Box Office Mojo – The Business of Hollywood Thread

Topic

Discuss box office results and the business side of the movie, television, and streaming industries here!

Replies

Box Office: ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Hatches New Era for Dino Franchise With Huge $318M Global Bow – Hollywood Reporter

The seventh installment in the action-adventure series created by Steven Spielberg opened well ahead of expectations over the long Fourth of July holiday in the U.S. — where it racked up $147.3 million — as well as overseas.

The dinos have a new lease on life.

Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World Rebirth came in well ahead of expectations at the Fourth of July box office to hatch a new era for the Steven Spielberg-created franchise. In North America, the holiday tentpole is reporting an estimated five-day domestic opening of $147.3 million, including $91.5 million for the three-day weekend. (Estimates have been revised upwards every day since the pic hit the big screen midweek on July 2.)

Jurassic World Rebirth, the seventh title in the series, is roaring even louder overseas, where it opened to an estimated $171 million from more than 80 markets. That puts the film’s global start at $318.3 million — the second-best launch of the franchise, and the biggest worldwide opening of the year to date, after passing up A Minecraft Movie. No one saw that coming.

Internationally, Rebirth scored the second-best international opening of the year and of the franchise. It even bit off a big number in China, where Hollywood tentpoles can no longer depend upon big grosses. The dino franchise, like the Mission: Impossible films, is an exception. Rebirth debuted to $41.5 million to score the biggest opening of the year so far for a Hollywood title. And it already ranks as the second-biggest Hollywood pic of the year behind Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. Other top markets included the U.K. ($16.6 million) and Mexico ($14 million).

In North America, Rebirth ranks as the fourth-best showing ever for the July Fourth holiday, both in terms of the five-day and three-day number. That’s no small feat considering July 4 fell on a Friday this year, meaning many moviegoers were distracted by holiday outings on what’s normally a critical day for new films.

To boot, the latest Jurassic World pic has received decidedly mixed reviews from both critics and audiences alike (one example: it earned a meh B CinemaScore from moviegoers). But there’s no dismissing the power of the Jurassic brand, or the spectacle of seeing dinosaurs come to life on the big screen. “It’s the definition of a popcorn movie,” is one common refrain making the rounds in Hollywood. Another? “It’s dumb fun.”

Heading into the holiday, the pic was eyeing a far more modest domestic opening in the $100 to $120 million range and $260 million globally, considering it was a reboot and the seventh installment in a series more than 30 years old.

Following the conclusion of the Jurassic World trilogy directed by Colin Trevorrow, Spielberg, Amblin and Universal, they went back to the drawing board and enlisted filmmaker Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) to direct Rebirth from a script by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp.

The film features an all-new cast anchored by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey. The story follows an extraction team that races to an island research facility that factored into the original Jurassic Park (along the way, they discover a shipwrecked family). Now, the island is inhabited by the worst of the worst creatures that were left behind.

Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda also star. Producers include longtime franchise stewards Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, with Spielberg and Denis Stewart exec producing.

The first three Jurassic World pics all grossed north of $1 billion globally, and all opened higher than Rebirth domestically (comparisons are complicated by the fact that those were all there-day, non-holiday openings). In 2015, Jurassic World opened to a franchise-best $208.8 million, followed by $148 million for 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and $145 million for 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion, not adjusted for inflation. At the same time, the latest film cost less to produce, or a net $180 million before marketing.

The first Jurassic Park, directed by Spielberg, opened to $47 million domestically in early June 1993, not adjusted for inflation — a huge sum at the time.

Also setting off fireworks at the box office was Brad Pitt’s F1: The Movie, which has already earned nearly $300 million globally, including a 10-day domestic tally of $109.5 million.

From Apple Original Films in partnership with Warner Bros., F1 came in second over the holiday weekend with an estimated three-day gross of $26.1 million. Overseas, it racked up another $56.3 million for a foreign cume of $184.1 million and $293.6 million globally.

The movie, reteaming Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, is a critical and audience darling and fell just 54 percent in its second outing. The film is enjoying a major boost from having a lock on Imax screens for three weekends.

Universal was a double winner at the holiday box office as DreamWorks Animation’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon came in third place with an estimated $11 million for a domestic tally of $224 million. Globally, it set off fireworks in clearing the $500 million milestone after amassing a foreign haul of $292.9 million.

Pixar and Disney’s troubled pic Elio came in fourth with an estimated $5.7 million for a muted domestic tally of $55.1 million. Overseas, it earned another $6.7 million for a foreign tally of $41.7 million and $96.8 million globally.

Danny Boyle and Sony’s 28 Years Later rounded out the top five domestically with $4.6 million for a domestic haul of $60.2 million. The sequel grossed another $7 million at the international box office for a foreign total of $65.6 million and $125.8 million globally.

Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s ill-fated M3GAN 2.0 fell off somewhat less than expected, or 62 percent, in its second weekend to an estimated $3.8 million after bombing in its debut a week ago. The Universal releases tied for sixth place with Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch, which is likewise reporting a three-day gross of $3.8 million.

Lilo & Stitch made major headlines in passing up A Minecraft Movie to become the top-earning pic of 2025 at the worldwide box office after finishing Sunday with a global total of $972.7 million. It remains to be seen whether the Memorial Day release can become the first Hollywood title of the year to join the billion-dollar club.

Elsewhere on the top 10 chart, fellow Memorial Day release Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning finished Sunday with a global haul of $576.2 million.

Next up is Superman on Friday.

Very much depends on the reviews, and then word of mouth.

Some expect a huge opening weekend due to early good vibes.
Others say the brand is so battered that its all about word of mouth.
Could go either way.

Did read something that basically said comic book fans will appreciate, but for the casual audience that stuff will fly over their heads and leave them confused and thinking “silly”

And what effect would that have on the reviews?

Doesn’t help that The Daily Beast leaked something 5 days early, and only for 5 minutes, but the headline is “The Terrible New ‘Superman’ Movie Is the Final Nail in the Grave for the Superhero Genre.”

Ouch! Dont believe for a second that it was an accident, and the “political motivation” from the main rival has me feeling very much that I don’t believe anything and would like to decide for myself.

But that hurt.
If it ends up under performing Jurrasic’, by all accounts a shitty movie that overperformed, well, I don’t know what would happen.

This is my personal opinion and based solely on the trailers, but I think Krypto may be the tipping point for the movie.

I think the majority of potential moviegoers really don’t know anything about Krypto or his place in Superman canon. They may see him one of two ways:

1. A cute, playful character that brings something fun and new to Superman, and shows that WBD/DC are moving away from the “dark” Zack Snyder era.

2. A ridiculous addition that cheapens Superman and is only there to sell toys, like so many characters that appear to be forced into movies and television shows.

I can see Krypto being a focal point for the perception of the movie.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective

I’m seeing Superman on Friday but I don’t have high hopes based on the trailers.

I really hope Superman is good, it’ll be a real bummer if it’s a dud after all the buildup.

The review embargo lifts tomorrow so I guess we’ll get some idea then.

Dave wrote:

I’m seeing Superman on Friday but I don’t have high hopes based on the trailers.

I am the opposite, I have very high hopes indeed.

As for the silliness aspect of it…

Sean Robinson wrote:

Did read something that basically said comic book fans will appreciate, but for the casual audience that stuff will fly over their heads and leave them confused and thinking “silly”

I mean, look at the first Guardians movie. It’s full of stuff that could fly over your head and leave you confused and silly. On paper, doing a movie with those characters in a fully fledged MCU sci-fi universe setting was a ridiculous attempt. And it was wildly successful.
What I’m saying is, I trust James Gunn to have made a good movie. I’m looking forward to this.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Todd

Even if people agree on the numbers, there’s a bunch of different headlines whether it’s positive or negative.

I guess James called Superman an immigrant, and the Maga camp went fucking nuts.

Superman’s An Immigrant? Director James Gunn Faces Right-Wing Backlash For Claim – Forbes

Gunn, writer-director of “Superman” and co-CEO of DC Studios, told The Sunday Times over the weekend the superhero movie is “the story of America,” stating it is about “an immigrant that came from other places” and how “basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”

Gunn’s comments were swiftly criticized by right-wing commentators, including Kellyanne Conway, who said in a Fox News segment Monday people “don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us.”

Fox News host Jesse Watters joked Superman’s cape reads “MS-13,” the name of an international gang designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization, and he questioned whether Superman is “from Uganda” and whether there’s a “love scene with Batman and Robin.”

During the Fox News segment, a chyron on the screen read: “Superwoke.”

Other right-wing commentators, like Ben Shapiro, Tim Pool and widely followed right-wing X accounts like End Wokeness, piled onto the criticism in social media posts and YouTube videos, making “Superman” the latest movie deemed “woke” to be targeted by conservative critics.
_________________

So, you really don’t need Fox News slamming your movie for an entire week before it comes out.

Plus jagoffs like former Superman and Trump loyalist Dean Cain makes some headlines by being a fucking idiot doesn’t help.

Internationally, the Asian markets were not expected to do much, and had a better than expected weekend.

I’m sure they really would’ve liked another $50 Million domestically and another $35 Million Internationally (because a $300 million worldwide debut would speak for itself).

But I think this has been a success, all things considered.
They deserve to take a victory lap, and allowed to take the car onto Dean Cain’s front lawn and do donuts.
Can include any MAGA-moron in that as well.

_____________________

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s ‘Superman’ smashing box office records – USA Today

“Superman” is breaking down bad guys and box office records.

The new movie, which casts David Corenswet as an intrepid and empathetic Clark Kent, has raked in an estimated $122 million, leading weekend box office charts in the United States and Canada.

Adding $95 million in international markets for global ticket sales, the film’s profits were expected to reach a whopping $217 million through Sunday, July 13, Warner Bros. said. The success for both Warner Bros. and DC Studios, its superhero offshoot, comes at a perilous time for the movie industry. “Superman” is one of only three films to debut with more than $100 million in domestic ticket sales in 2025 as moviegoing lingers below pre-pandemic levels.

The film’s power to put viewers in seats as streaming services cut into box office sales represents an important win for what DC hopes to be the opening act of a successful franchise.

Despite a stable of iconic characters including Batman and Wonder Woman, DC has not been able to match the box office power of Walt Disney’s Marvel superhero films. But, as Marvel fatigue has crept up among some viewers, DC’s fresh take on a beloved classic comes at an opportune time.

The film was written and directed by James Gunn, the co-CEO of DC Studios since 2022. That he stuck the landing bodes well for Warner Bros., who brought him on with hopes that he would bring consistent success to its film and TV projects.

“I’m incredibly grateful for your enthusiasm and kind words over the past few days,” Gunn wrote in a post to Threads over the weekend, responding to the box office success.

“We’ve had a lot of ‘Super’ in Superman over the years, and I’m happy to have made a movie that focuses on the ‘man’ part of the equation — a kind person always looking out for those in need. That that resonates so powerfully with so many people across the world is in itself a hopeful testament to the kindness and quality of human beings. Thank you,” he wrote.

His comments echo the sentiments of many reviewers, who remarked immediately not on the sweeping action sequences, CGI or other triumphs of modern movie-making, but on Superman’s endearing demeanor.

“Gunn fills his ‘Superman’ with plenty of action, from the title character’s flying jaunts – filmed as searing, windswept experiences – to Superman throwing down with a giant kaiju. But what makes the movie, and Supes himself, endearing is how the dude tackles any and all problems with empathy and sincerity,” wrote USA TODAY’s movie critic, Brian Truitt.

Corenswet, who stars opposite “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” actor Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as villain Lex Luthor, has largely been lauded as a believable Man of Steel.

As an up-and-coming star, “Superman” represents his biggest role yet, and perhaps already the most memorable: Actors who join franchises as a major superhero often become bound with that character.

While the international box office figures have not crested the film’s large budget, insiders say much of that is to be expected, given Corenswet’s job to embody an American icon.

“We always knew that this would be bigger in the U.S. than international,” Jeff Goldstein, president of global distribution at Warner Bros., told Reuters. “Superman has always been very American-centric,” Goldstein said.

I find the politicisation of the movie really odd (although I guess it happens to everything nowadays) because as a film it seems to be so consciously apolitical and never really pushes in either direction. Unless decency and kindness is now a controversial political stance.

In fairness though, again like all of these things nowadays, I get the sense that the studio marketing has somewhat leant into that take and had used it to try and bolster the film’s progressive credentials, which is cynical but not unexpected.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Dave wrote:

I find the politicisation of the movie really odd (although I guess it happens to everything nowadays) because as a film it seems to be so consciously apolitical and never really pushes in either direction. Unless decency and kindness is now a controversial political stance.

It is.

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy” – Elon Musk

And that’s the attitude Trump and his MAGA crowd project, as well. It’s all about grinding the weak into the dirt.

Anyway, it’s really funny if the trigger for this was Gunn saying that Superman’s an immigrant. I mean, what’s the counter-position here? Are there right-wingers claiming that he didn’t come from space? Is this a reverse Obama situation in which they’re claiming he has an American birth certificate?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

I’ve seen people argue that Superman can’t be an immigrant because he’s from space, but let’s be real, they’re stumbling around to find a distinction without a difference that sounds convincing to idiots.  Like arguing that America is a Republic, not a Democracy.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Todd, Christian

Box Office: DC’s ‘Superman’ Flexes Impressive Staying Power, Flies Past $400M Globally – Hollywood Reporter

Elsewhere, ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ celebrates crossing $600 million worldwide, while new offerings ‘I know What You Did Last Summer’ and ‘Smurfs’ open to meh numbers.

Superman has transformed into a bonafide crowd pleaser at the box office in a much-needed inaugural win for the Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios, which is co-headed by James Gunn — also the film’s director — and producer Peter Safran.

The big-budget tentpole was all but assured of staying atop the domestic box office in its second weekend, but estimates were all over the place as to how it would hold up.

But, buoyed by strong word-of-mouth and reviews, it declined a less-than-expected 54 percent to $57.2 million for a pleasing 10-day domestic tally of $235 million through Sunday. That’s a narrow decline for the struggling superhero genre. Overseas — where Superman has always faced challenges because of the comic book character’s pro-American traits — the film earned another $45.2 million for an internationally tally of $171.8 million and $406.8 globally in a major win for DC and Warners, which has passed up Disney to rank No. 1 in domestic marketshare for the year to date.

The male-skewing superhero pic is facing fierce competition internationally from Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth and Apple Original Film’s first box office hit, the Formula One-action adventure F1: The Movie, which Warners is helping to market and distribute. In a double win for Warners, F1 zoomed past $460 million at the worldwide box office over the weekend after finishing Sunday with a domestic total of $153.6 million domestically and $307.2 million overseas.

After years of rival Marvel Studios largely dominating the superhero landscape, DC is smiling. In only its second weekend, Superman has already passed up the entire lifetime run of Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, which topped out at $383 million globally earlier this year. And it’s only days away from overtaking Marvel’s other 2025 entry, Captain America: Brave New World, which earned a meek $415 million worldwide.

Superman stars David Corenswet in the titular role, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Rounding out the cast are Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho and Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific.

Marvel hopes to begin to turn its fortunes around when Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters a week from now on July 25. And it means Superman only has a few days left to itself before facing direct competition, in addition to losing Imax screens and other premium-large format screens to Fantastic Four, which is tracking to open to $130 million to $140 million.

Elsewhere at the box office this weekend, holdover Jurassic World Rebirth also remained a powerful competitor in its third weekend as it crossed $600 million globally. It stayed parked safely in second place domestically with an estimated $23.4 million for a North American total of $276.2 million. Overseas, it earned another $40.3 million for a foreign cume of $371.8 million and $647 million globally.

Columbia and Screen Gem’s new R-rated offering I know What You Did Last Summer came in third with an estimated $13 million, in line with modest expectations after failing to wow critics or audiences. (Rivals think it will come in slightly lower when Monday actuals are released).

While Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Brande and Sarah Michelle Gellar and Brande reprise their roles from the original film and subsequent sequel, the new installment is anchored around a host of franchise newcomers, including Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon and Gabbriette Bechtel.

Set three decades after the 1997 original film of the same name, the storyline — much as the first movie — follows a group of friends who try to cover up an accidental death for which they were responsible. Cut to a year later, when one of them receives a note containing the ominous titular message. Not long after, a killer armed with a metal hook and clad in a fisherman’s slicker and hat begins gruesomely killing them one by one. Soon, they turn to two survivors of the legendary Southport Massacre of 1997, played by Hewitt and Prinze.

Critics haven’t exactly embraced the reboot, which currently has a 38 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences gave the film a C+ CinemaScore, which isn’t unusual for a horror title. It’s audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 68 percent.

Smurfs is looking at a forth-place finish with an estimated $11 million to $12 million, in line with tepid expectations. The animated family film likewise hasn’t impressed reviewers — its RT critics’ score is an even-worse 22 percent, but it did earn a B+ CinemaScore from moviegoers. The voice cast features an all-star lineup led by Rihanna in her first turn as a Smurf and followed by Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Alex Winter, Billie Lourd, Maya Erskine, John Goodman, Kurt Russell and Jimmy Kimmel.

Directed by Chris Miller, Smurfs is the first installment in the theatrical franchise in eight years. Thanks to Rihanna in the role of Smurfette, the movie is filled with dance and song. The story follows Smurfette leading a mission to save their leader that takes them into the real world, including Paris, Munich and the Australian Outback, where the Smurfs meet up with small, feathered, Minion-like creatures named Snooterpoots. Their leader is voiced by Natasha Lyonne.

F1: The Movie, directed by Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer, rounded out the top five domestically with $9.6 million. Starring Brad Pitt, the pic dropped a mere 26 percent in its fourth outing. Overseas, it earned another $29.5 million.

A24 and filmmaker Ari Aster’s divisive Western Eddington opened in sixth-place domestically with $4.3 million, slightly behind expectations despite plenty of buzz and an all-star cast led by Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal.

Sean Robinson wrote:

A24 and filmmaker Ari Aster’s divisive Western Eddington opened in sixth-place domestically with $4.3 million, slightly behind expectations despite plenty of buzz and an all-star cast led by Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal.

From the TV ads I had a feeling this should not have been a summer release. The good news, I guess, is that Pedro Pascal won’t have to worry about Eddington cutting into the FF box office next weekend.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, Todd

Well said Jerry.
Like, I want to see that, had no idea it was opening this weekend, haven’t seen a single hint for that.
Figured it would be a fall release.
Just, why?

‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Lighter At $118M, But Still Super In Opening – Box Office Update – Deadline

SUNDAY AM: Ok, ok, ok, so Marvel Studios/Disney‘s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is coming in lighter at $118M after a -42% slide on Saturday against Friday/previews for what was $33.2M. As we said yesterday, cynics, go pound sand. $100M-plus opening for the industry? What major studio wouldn’t want that? Also, for a superhero movie to continue to do $100M+ in its 3-day start, va bene for capes.

Worldwide debut is $218M, which is $2M shy of Superman‘s initial global pounce.

Still, that’s a steep Friday/previews to Saturday decline, which indicates the movie was front-loaded. Nobody was spotting that yesterday, the lowest was a $120M debut. And families always go to the movies on Saturday. Fantastic Four‘s fall is sharper than Superman (-33%), Thunderbolts* (-22%), Deadpool & Wolverine (-36%), and Captain America: Brave New World (-32%).

Essentially, fewer families went to see Marvel’s first family than DC Studios’ Superman. Go figure. According to EntTelligence, while metro centers with populations over 1M overperformed on Fantastic Four: First Steps, rural and suburban areas (where families live) under performed on average -13%. Also, kids under 13 only repped 8% of the population. It just is what it is. It doesn’t mean Fantastic Four is broken, it’s just a crappy thing when the industry over projects on a big movie during its opening weekend, and then it comes in lower by Sunday and Monday. Disney figures that Fantastic Four will ease -16% today with $27.8M.

The norm attendance for families to a PG-13 superhero movie is 21% per EntTelligence. Fantastic Four came in at 17%.

I’m telling you again for the Nth time: whenever tracking or studio’s distribution departments project on $100M+ openings, there’s always a rounding an error. It’s never perfect. One box office insider said “On Friday, I had Fantastic Four doing $135M.”

Also, there’s a lot of PG-13 family entertainment in the market this weekend with the third weekend of Superman doing $24.8M, and Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth at $13M in its fourth sesh.

Also good to note that older audiences embraced Fantastic Four more (maybe it’s the period of it all that kept some families away) with Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak showing that the best definite recommends came from 35-44 at 80%, 45-54 at 72% and over 55 at 78% versus 18-24 at 69% and 25-34 at 69%.

Imax and PLFs were huge at 40%, with Imax alone contributing close to 14% of the weekend or $16M at 418 hubs. That’s the second-highest ever domestic market share for an MCU film and eighth consecutive +10% domestic indexing opening for Imax. 3D repped 13%.

Comscore reports that the YTD box office has crossed $5.2 billion, +13% from the Jan. 1-July 27 frame of last year. Summer is currently +10% of summer 2024 with $2.86 billion. That said, summer is -15% behind 2019’s at the same point in time (after the first Friday start in May); that figure being $3.3 billion.

Sunday numbers:

1. Fantastic Four (Dis) 4,125 theaters, Fri $57M, Sat $33.2M Sun $27.8M, 3-day $118M/Wk 1

2. Superman (WB) 3,930 (-345) theaters, Fri $7.1M (-57%) Sat $9.8M Sun $7.9M, 3-day $24.8M (-57%), Total $289.5M/Wk 3

3. Jurassic World Rebirth (Uni) 3,550 (-304) theaters, Fri $3.7M (-44%) Sat $5.2M Sun $4M 3-day $13M (-45%), Total $301.5M/Wk 4

4. F1 (WB) 2,615 (-479) theaters, Fri $1.8M (-36%) Sat $2.5M Sun $1.8M 3-day $6.2M (-37%), Total $165.6M/Wk 5

5. Smurfs (Par) 3,504 theaters, Fri $1.72M (-57%) Sat $2M Sun $1.6M 3-day $5.4M (-51%), Total $22.7M/Wk 2

6. I Know What You Did Last Summer (Sony) Fri $1.62M (-72%) Sat $2M Sun $1.49M 3-day $5.1M (-60%), Total $23.5M/Wk 2

7. How to Train Your Dragon (Uni) 2,346 (-502) theaters, Fri $850K (-48%) Sat $1.1M Sun $840K 3-day $2.8M (-48%), Total $257M/Wk 7

8. Eddington (A24) 2065 (-46) theaters, Fri $478K (-73%) Sat $641K Sun $545K 3-day $1.66M (-62%), Total $8.1M/Wk 2
A hard fall here for the Ari Aster directed socio-comedy-western-action movie as we all knew it would be. This is steeper than his genre movies, Hereditary (-50%) and Midsommar (-49%) and even sharper than the second weekend wide release (technically third weekend) of Wes Anderson’s Phoenician Scheme (-49%). It remains questionable whether this net $25M production can make it to $13M. Aster’s Beau Is Afraid shrieked its final domestic take at $8.1M.

9. Saiyaara (YRF) 210 (-85) theaters, $390K (+143%), Sat $506K Sun $504K 3-day $1.4M (+131%), Total $3.3M/Week 2

10. Oh Hi! (SPC) 866 theaters, Fri $736K Sat $218K Sun $175K , 3-day $1.1M/Wk 1
Alright results in NYC, LA, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, DC and Denver.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Box Office: ‘Fantastic Four’ Craters by 66% in Second Weekend, ‘Naked Gun’ Debuts to $17 Million – Variety

Marvel’s First Family might not save the day after all. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is quickly losing steam in its second weekend, signaling the comic book adventure isn’t connecting at the box office beyond the film’s core demographic of superhero fans.

After a healthy $117.6 million debut, “The Fantastic Four” suffered a hefty 66% drop in its sophomore outing with $40 million from 4,125 theaters. Heading into the weekend, box office analysts anticipated a decline of 55% to 60% from its opening. (By comparison, “Superman” dropped by 53% in its second weekend after launching to $125 million earlier in July.) This painful fall is surprising because the Marvel tentpole has the benefit of positive
reviews and word-of-mouth, as well as a clear runway in terms of competition.

Although those ticket sales were enough to rank as No. 1 on North American charts, “The First Steps” endured one of the steeper second-weekend drops for Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, better than “The Marvels” (down 78%) but in the company of February’s “Captain America: Brave New World” (down 68%), 2023’s “Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (down 70%) and 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” (down 67%).

$198 million domestically and $368 million globally. Luckily for Marvel, whose output has been wildly inconsistent in post-pandemic times, “The First Steps” is pacing to outgross this year’s prior theatrical disappointments of “Captain America: Brave New World” ($415 million globally) and “Thunderbolts” ($382 million globally). The final tally for “Fantastic Four” won’t be disastrous, à la “The Marvels” ($206 million) or “Thunderbolts,” but it’s not yet a return to box office glory for Marvel. However, the MCU should officially regain its box office stride with its next three films — 2026’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Avengers: Doomsday” and 2027’s “Avengers: Secret Wars.”

“Fantastic Four’ is not a top-tier Marvel franchise. Never has been,” says analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “Remember, this ramps up into ‘Avengers.’ That’s the real payoff.”

Three new movies opened nationwide, but none were competing for the same audience as “Fantastic Four.” Among new releases, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s heist comedy “The Bad Guys 2” enjoyed the strongest start with $22.8 million from 3,852 venues. That’s directly even with the first film, which opened to $23 million in 2022 at a time when cinemas were majorly struggling to recover from COVID and studios were barely releasing any movies. The original film eventually powered to $250 million worldwide. “The Bad Guys 2,” which cost $80 million and follows a group of reformed criminals who relapse for one final con job, was embraced by audiences with an “A” grade on CinemaScore exit polls. Overseas, “The Bad Guys 2” landed with $16.3 million for a global total of $44.5 million.

“This is a good opening for an animation sequel,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “With this kind of business, the movie is doing what it’s supposed to do.”

At No. 3, Paramount’s slapstick comedy “The Naked Gun” debuted to $17 million from 3,344 theaters, right in line with projections. The film earned another $11.5 million at the international box office, bringing its global tally to $28.5 million. It’s a promising start given the dearth of theatrical comedies. Akiva Schaffer of the Lonely Island fame directed the film, which carries a $42 million price tag.

Critics and moviegoers dug “The Naked Gun,” in which Liam Neeson stars as bumbling L.A. detective Frank Drebin Jr. (son of the late Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin, his predecessor in the “Naked Gun” trilogy) alongside Pamela Anderson and Paul Walter Hauser. The movie scored an “A-” grade on CinemaScore and boasts a 90% average on Rotten Tomatoes, both of which should bode well for the remainder of its theatrical run. “The Naked Gun” appealed almost squarely to older white men; 62% of initial crowds were male, 50% were above 35 years old and 70% were Caucasian.

This weekend’s final newcomer, Neon’s body-horror nightmare “Together” landed in sixth place with $6.8 million over the traditional weekend and an encouraging $10.8 million during its first five days of release. Real-life husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie star in “Together” as a co-dependent couple who become frighteningly close after a mysterious force causes horrific body changes. Audiences gave the film a “C+” on CinemaScore, though that harsh a grade isn’t surprising since they likely left the theater feeling very disturbed. In fact, Neon has been leaning into the on-screen trauma to promote the movie, offering free couples therapy for partners who see “Together” during opening weekend. Neon shelled out $17 million to buy the movie at Sundance, marking one of the richest deals in the festival’s history.

“A lukewarm audience score is typical of these films and generally has little effect on how they play out,” Gross says. “It’s [a] smart horror production that’s going to be profitable when it’s finished.”

Elsewhere at the box office, “Superman” descended to fourth place with $13.9 million in its fourth weekend of release. The Warner Bros. and DC Studios adaptation has generated $316.2 million domestically and $551.2 million globally to date.

Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” rounded out the top five with $8.4 million in its fifth weekend of release. The dinosaur epic, which rebooted the long-running property with Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, has grossed $317 million in North America and $766 million globally.

Overall, the box office is 9.5% ahead of last year but 23% behind 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, according to Comscore. Summer revenues just hit $3 billion from May through early August, so it’s a question of whether this could be the second summer in post-COVID times — the year of “Barbenheimer” was the first — to cross the $4 billion.

“A solid home stretch of the summer is in the cards,” predicts senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “The $4 billion benchmark is still about a $1 billion away, which is no cake walk but potentially in play.”

I’m not surprised FF is floundering. While I know a lot of people liked it, it just didn’t strike me as a movie that was going to get a lot of repeat business. I see people waiting till it hits Disney+ to see it again.

Superman (2025)
Release date: July 11, 2025

As of August 8, 2025:
Domestic (57.2%)
$325,643,139
International (42.8%)
$243,900,000
Worldwide
$569,543,139

The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Release date: July 11, 2025

As of August 8, 2025:
Domestic (56.3%)
$219,412,709
International (43.7%)
$170,284,359
Worldwide
$389,697,068

I will be surprised if FF can crack $500M. But seriously, those aren’t great numbers for Superman. For the film that is supposed to relaucnch the DCU, that’s not a debut that builds a lot of confidence.

Speaking of lack of confidence, FF is not helping to revitalize the MCU in the way they had hoped. A lot is riding on on Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Here’s hoping they can pull out of the dive.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Dave, Uncle Retrospective

Well, they’ve lost China.
There will be no more easy way to a Billion.

The money they’re sinking into Doomsday and Secret Wars could get people fired.

They’ll be lucky to break even, or more likely be lucky to get people to believe the lies they will break even.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Dave

Superman is currently at $585,053,133 (global) and FF is at $441,392,198 (global).

Those are not great numbers.

The Second Weekend Is the New Opening Weekend – Hollywood Reporter

A handful of films this year have been pronounced box office winners based on their opening performance — only to fall off a cliff in their sophomore outing and reveal their true fate.

When The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened to $117.6 million at the domestic box office in late July, the media was quick to pronounce that Marvel Studios was back in action after a string of post-pandemic misses (excluding last summer’s Deadpool and Wolverine).

Such proclamations only seemed fair, considering the praise heaped on the far more troubled DC Studios two weeks earlier when Superman debuted to $125 million domestically.

Not only had the two films opened to heroic numbers for their studios, they shared similar audience and critics’ scores, prompting even the most cynical box office pundits to suggest that Fantastic Four would hold up in the same vicinity as Superman, which dropped a reasonable 53 percent in its second weekend to $58.5 million for a 10-day North American cume of $236.2 million. They were wrong. Fantastic Four plummeted a shocking 67 percent in its sophomore outing to $38.7 million for a 10-day total of $197.1 million.

For decades, the opening weekend has often defined a movie’s reputation as a winner or loser.

But the second weekend of a film’s release can provide the more significant stamp of approval — or rejection. This summer, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners saw a second-weekend drop of less than 5 percent, an unheard-of low decline these days. That was the moment Warner Bros. knew it had a hit on its hands. (The film has grossed $365 million globally.) The studio, which is enjoying an enviable winning streak, saw Zach Cregger’s hit Weapons fall only 44 percent in sophomore outing, cementing its status as a sleeper blockbuster.

There are plenty of other 2025 titles where the second weekend provided the more telling sign.

When Disney’s ill-fated Snow White bowed to a worrisome $42.2 million this spring, studio execs insisted the live-action adaptation would find its stride. They changed their tune when it slipped 66 percent in its sophomore weekend to $14.3 million on its way to topping out at an abysmal $87.2 million domestically. And this summer, Marvel Studios celebrated when Captain America: Brave New World opened to $88.8 million domestically, but perhaps wasn’t feeling so brave when the tentpole subsequently dropped 68 percent the following weekend.

Marvel’s third 2025 superhero title, Thunderbolts, debuted to an OK $74.3 million this summer before falling 56 percent. While a decline of 55 percent to 57 percent is considered within the norm for an event title, Marvel was certainly looking for a better hold since the opening for Thunderbolts wasn’t that big to begin with. Last summer, Deadpool & Wolverine launched to a dazzling $211 million and only fell 54 percent the next weekend.

Luckily, Disney is home of 2025 summer sensation to Lilo & Stitch to soothe its wounds. A bona fide hit from the start — it opened to $182 million over the long Memorial Day weekend — the live-action adaptation has earned north of $1.02 billion globally to make it the top Hollywood movie of the year ahead of Warners’ Spring sensation A Minecraft Movie ($955 million) and Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth ($829 million).

Like Jurassic World, one of the most anticipated sequels of the summer was Sony and Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later. No one wrote it off as a dud when it opened to $30 million in the latter half of June, but the conversation over its box office performance abruptly changed when it tumbled nearly 68 percent in its second weekend to $9.7 million on its way to topping out a disappointing $70.4 million domestically and becoming a box office zombie.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, Todd

Superman has passed Mission Impossible Final Reckoning and is now in the 6th spot worldwide.
Also it’s less than $1.5 million from crossing $600 million.
How To Train Your Dragon has $626 M in 5th spot, bit of a stretch to catch that.

I’m sure they would like better numbers, but as long as things are pointed up, and no money is lost, I think things will be okay (no matter how much they sweat along the way).

Fantastic Four First steps is in 9th spot with $472.7 million.
No hope of catching 8th (F1 @ $595 M).
I doubt it’ll cross $500 M.
Kinda sad, and really wondering what conversations they’re having behind closed doors.

Sean Robinson wrote:

Fantastic Four First steps is in 9th spot with $472.7 million.
No hope of catching 8th (F1 @ $595 M).
I doubt it’ll cross $500 M.
Kinda sad, and really wondering what conversations they’re having behind closed doors.

This is the hill I choose to die on, but I think the 1960s setting was a huge mistake. That was something a segment of old fans of the comic book were begging for. I think it was a turnoff for younger viewers, as I doubt they would connect with that time. The FF have always been about the future. This seemed like a major step backwards. It should have been set today with Reed creating things that we can only dream of. They should have been moving forwards.

I also think Reed and Sue were miscast, and the movie itself was just meh.

Bottom line, they screwed up the Fantastic Four.

Todd wrote:

Bottom line, they screwed up the Fantastic Four.

Again

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Todd wrote:

This is the hill I choose to die on, but I think the 1960s setting was a huge mistake. That was something a segment of old fans of the comic book were begging for. I think it was a turnoff for younger viewers, as I doubt they would connect with that time. The FF have always been about the future. This seemed like a major step backwards. It should have been set today with Reed creating things that we can only dream of. They should have been moving forwards.

I also think Reed and Sue were miscast, and the movie itself was just meh.

Bottom line, they screwed up the Fantastic Four.

I think the bigger problem with the movie was how slow-moving it was and that it was pretty heavy on the dramatic elements. Comparing this to Superman, I can see people being more excited leaving the cinema after watching the latter.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Christian wrote:

Todd wrote:

This is the hill I choose to die on, but I think the 1960s setting was a huge mistake. That was something a segment of old fans of the comic book were begging for. I think it was a turnoff for younger viewers, as I doubt they would connect with that time. The FF have always been about the future. This seemed like a major step backwards. It should have been set today with Reed creating things that we can only dream of. They should have been moving forwards.

I also think Reed and Sue were miscast, and the movie itself was just meh.

Bottom line, they screwed up the Fantastic Four.

I think the bigger problem with the movie was how slow-moving it was and that it was pretty heavy on the dramatic elements. Comparing this to Superman, I can see people being more excited leaving the cinema after watching the latter.

Yeah, it was not well paced. Considering the threat Galactus presented, the movie really lacked a sense of urgency and tension.

They opted to go for a slow, muted dread instead, which I found an interesting choice, and I kind of liked it, but it’s not usually the thing blockbuster action movies are made of.

Christian wrote:

They opted to go for a slow, muted dread instead, which I found an interesting choice, and I kind of liked it, but it’s not usually the thing blockbuster action movies are made of.

I think the retro-future, “optimistic” style seriously undercut that decision. It created a disconnect that threw off everything.

I quite liked Fantastic Four and thought it did a lot of stuff well. I think the reasons for the lackluster performances of both FF and Superman aren’t so much linked to their inherent qualities as much as wider factors that have changed in recent years.

One of them is the general quality of superhero movies overall. We’re coming off the back of a period of years of mediocre MCU movies and TV shows, and a DC movie era that fizzled out with a lot of bad creative choices made. We had awful movies like The Flash hyped up as the best superhero films ever. We had crap like the Marvel TV shows shovelled out constantly in a way that felt contemptuous of the audience. Trust was lost and it takes a long time to win back.

Plus, a combination of rapid digital releases and the ubiquity of streaming services mean that these movies aren’t getting long runs in theaters any more – and aren’t getting the kind of repeat business they once did with hardcore fans. And on top of that, the general fanbase for superhero movies is shrinking as the culture moves on to other genres like videogame adaptations – and a lot of people are opting not to see these movies in cinemas at all and instead just wait for the streaming debut.

And Disney+ in particular has trained us pretty well to do that, guaranteeing that if you’re a subscriber then you’ll see big movies for ‘free’ just a fee months after the cinema release. As a parent, in a tough economy, am I going to blow £50 on family tickets, and almost as much again on cinema food and drink, to see the latest (probably crappy) superhero movie, or am I going to wait a couple of months and watch it at home?

I think that even the best superhero movie would struggle to make the kind of numbers we saw at the height of the MCU with the last couple of Avengers movies and Spider-Man: No Way Home all touching $2bn or more. The closest thing superhero movies have had to a cultural event in recent years is Deadpool & Wolverine, and even that topped out at less than half what Endgame made.

At this point Marvel management must be shitting themselves over Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Given the cast alone, they’re going to be hideously expensive, and with the way the box office ceiling for these movies has changed, I just don’t think there’s any way they can make their money back.

5 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, Todd, Sean Robinson, njerry, lorcan_nagle

Interestingly, Superman is apparently seen as a success by Warner Bros., even thought it only make like a a hundred million more than FF, and had a slightly larger budget. But I think it’s different because the DC movies were never huge successes (outside of Batman and, weirdly, Aquaman 1), so Superman going slightly beyond its break-even point with 600 million at this point is seen as a good start to build from. Marvel, on the other hand, is still trying to recapture their billion-dollar-movies and failing to do so once again, so it feels like less of a success to them, even though it’s done okay and got reviewed well.

—
Well, Justice League did slightly better than MoS but with a considerably higher budget, and BvS

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Delivers Netflix First No. 1 Box Office Win With $19M+, But Streamer Doesn’t Want To Officially Report – Monday AM Update – Deadline

MONDAY AM: Sources tell Deadline that Netflix/Sony Pictures Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters Singalong is coming in at No. 1 with $19.2M over Saturday and Sunday. Note that rival studios are all over the map still on estimating this, but that’s where we are seeing the anime movie from directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans after a $10.1M Saturday and $9.1M Sunday.

Netflix kept quiet about numbers all weekend, which is very odd given how it provided guidance when it had the limited Thanksgiving play of Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which did $15M in its first week at 696 sites. In addition, the streamer isn’t shy about proclaiming to the world its internal measurement of its shows and movies’ viewership. That two-day take for KPop Demon Hunters, which wasn’t even booked at No. 1 chain AMC, isn’t anything to be embarrassed about. In fact, the rest of exhibition can get down on its knees and thank the Almighty as Netflix has delivered the manna of an extra $19M in what is the slowest weekend of summer, now estimated at $79M.

Without KPop Demon Hunters, the entire marketplace would be at $60M, per ComScore. I’m told that exhibition was told by Netflix to shield its ticket sales in ComScore, so that rival studios couldn’t figure out how to compute KPop‘s box office. But it’s 2025, and there are other ways to calculate KPop Demon Hunters’ box office. As such, official box office reports from ComScore show Warner Bros/New Line’s third weekend of Weapons winning the frame with $15.4M ($115.6M running cume).

If a major filmmaker has a No. 1 win at the box office with a Netflix movie going forward, will the streamer continue to hide such victories?

Rival motion picture studios long have predicted that Netflix eventually will give in and book a handful of movies on a wide theatrical basis. Netflix brass publicly have denied that, underscoring that it’s simply a subscription business. Theatrical windows, of course, is the big debate with exhibitors when it comes to Netflix, but none of them (except AMC) had a problem playing KPop this weekend. Netflix typically takes a handful of movies out theatrically on a limited basis during the year, especially during the latter half of Q3 and Q4 to qualify for Oscars.P

Netflix has Greta Gerwig’s Narnia opening in Imax on Thanksgiving Day 2026 in 90 countries across 1,000 auditoriums in advance of the movie’s Christmas Day debut on Netflix.

Other under the hood for KPop Demon Hunters over the weekend:

When it comes to the share of attendance, Regal and Cinemark were neck-in-neck at 30% each, according to box office stat firm EntTelligence. In regards to box office, however, Regal had the bigger share of sales over Cinemark, 32% to 30%. Marcus Theatres was a distant third at 6% in attendance in sales. Top cities for KPop were Los Angeles (12%), San Francisco (5%), New York City (5%) and Dallas (4%). On Sunday, 68% of the audience for the anime pic attended cinemas before 5 p.m.

“The success of KPop Demon Hunters underscores the power of the collective experience,” said Brooks LeBoeuf, SVP U.S. Content for Regal Cineworld. “When fan-favorite content plays on the big screen, surrounded by the passion of fellow fans, it becomes something extraordinary. This weekend’s tremendous results demonstrate that cinema is still the ultimate amplifier of culture, and at Regal we remain deeply committed to delivering these kinds of unforgettable theatrical experiences.”

Netflix stock at the time of this report is up 1.85% to $1,226.89. Currently, there aren’t any plans for Netflix to extend the run of KPop Demon Hunters Singalong, this version of their second-most-watched movie literally just dropped on the OTT service at midnight.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Christian wrote:

Interestingly, Superman is apparently seen as a success by Warner Bros., even thought it only make like a a hundred million more than FF, and had a slightly larger budget. But I think it’s different because the DC movies were never huge successes (outside of Batman and, weirdly, Aquaman 1), so Superman going slightly beyond its break-even point with 600 million at this point is seen as a good start to build from. Marvel, on the other hand, is still trying to recapture their billion-dollar-movies and failing to do so once again, so it feels like less of a success to them, even though it’s done okay and got reviewed well.

—
Well, Justice League did slightly better than MoS but with a considerably higher budget, and BvS

I very much doubt Superman did the numbers DC were hoping for (it made significantly less than Man Of Steel, even without adjusting for inflation), but obviously they’re not going to admit that publicly.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Dave wrote:

Christian wrote:

Interestingly, Superman is apparently seen as a success by Warner Bros., even thought it only make like a a hundred million more than FF, and had a slightly larger budget. But I think it’s different because the DC movies were never huge successes (outside of Batman and, weirdly, Aquaman 1), so Superman going slightly beyond its break-even point with 600 million at this point is seen as a good start to build from. Marvel, on the other hand, is still trying to recapture their billion-dollar-movies and failing to do so once again, so it feels like less of a success to them, even though it’s done okay and got reviewed well.

—
Well, Justice League did slightly better than MoS but with a considerably higher budget, and BvS

I very much doubt Superman did the numbers DC were hoping for (it made significantly less than Man Of Steel, even without adjusting for inflation), but obviously they’re not going to admit that publicly.

It will be interesting to see if budgets get scaled back based on Superman’s performance. I think they have the commitment to make more DCU projects, but they may want to hedge their bets a bit.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dave

Dave wrote:

I very much doubt Superman did the numbers DC were hoping for (it made significantly less than Man Of Steel, even without adjusting for inflation), but obviously they’re not going to admit that publicly.

As I think you’ve stated previously, Dave, the conditions in the first two decades of the 21st century that made possible the unprecedented blockbuster ticket sales for MCU and similar franchise films abruptly vanished when COVID shut down cinemas and film production. In its place we now have many customers (including me) who are perfectly happy waiting a few months for new films to transition to streaming services; or, if we still go out to the cinema, we only do it once and then wait patiently to have repeat viewings on the small screen. This being the case, I’m not sure we will ever again see the billion-dollar-plus box office numbers that became commonplace with the superhero genre films. You see it, I see it, most people on the Carrier see it, just about everyone sees it except the heads of the studios.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, Sean Robinson, Dave, Todd

Todd wrote:

It will be interesting to see if budgets get scaled back based on Superman’s performance. I think they have the commitment to make more DCU projects, but they may want to hedge their bets a bit.

Yeah, I think these movies have been over budget for a long time now. If you could go back to superhero movies that cost “only” $100m rather than $300m then I think they’d be a lot more profitable.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

[Christian]

Dave wrote:

I very much doubt Superman did the numbers DC were hoping for (it made significantly less than Man Of Steel, even without adjusting for inflation)

Well, currently Man of Steel has 670 mil to Superman’s 600, but the run isn’t quite finished yet, is it? Seems pretty close to me. And inflation, yeah sure, but the same goes for the budget, which is pretty much the same for both movies, as well.

I think it’s close enough to be seen as a success, if Man of Steel was seen as such (and given that it started a series of movies, too, I suppose so). And Superman was reviewed way better than MoS was (or most other DC movies were), so I think they’re hoping for it to continue to be a draw on streaming etc. due to good word of mouth. In contrast to recent Marvel movies that may have done okay in the theatres.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by Christian.

Man of Steel’s box office was also viewed as something of a disappointment at the time.

Dave wrote:

Man of Steel’s box office was also viewed as something of a disappointment at the time.

Yeah, Man of Steel was coming off the back of the Nolan Batman movies and really played up that connection (even though Nolan likely had no part in the movie), and it didn’t come close to those movies.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dave

Yeah, MoS was 2013 and as well as the success of the Dark Knight trilogy, other superhero movies like Avengers and Iron Man 3 were making well over a billion dollars.

Which I think is kind of the point. With the new Superman, they already knew that Supes isn’t the draw that Batman is these days. So I think they were content with getting the same kind of numbers, and with the positive reception and reviews are confident they can keep building on that. Of course they were probably also just relieved this didn’t go the way of Black Adam, Flash and Aquaman 2.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Todd, Uncle Retrospective

Yeah, like they realize they battered the brand.
Decent/okay numbers plus good reviews and positive word of mouth are the key here.
Everything pointed upwards.

Still going to be analyzed as time goes, and only a James Gunn production has a pre-approved budget of that caliber.

Supergirl and others of a moderate budget not failing is a plus, but also not scary.
Must be scary to search for your next Batman without knowing your budget.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Box Office: ‘Weapons’ Wins Quiet Labor Day With $12.4M, ‘Jaws’ Beats ‘Caught Stealing,’ ‘The Roses’ – Hollywood Reporter

The holiday closes out a fraught summer for Hollywood, with domestic revenue barely able to match last year’s disappointing haul.

A half a century later, Steven Spielberg‘s Jaws still has plenty of bite as the troubled 2025 summer season comes to a close.

The original summer blockbuster, celebrating its 50th anniversary, is opening in second place at the four-day Labor Day box office behind Zach Cregger‘s August sleeper hit Weapons, which remains in first place for the fourth weekend in a row with an estimated four-day gross of $12.4 million and $10.2 million for the three-day weekend proper. The horror pic, yet another win for Warner Bros. and New Line, looks to finish Monday with a global tally of $234.6 million.

Booked in 3,200 cinemas, Jaws is looking at a four-day haul of $9.8 million — rival studios show it coming in north of $10 million — and $8.1 million for the three days. Either way, that’s enough to swim past Darren Aronofsky‘s new movie starring Austin Butler and Zoë Kravitz, as well as Searchlight’s The Roses.

The fact that a 50-year movie is doing better than the two studio offerings underscores a rough-and-tumble summer for Hollywood studios and exhibitors, with domestic revenue barely able to match last year’s disappointing $3.67 billion, which was down from 2023’s $4.09 billion. Comscore is estimating that 2025 domestic summer ticket sales will come in 0.2 percent behind 2024, or a difference of $7 million. Heading into summer, most were confident that the season would match 2023’s $4 billion-plus.

Despite strong reviews, Sony and Aronofsky’s crime caper is opening in third place with an estimated four-day gross of $9.5 million from 3,578 theaters and $7.8 million for the three days (that’s in line with muted expectations).

Disney’s holdover Freakier Friday is holding in fourth place with an estimated $6.5 million for three days and $8.3 million for the four.

Both Caught Stealing and The Roses were slapped with a tepid B CinemaScore from audiences. Exits were stronger on PostTrak, however.

The Roses, an update of the classic divorce comedy, is rounding out the top five in North America with an estimated four-day gross of $8 million from 2,700 locations, and $6.3 million for the three days. It opened to a stronger $9.2 million overseas — Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman lead the cast — for an estimated launch of $17.2 million.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

Christian wrote:

Which I think is kind of the point. With the new Superman, they already knew that Supes isn’t the draw that Batman is these days. So I think they were content with getting the same kind of numbers, and with the positive reception and reviews are confident they can keep building on that. Of course they were probably also just relieved this didn’t go the way of Black Adam, Flash and Aquaman 2.

It’s true, DC are in a position where their last few projects have done so badly that even an underwhelming and mediocre performance like this can be spun by them as a huge victory.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps has finally surpassed $500 million.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Christian, njerry

Jared Leto Changed Tron: Ares to Make Himself the Star of the Franchise

Nobody really asked for another Tron movie. Well, nobody, except Jared Leto. And that’s probably where it all went wrong for the sci-fi blockbuster. Disney’s Tron: Ares was supposed to revive the neon-lit sci-fi franchise about the Flynns and The Grid. Instead, it became a $200 million Jared Leto project that crashed harder than a Light Cycle in the film’s fictional arena.

Over the weekend, Tron: Ares limped into theatres with a miserable $33 million domestic debut, nearly $11 million short of projections. Add another $27 million overseas, and you’ve got a worldwide total of $60.2 million against a production budget north of $180 million. You don’t need to be Kevin Flynn to see that’s a catastrophic system error. “Sources say Tron will likely retire from the big screen,” The Hollywood Reporter noted in a recent article. And it’s probably a good idea now.

The tragedy here is that Tron wasn’t supposed to be about Leto’s character at all. Screenwriter Jesse Wigutow admitted, “The first iteration of the [Ares] script was a different movie, but it had a character named Ares.” That version was shelved until Leto showed up. Determined to make his version of the film happen, Tron: Ares changed quite a bit. By 2017, thanks to then-Disney live-action chief Sean Bailey, Leto had muscled his way into the producer’s chair and reworked the story so Ares actually became the lead. Suddenly, the Tron universe wasn’t about the Flynns anymore; it was about Jared Leto’s digital messiah.

To be fair, Leto has always loved spectacle. This is the same guy who climbed from the 86th to the 104th floor of the Empire State Building to promote his band, 30 Seconds to Mars (who James Gunn clearly hates). “Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated with the Empire State Building,” he told Jimmy Fallon.

Behind the scenes, Disney executives were reportedly sweating bullets, though. And not just over the film’s budget, but over Leto himself. Earlier this year, Air Mail published nine allegations of sexual misconduct, which his representatives denied. Still, the studio feared more headlines might drop mid-promotion. They didn’t, and Leto went on to lead the global campaign. But as one insider told THR, “With Ares flopping, Leto’s currency in town has run colder than Morbius’ vampire blood.”

Ah yes, Morbius, the film that somehow bombed twice. Hollywood’s been side-eyeing Leto since its release. After that disaster, he became the poster child for big-budget misfires, following House of Gucci and now Tron: Ares. As one top talent manager bluntly put it, “In a world where Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch are having a hard time getting lead roles, why would you even go to a person who can’t open a movie and who has question marks around him as a person?”

You can’t say Disney wasn’t warned, though. The first two Tron movies barely turned a profit, yet they handed Leto the keys to The Grid for the 3rd one. The result is a big sequel no one wanted and a franchise now unplugged for good. Plus, Leto has committed a series of cinema sins over the years: Suicide Squad‘s Joker, Nick Lowell in The Outsider, Paolo Gucci in House of Gucci, Dr. Michael Morbius in Morbius, and Adam Neumann in WeCrashed.

Jared Leto, of course, still has Masters of the Universe lined up, where he plays Skeletor. Could the He-Man film already be doomed too?

2 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, lorcan_nagle

3 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, lorcan_nagle, Todd

Sean Robinson wrote:

Some good times there…

2 users thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson, lorcan_nagle

Yeah, I was going to say “Who thought Leto as a lead was a good idea after Morbius???”, but if he’s been producing since 2017, it makes more sense. I suppose right after Suicide Squad, it might have looked like he was going to be big now – his Joker got a lot of press, even if nobody really liked his portrayal.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

How ‘Tron: Ares’ Ran Off The Grid: Disney Sci-Fi Movie Set To Lose $132M+

There’s more bleeding red neon than imagined coming out of Disney‘s Tron: Ares. Deadline has learned from sources that the third chapter in the 43-year-old video game matrix protagonist story actually cost $220 million net, not the reported $170 million-$180 million that was floated out there.

This means that the Jared Leto-Greta Lee-Jeff Bridges light cycle movie is headed for a $132.7 million loss after all ancillaries, that is if its final global gross smacks dead into a wall at $160 million. The Joachim Rønning-directed movie counted through its second weekend as of Sunday a running worldwide cume of $103 million, with a 67% second-weekend domestic plummet of $11.1M.

At a $160 million box office threshold, Tron: Ares triggers $72.2 million in worldwide theatrical rentals, $37.6M in global home entertainment, close to a $100M in global home television, with an extra $5 million from airlines for a total of $214.8M in revenues. Put this up against the $220 million net production cost shot with Vancouver, BC tax credits, a $102.5M global P&A spend with stunts at San Diego Comic-Con, touring light cycles, a laser light Nine Inch Nails laser-light concert at the Los Angeles premiere that closed down Hollywood Boulevard, $10.8M in others costs and $14.2M in residuals, which gets you to total costs of $347.5M. That gets us to a $132.7 million loss.

Exclaimed one astute talent rep on why it was game over for Tron: Ares at this October’s box office: “There was no specific vision, to be honest. The idea that Disney would spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a Jared Leto film that is a franchise that hasn’t worked in four decades is insane.”

While we’ve told you the shortcomings with this Disney reboot swing and miss — i.e., the finite appeal of the Tron franchise (it bombed when it first came out in the 1980s, gained cult status on home video, and had an OK revival in 2010 a year after the first Avatar making $400M) and the limited draw of non-Star Wars and some non-Star Trek sci-fi movies overall (such fare typically opens in the $24M-$40M range; anything over $50M or even $100M is far and few between) — ultimately Tron‘s faulty battery was its screenplay. Great screenplays overcome great historical hurdles; read Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean proved pirate movies can work, and more recently, Denis Villeneuve followed another pricey, finite sci-fi fan reboot that flopped in 2018’s Blade Runner 2049 ($185M cost, $92M domestic, near $278M worldwide gross and also starring Leto) by proving post-Covid that there was heart and chills in Frank Herbert’s Dune series (combined global gross of $1.1 billion). The latter IP had sunk like quicksand 41 years ago with a domestic take of $31.4M.

So, don’t blame former Disney production head and Tron: Ares producer Sean Bailey for doing his job, championing a franchise revival (duh, it’s those events that work theatrically), carefully. Tron: Legacy‘s box office haul was an improvement definitely upon the original, though not Avatar spectacular. That 2010 movie was early proof of the talents of filmmaker Joseph Kosinski, who would later deliver unto the world Top Gun: Maverick and F1. Hence, a sequel because of Legacy‘s alright results wasn’t rushed to the screen. Originally, the third Tron was conceived as a sequel to Legacy, with Kosinski returning alongside the characters played by Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund. The notion of Tron coming into our world ala Ares was always part of the third chapter, I’m told.

However, I hear that Rønning wanted a different script for the film other than the Jesse Wigutow one that Disney pushed to greenlight. The filmmaker, who can deliver character-driven stories at a low budget ala the Oscar nominated Kon-Tiki and Young Woman in the Sea, as well as Disney commercial fare such as Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, was lobbying for Ford v. Ferrari‘s Jez Butterworth. At the end of the initial shoot, we hear that Oscar-nominated Captain Phillips screenwriter Billy Ray had to step in to deliver pages to fix various parts of Tron: Ares, that work amounting to less than a month’s worth of reshoots.

Many would like to throw tomatoes at Disney for the casting, that there’s zero audience attraction for the likes of Leto, Lee, etc. First, despite tabloid headlines about Leto, such noise doesn’t factor into moviegoers’ decisions to buy or not buy a ticket; it could be argued most were not even in the know of the June Air Mail exposé on his alleged behavior. Tron is the star at the end of the day. Had the fan faithful declared it was a better movie than the last, perhaps we’d see an expansion of the audience and some box office momentum, rather than falling short of its $40M domestic opening projection with $33.2M.

Moviegoers gave Tron: Ares the same CinemaScore as Tron: Legacy, a B+, which indicates there was no reason to have any FOMO. Definite recommend was an OK 57% on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak; a score in the mid-60s- to 70-percentile range indicates a hopeful tentpole has electricity. Tron: Ares was older skewing with 70% over age 25, indicating both the Gen-X and Legacy millennial fans showed up. However, as far as making new fans, Tron: Ares had little appeal from the 13-17 crowd who showed up at 6%. While the core Gen X Tron fans gave Tron: Ares a very high 71%+ definite recommend, the 18-24 set gave it the lowest of any demographic at 44%. Not good.

Even with Tron being the headliner, when we look at the remake of Dune, there was something undeniable for audiences in watching Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet in what is a Byzantine IP. Natch, yes, there is something to be said about star appeal, but there are few who can open a film, and typically IP is enough for studios’ execs to sleep soundly at night. Still, a Tron reboot with someone bigger than a star of House of Gucci and Morbius could have worked. But again, the blip with Tron: Ares remains its story.

“The franchise is dead” was the emphatic proclamation about Tron: Ares after it failed on opening weekend. Let’s take that with a grain of salt. First, those close to the project believe that ultimately Tron: Ares was an advertisement for the Disney theme park rides (also one of the catalysts for Tron: Ares being made, versus say any Disney+ viewership of previous Tron movies). In any given day at the Shanghai theme park and Walt Disney World in Orlando, next to Pirates of the Caribbean ride the Tron ride is the one with the biggest lines.

Second, with any of these sci-fi franchises, even when they stumble, there’s a gap in years between bombs and revivals, i.e., 1997’s Alien Resurrection and 2004’s Alien vs. Predator, Tim Burton’s poorly received 2001 Planet of the Apes and 2011’s start of a new trilogy Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and so on. Let’s face it, even Superman looked like he was gone after the last two Christopher Reeves movies Superman III (a zany Richard Pryor comedy with a final global of $80.2M) and 1987’s Superman IV: Quest for Peace ($30.2M global), and Bryan Singer’s bloated-budget 2006 Superman Returns ($391M off a $204M net cost). But this past summer we had James Gunn’s Superman which is one of the highest-grossing movies of all time for the DC superhero at a near $616M.

It’s fair to say that time heals all franchise wounds. However, we can’t say that about Tron: Ares this time around.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Sean Robinson

Todd wrote:

“The franchise is dead” was the emphatic proclamation about Tron: Ares after it failed on opening weekend. Let’s take that with a grain of salt. First, those close to the project believe that ultimately Tron: Ares was an advertisement for the Disney theme park rides (also one of the catalysts for Tron: Ares being made, versus say any Disney+ viewership of previous Tron movies). In any given day at the Shanghai theme park and Walt Disney World in Orlando, next to Pirates of the Caribbean ride the Tron ride is the one with the biggest lines.

That’s an interesting point right there. We tend to forget that with this kind of movie, it’s not actually just about the movie for Disney; it’s also about promoting theme rides, and Disney Parks globally generate about 34 billion dollars a year. They may not actually give a shit about a theme ride movie losing a few hundred million dollars.

Christian wrote:

They may not actually give a shit about a theme ride movie losing a few hundred million dollars.

No matter how rich Disney is, I imagine the loss of a few hundred million dollars will result in some firings and re-evaluations.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Ben, Todd, Uncle Retrospective

njerry wrote:

No matter how rich Disney is, I imagine the loss of a few hundred million dollars will result in some firings and re-evaluations.

I was talking less about Disney being rich in general, but about the money the theme rides bring in – and if the point of a movie is promoting one of the rides, it may not matter as much how the movie itself does.

I do hope it leads to a re-evaluation of Jared Leto.

5 users thanked author for this post.

njerry, Sean Robinson, lorcan_nagle, Uncle Retrospective, Todd

Christian wrote:

I do hope it leads to a re-evaluation of Jared Leto.

This should have happened a while ago. Just, why keep giving him these roles if it doesn’t translate to bigger box office?
He’s now a perceived loser and it will take a while to wash off that stink.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Todd

I’m not going to re-evalute Jared Leto because I’ve always thought he was shit.

5 users thanked author for this post.

Uncle Retrospective, Ben, lorcan_nagle, Todd, Sean Robinson

Well, I did like how he got his face smashed in in Fight Club.

5 users thanked author for this post.

Tobias Radesäter, Uncle Retrospective, njerry, Sean Robinson, Todd