The weekend box office is here again and this is one of those times where it’s definitely getting hard to really figure out the right approach to this. Having written box office reports for more than a decade, and reading them longer than that, I do enjoy looking at the technical side of selling a movie that’s separate from the art of it. I like knowing the ins and outs of marketing and targeted approaches and all that.
But the reality is that COVID-19 is making a huge impact on things and nothing is the same, so trying to contextualize it within the normal framing simply doesn’t work. But I’m also really hesitant to call this the new normal as well because I imagine studies are trying to see what will work but there will be no one size fits all thing. And then, whether we like it or not, huge sections of the country are in an almost self-quarantine mode at this point and obviously large chunks of the international market are simply not opereating.
So we’ll end up with The Suicide Squad taking the top spot at $26 million and there will be plenty of people that crucify that take for a host of reasons and agendas. But none of it is comparative to past performances because so many like myself opted to go for the HBO Max route or just skip it entirely, or wait until things get a little bit better. The film doesn’t even compare to Black Widow a month ago simply because the high local transmission rates of the virus are impacting communities in a huge way, whether a lot of people want to admit it or not.
Jungle Cruise falls to the second spot by adding another $15 million to their take while Old holds on at third for Universal with another $4 million, bringing it to $38 million.
Paramount’s Snake-Eyes has fallen to eighth with $1.6 million and just moving past $26 million. Hell, F9 is at 10th place and at $171 million.
Next week in terms of going wide, August 13th, 2021 brings us Don’t Breathe 2 from Screen Gems, Respect from MGM, and Free Guy from 20th Century Studios.
| # | Title | Distributor Name | Weekend Total | # of Locs | Loc Avg | Cume Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suicide Squad, The | Warner Bros. | $26,550,000 | 4,002 | $6,634 | $26,550,000 |
| 2 | Jungle Cruise | Disney | $15,693,000 | 4,310 | $3,641 | $65,317,454 |
| 3 | Old | Universal | $4,140,000 | 3,138 | $1,319 | $38,523,000 |
| 4 | Black Widow | Disney | $4,007,000 | 3,100 | $1,293 | $174,358,784 |
| 5 | Stillwater | Focus Features | $2,860,000 | 2,611 | $1,095 | $10,000,000 |
| 6 | Green Knight, The | A24 | $2,596,000 | 2,798 | $928 | $12,167,727 |
| 7 | Space Jam: A New Legacy | Warner Bros. | $2,475,000 | 2,869 | $863 | $65,646,000 |
| 8 | Snake Eyes | Paramount | $1,625,000 | 2,080 | $781 | $26,002,000 |
| 9 | Escape Room: Tournament of Champions | Sony | $1,250,000 | 1,303 | $959 | $23,040,000 |
| 10 | F9 The Fast Saga | Universal | $1,230,000 | 1,715 | $717 | $171,034,000 |
| 11 | Boss Baby: Family Business, The | Universal | $740,000 | 1,405 | $527 | $55,161,000 |
| 12 | Forever Purge, The | Universal | $510,000 | 779 | $655 | $43,749,000 |
© Comscore 2021