Box office: ‘Blue Beetle’ barely beats ‘Barbie’ to win weekend, as ‘Strays’ goes to the dogs

Edward Douglas
·5 min read
11
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Any hopes that there may be another overall box office boost from the “Barbenheimer” sensation crashed and burned this weekend, with Warner Bros’ “Blue Beetle” taking number-one on the lower end of expectations. Read on for the weekend box office report.

Starring Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez, “Blue Beetle” came into the weekend with solid reviews, but they didn’t help make up for the fact that DC’s first Latinx superhero to get a solo movie was also a lesser-known character. After making $10 million on Friday (including $3.3 million in earlier previews), the movie took in an estimated $25.4 million for the weekend in 3,871 locations.

More from GoldDerby

That’s an even lower opening than the $26.2 million for James Gunn‘s 2021 DC movie “The Suicide Squad,” even though that was still released amidst the pandemic with a simultaneous streaming release on HBO Max. In some ways, this might be the lowest opening for a DC Comics movie going all the way back to Halle Berry‘s “Catwoman” in 2004.

“Barbie” ended up dropping out of first place for the first time since opening with a fifth weekend take of $21.5 million in 4,003 theaters. (That latter number alone is pretty amazing, since very few movies remain in more than 4,000 theaters by their fifth weekend.) After surpassing “The Dark Knight” to become Warner’s highest-grossing movie in North America ever earlier this week, the Greta Gerwig blockbuster has grossed $567.3 million domestically, putting it less than $7 million away from surpassing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s” domestic haul to become the highest-grossing movie of the year.

SEE‘Red, White and Royal Blue’ rave reviews: Prime Video’s #1 movie is ‘endearing,’ ‘aspirational’ and one ‘doozy’ of a rom-com

Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer” added another $10.6 million this weekend, down 44% for a total of $285.2 million, as it became the highest-grossing movie to never be number-one in North America. At the same time, “Oppenheimer” crossed the $700 million mark worldwide after adding another $32 million overseas this weekend, pulling ahead of “Interstellar” to become Nolan’s fourth-highest grossing movie worldwide.

Dropping back into fourth place, Paramount’s animated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” made $8.4 million (down 45%) for a three-week total of $88.1 million. It’s very likely to cross the $100 million mark by Labor Day.

The “dog days of summer” did no favors for Universal’s raunchy R-rated comedy “Strays,” featuring the voices of Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Randall Park, and Isla Fisher, which also failed to achieve even the lowest of projections to open in fifth place with an estimated $8.3 million in 3,223 theaters, roughly $2,575 per theater. It wasn’t helped in the slightest by the mostly negative reviews that hit on Thursday.

Oddly, both “Blue Beetle” and “Strays” received the same “B+” CinemaScore — not great, but also not terrible. For comparison, DC’s previous movie, “The Flash,” received a “B” and the R-rated “Cocaine Bear” received a “B-” back in February.

SEEBox office record: ‘Oppenheimer’ beats ‘Sing’ as highest-grossing movie to never be number one

Jason Statham‘s giant prehistoric shark sequel, “Meg 2: The Trench,” fell to sixth place with $6.7 million, down 48% to bring its domestic total to $66.6 million.

The A24 horror movie “Talk to Me” brought in another $3.2 million in 1,790 theaters for seventh place, a 37% drop from last weekend with $37.4 million grossed in its first four weeks, a decent return for a low-budget thriller that has already had its sequel greenlit.

It ended up pulling ahead of Disney’s “Haunted Mansion,” which opened on the same weekend in late July. “Haunted Mansion” took in $3 million this weekend (down 48%) for a total of $58.8 million.

Tom Cruise‘s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1” managed to hold onto its top-10 spot with another $2.7 million to bring its domestic total to $164.6 million.

Last week’s “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” just barely held on to the top 10 with a second weekend take of $2.5 million, down 62% to put it in 10th place based on estimates.

The biggest surprise of the summer, Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom,” brought in another $2.5 million this weekend to bring its total to $177.7 million, as it finally dropped out of the top 10.

SEE2024 Oscars: 9 predicted rookie acting nominees … and who could win

The indie comedy “Back on the Strip” was released into 1,317 theaters on Friday where it grossed an estimated $461,000 for the weekend, averaging roughly $350 per theater.

Roughly two-thirds of players in Gold Derby’s box office prediction game had “Barbie” winning its fifth weekend and “Blue Beetle” opening in second place. Slightly fewer had “Strays” beating “Oppenheimer” for third place, but that was still the majority. Only 22 players correctly picked “Strays” to open in fifth place, giving them an advantage for winning this week’s game.

On the other hand, 62 players had six correct picks in the August 11 game, and “MellowDrama” was back on top with the highest point score, just narrowly beating out “paulhardister.”

On Friday, Sony releases the racing movie “Gran Turismo,” based on the popular Playstation racing simulator, and there are three other wide or moderate releases. Check back on Wednesday for the weekend preview.

PREDICTthe 2024 Oscar nominations

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.