Summer can’t get here fast enough, since the box office is pretty dire right now.
Our number one film this weekend is Challengers, which is either a romantic comedy or an erotic thriller, depending on what the marketing is trying to tell me. Zendaya’s presence helped boost it to a $15 million debut, but I’m not sure if I can really call that enough when the budget for this was reportedly upwards of $50 million. Just how on earth does a tennis movie cost that much? Is Zendaya’s paycheck really that high? Critics love Challengers more than audiences do (at least according to exit polling), so who knows if this thing will have legs. Also, I could make a tennis pun here, but I don’t watch the sport nearly often enough to be any good at that.
Elsewhere, we have the faith-based Unsung Hero, which honestly looked fine from the trailer. But it doesn’t have any “the Democrats are running a sex trafficking empire”-conspiracy theory bullshit subtext, which sadly seems to be how you fill seats for the genre these days. $7.5 million is “okay” when you consider this only cost $6 million to make, apparently, but it would be nice if more church audiences would, you know, show up for these films when they aren’t hateful.
Our last newcomer is Boy Kills World. Clearly, people just weren’t wanting an R-rated reboot of Boy Meets World as this one couldn’t even open inside the top ten. Jokes aside, I actually really dig how this one looks, and would probably rather go to it than Challengers. Finally, both Alien and The Mummy came back to theaters this weekend, so that’s cool.
Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline
1.) Challengers (AMZ MGM) 3,477 theaters, Fri $6.2M, Sat $5M Sun $3.78M 3-day $15M/Wk 1
2.) Unsung Hero (LG) 2,832 theaters,Fri $3.65M Sat $2.35M Sun $1.75M 3-day $7.75M/Wk 1
3.) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Leg/WB) 3,312 theaters (-346), Fri $1.76M (-25%) Sat $3.3M Sun $2.1M 3-day $7.2M (-25%)/Total $181.68M/ Wk 5
4.) Civil War (A24) 3,518 (-411) theaters, Fri $1.9M (-41%) Sat $3M Sun $2M 3-day $7M (-39%), Total $56.1M/Wk 3
5.) Abigail (Uni) 3,393 (+9) theatres, Fri $1.49M (-63%) Sat $2.2M Sun $1.48M, 3-day $5.25M (-49%)/Total $18.7M/Wk 2
6.) Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (LG) 2,845 theaters, Fri $1.1M (-70%) Sat $1.67M Sun $1.09M 3-day $3.86M (-57%), Total $15.4M/Wk 2
7.) Kung Fu Panda 4 (Uni) 2,767 (-188) theaters, Fri $830K (-28%) Sat $1.65M Sun $1.07M 3-day $3.55M (-24%), Total $185M/Wk 8
8.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony) 2,627 (-482) theaters, Fri $780K (-26%) Sat $1.5M Sun $945K 3-day $3.25M (-27%), Total $107.38M/Wk 6
9.) Dune: Part Two (Leg/WB) 1,334 (-680) theaters, Fri $525K (-35%) Sat $885K Sunday $575K 3-day $1.98M (-33%), Total $279.7M/Wk 9
10.) Alien (re) 1,750 theaters, Fri $606K Sat $551K Sun $406K 3-day $1.56M/Total $83.6M lifetime/Wk 1 re-release