“Superman” is still atop the hierarchy of power at the box office in its second weekend, flying above new wide releases “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “Smurfs” and “Eddington.”
The DC Studios universe-rebooter earned about $16.6 million on its second Friday to boost its domestic total to $194 million. Factoring out preview screenings from last week’s opening day gross, that’d be a 50% drop. That pushes the Warner Bros. release ahead of fellow superhero feature “Thunderbolts*” ($189 million) to now rank as the eighth-highest grossing North American release of the calendar year. (Official Friday grosses are still to come from Warner.)
“Superman” is looking to fly to a $235 million domestic total through its first 10 days. Comic book adaptations have become susceptible to hard plummets, given how fans can front-load sales by flocking to opening weekend screenings. The James Gunn-directed “Superman” looks to avoid that fate and resonate beyond its property’s built-in groupies. As comps, Gunn’s three “Guardians of the Galaxy” films had second-weekend drops, in order, of 55%, 55% and 47%, while fellow DC Comics adaptation “The Batman” dropped 50%.
At a production cost of $225 million, “Superman” will need to keep up the week-to-week holds. But DC Studios and Warner Bros. look to show that their comic book continuity has staying power. The next feature installments for the newly christened on-screen universe are “Supergirl” and “Clayface,” which will open in 2026. A “Wonder Woman” reboot is also in development.
Among the crop of new releases, Columbia Pictures and Screen Gems’ horror revival “I Know What You Did Last Summer” has the edge for now. The ’90s throwback earned $5.8 million across Friday and preview screenings from 3,206 venues. The Sony release is in a close race for third place, eyeing an opening north of $13 million. That’s no breakout performance, coming in behind modest pre-weekend projections for a debut of $15 million. The IP play is a limited risk at a measured $18 million production budget.
The new “I Know What You Did” adds newcomers like Madelyn Cline and Chase Sui Wonders, but also brings back original stars Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt to give it a legacy sequel play. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson directs. Reviews lean negative (though that keeps in line with the ’90s originals) and audience pollster Cinema Score turned in a rough C+ grade. Those aren’t exactly auspicious figures for staying power, though there isn’t horror competition until “Weapons” hits theaters in three weeks.
Close behind, Paramount’s animated adventure “Smurfs” earned $4 million on its opening day. (The movie did not hold preview screenings, so it actually beat “I Know What You Did” on Friday.) It is currently looking at a three-day opening of $12 million in fourth place.
That’d be a tough domestic result for the revival of the nearly 70-year-old Belgian comic characters, considering it cost $58 million to produce. It’d also be behind the debut of the last “Smurfs” movie, Sony’s “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” which disappointed in 2017 after opening to $13 million. Reviews are bad for the new “Smurfs” and the “B+” grade from Cinema Score skews a touch lower than the usual family release.
Rihanna leads the voice cast as Smurfette, while other stars on board include James Corden, Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer and John Goodman. Chris Miller directs.
Opening outside the top five, A24’s dread-infused COVID pandemic period piece “Eddington” took in roughly $1.8 million from 2,111 venues across Friday and preview screenings. The film will struggle to meet its pre-weekend forecasts for a $5 million debut.
“Eddington,” which stars Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as two small-town mayoral candidates facing off amid masking policies and cuckolding conspiracies, is the latest feature from director Ari Aster, who delivered horror hits “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” for A24. His latest has received mixed reviews since its Cannes premiere and general audiences aren’t aglow at a C+ grade from Cinema Score.
Second place goes to “Jurassic World Rebirth,” still stomping over the week’s new releases. Universal’s dinosaur sequel earned another $6.5 million on Friday and is projecting a 43% drop for its third weekend of release. Total domestic gross should charge past $275 million by Sunday; soon after, the film will pass “Sinners” ($278 million) to rank as the third-highest grossing North American release of the year.
Warner Bros.’ release of “F1” looks to round out the top five after adding about $2.8 million on Friday. That’s just a slim 24% drop from its daily total a week ago. Now in its fourth weekend, the Apple Studios production looks to push its domestic total to $154 million through Sunday.
variety.com
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