even if that is very much the ceiling for these types of films. This is a solid rebound for Universal after how poorly The Mummy performed.

It’s nice to see certain directors get the credit that they deserve which is why I’m glad that Baby Driver is doing as well as it is in theaters, especially considering that July is going to make or break most films (very dense release schedule for the month). I am a massive fan of this film, so much that I wrote a review for it! (shameful self plug…). Amazingly the film is the most director Edgar Wright has ever made on a film and I’ve heard some rumors that Sony wants a sequel although I don’t quite see how that would work. I am hoping this film can make $100 M worldwide (currently sits at $71 M) but nonetheless this has been a bit of a bright spot in a seemingly, up until this point anyways, lackluster summer season.

Rest of the Top 10 Quick Hits:
Wonder Woman continues to have strong weekends. There’s an ever increasing chance that the film hits $400 million domestically. It is currently the third highest grossing DC film of all time (behind The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises) and is obviously the highest grossing film domestically out of the entire DCEU. Transformers: The Last Knight continues to show that audiences are absolutely finished with the series at this point. The film doesn’t look so strong overseas either ($495 M worldwide) so this makes for the perfect time to just blow everything up behind the scenes and go for a reboot of some sorts. Paramount looks in dire straits since Ben-Hur bombed last year and Star Trek Beyond massively under performed the year before. What Cars 3 has lost at the box office it has probably more than tripled when it comes to merchandise. Will Ferrell has fallen on hard times as The House is essentially bombing although I think Daddy’s Home 2 will be good for him (at least the trailer looked hilarious). The Big Sick quietly sounds like a really good romance/comedy with a bit of a modern twist (AKA they deal with real life issues). 47 Meters Down cost $5 M to make and it’s made $38 M currently in theaters. It’s not a runaway success but that’s a fairly decent profit. I’ve heard that The Beguiled is the best film that Sofia Coppola has ever made and that’s literally all I’ve heard of the film (Box Office Mojo calls the film a Western).

2017 Domestic Totals:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales climbed to ninth place, passing Kong: Skull Island. The film has been a bit of a disaster domestically and I don’t see it making too much more than $172 M. It’s sad that it won’t even make $175 M much less $200 M but I think the film is doing better than expected and you’ll see why when I get to worldwide figures. Could Wonder Woman end up passing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? There’s an outside possibility that it could happen. Currently on the outside looking in Despicable Me 3 will probably make it in but it’s sitting at $148 M and needs to make another $20 M in order to pass Kong: Skull Island. Spider-Man: Homecoming is currently in fifteenth. It’s going to be in the top ten before its run is up. Interestingly enough, to me at least, is that Fate of the Furious has an odd chance to pass Logan on the list.

Notable Film Closings:
Born in China – $13.8 M domestically, $23.9 M worldwide vs an unknown budget: I’m not opposed to these Disneynature documentaries as I think they can do a lot of good…if people go to see the film. There have been seven Disneynature made films and Born in China was, by far, the lowest grossing film in the franchise. I’m assuming the budget for this film was a lot more than it actually made as I couldn’t find any information. I still think more will be made but it just doesn’t look good especially considering the film was about Pandas and who seriously hates Pandas?

2017 Worldwide Totals:

By the time this article is published Wonder Woman will officially pass Suicide Squad as the second most profitable DCEU film (Suicide Squad made $745.6 M in its run, Wonder Woman needs roughly another $27K to pass this). The film has a chance to gross $800 M at this point but I think it ends up right under that amount (How many times have I been wrong before though?). Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has now out-grossed the first GotG by $85 M. GotG 2 is right at the end of its run but maybe it pushes over $860 M worldwide? Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is doing fine thanks to those foreign dollars. I still question if we get another Pirates film though. Transformers: The Last Knight should pass The Boss Baby by next week easily, still the film looks terrible. Both Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Transformers: The Last Knight have under performed in some way, obviously, but I find it interesting that Pirates is still extremely popular worldwide while everyone seems to have gotten the memo that the Transformers films aren’t worth watching anymore. Despicable Me 3 enters the top ten taking out The Mummy. The Mummy is actually doing okay with $385 M worldwide. The Dark Universe may still be on after trimming the budget a bit. Spider-Man: Homecoming currently sits in twentieth place with $256.5 M. I expect the film to be knocking on the door of the top ten by next weekend.

Next week we have War for the Planet of the Apes releasing so we will see how well the films that are already out will hold verses a series that has surprised a lot of people with quality. I really don’t know what to expect with next weekend’s Apes film but it could shake up the box office fairly well! So tune in next week to see how things go! If anything it all gives me another reason to trash on the Transformers films! Thanks for reading and for the support!

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