Box office: ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ reigns with $58.5 million over Mother’s Day weekend
The annual celebration of Mom brightened things up at the summer box office, with the first movie to open over $50 million since March. Read on for the weekend box office report.
The hopes for the summer box office were almost dashed by the poor showing of season opener “The Fall Guy” last weekend, so fortunately, this weekend didn’t follow suit. Of course, the big winner for the weekend was 20th Century’s franchise sequel “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which came into the weekend with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 80% Fresh, on par with “The Fall Guy.”
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After making $6.6 million in Wednesday and Thursday previews and $22.2 million on Friday (including those previews), Disney has estimated “Apes” to open with $56.5 million, which is slightly higher than the $56.2 million opening for “War for the Planet of the Apes” in 2017. (Note that most of this weekend’s projections were made before knowing how much of an impact Mother’s Day could have on any of the movies in theaters, so some studios could have over or underestimated that effect.) (UPDATE: On Monday morning, the actual numbers for the weekend were reported, and “Kingdom” actually grossed $58.5 million over the weekend, getting a bump from Mother’s Day.)
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“Kingdom” did even better overseas with an estimated $72.6 million, including $11.4 million just in China and $7.1 million in France with an estimated $6.2 million of that amount coming from IMAX locations. (Domestically, it brought in $7 million just from IMAX screens.) The movie’s global total is currently at $129 million, a great start, but somewhat surprising was the movie receiving a “B” CinemaScore, lower than expected, considering the generally positive reviews.
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt‘s action-comedy “The Fall Guy” dropped to second place with $13.7 million, down 51% from its opening weekend, which is to be expected once you remove money from previews. So far, it has grossed $49.7 million, which is below what some expected for it to open with last weekend.
The Zendaya-led “Challengers” remained in third place with $4.7 million, down 38% in its third weekend, having accumulated $38 million so far in North America.
Sony’s poorly received horror film “Tarot” also managed to hold up well, also maintaining fourth place with $3.5 million, down 47% despite a terrible opening for a 10-day total of $12 million.
Overseas, Sony has already opened “The Garfield Movie” early, where the animated movie grossed $11.8 million in 22 markets this weekend, with Mexico currently having made $12.5 million to date for an international total of $36 million, even before it opens in North America over Memorial Day weekend.
Staying in fifth place, the massive monster hit “Godzilla x Kong: The First Empire” made another $2.5 million (down 44%) to bring its domestic total to $191.8 million, with little chance of it getting to $200 million in North America.
Lionsgate is clearly expecting the musical biopic “Unsung Hero” to get a bump from Mother’s Day, estimating it to make $2.3 million this weekend (down 25%) to bump up to sixth place this weekend. It has grossed $16.8 million so far.
SEE Box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million
In its last weekend without family competition, DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” brought in another $2 million (down 20%), and it’s just behind “Godzilla x Kong” with $191.2 million, making it tough for it to hit that $200 million milestone, as well.
The reason why so many movies retained their Top 5 placement was because the 25th anniversary re-release of “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace” took a massive 83% plunge without the benefit of “Star Wars Day,” falling from second place down to ninth with just $1.5 million.
Opening well outside the Top 10 was the spoof comedy “Not Another Church Movie,” starring Jamie Foxx and Mickey Rourke, which was released by Briarcliff into 1,108 theaters on Friday. It bombed badly with just $360,000, an average of just $325 per venue.
Chris Pine‘s directorial debut “Poolman” didn’t do much better, opening in 162 theaters, where it grossed $131,000 or $809 per locations. Also not great, but to be expected from its horrid reviews.
The majority of players in the box office prediction game knew that “Planet of the Apes” would win the weekend, and a good portion guessed correctly that it would open with over $50 million. In fact, we could have a record number of perfect scores this weekend, going by how many players nailed their top five.
Things seem to be getting back on track with six players getting perfect scores in the May 3 game, but it was the one and only “MellowDrama” who scored the most points (25,609) of those six. Added kudos to “Micah,” “Kraju,” and a couple others for scoring more points despite not picking all six correctly.
On Friday, John Krasinski‘s new family comedy “If,” starring Ryan Reynolds, will open nationwide, along with the horror reboot “The Strangers Part 1,” and the Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black.” Check out Gold Derby’s weekend preview on Wednesday to learn more about these movies and others.
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