Kamal Ghorui
‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ and ‘Project Hail Mary’ dominated the North American box office again this weekend, leaving ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ in third place for its debut. The Mario sequel, which features the voices of Jack Black, Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy and Brie Larson, has spent all of its first three weekends in the first place spot, this time adding USD 35 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. The Universal release has now made USD 747.5 million worldwide.
‘Project Hail Mary’ box office collection
‘Project Hail Mary’ meanwhile dropped only 15% in its fifth weekend, earning USD 20.5 million and bringing its domestic total to USD 285.1 million. Worldwide it’s at USD 573.1 million. Amazon MGM’s hit is in the midst of another run on IMAX screens, after ceding them to ‘Mario’ for two weeks. Filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, along with star Ryan Gosling, made an appearance at the industry trade show CinemaCon last week to thank theater owners for helping to make it the year’s highest earning original film.
‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ box office collections
The weekend left ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’, which opened wide in 3,404 locations, in third place with USD 13.5 million. The R-rated movie, directed by the filmmaker behind ‘Evil Dead Rise’ and produced by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and James Wan’s Atomic Monster, did not resonate with critics or audiences, recording a 45% on Rotten Tomatoes and a lackluster C+ CinemaScore. The film, starring Jack Reynor, follows a family whose missing daughter reappears, mummified and living. The film only cost a reported USD 22 million to produce, and with USD 20.5 million from international showings, it already has a worldwide total of USD 34 million.
‘Normal’ debuts on seventh spot
The Bob Odenkirk-led action movie “Normal,” about a visiting sheriff in a Midwestern town, also opened this weekend, earning an estimated USD 2.7 million. Directed by Ben Wheatley and released by Magnolia, ‘Normal’ was better received by critics (77% on Rotten Tomatoes) but also got a C+ CinemaScore from audiences, who were 65% male.
Films that failed to enter Top 10
This weekend also had several high profile limited or art house releases, including the Lorne Michaels documentary ‘Lorne’, and David Lowery’s ‘Mother Mary’,, starring Anne Hathaway as a tormented pop star and Michaela Coel as her estranged designer. ‘Lorne’, a Focus Features release, opened in 414 theaters in North America, earning an estimated USD 270,000. A24’s ‘Mother Mary’ opened on five screens and made USD 168,063. Neither were enough to make the top 10, but one independent that did was the comedy ‘Busboys’ co-starring David Spade and podcaster Theo Von, which managed to land in eighth place with USD 1.6 million from 800 theaters. Last year on this weekend, Warner Bros. opened ‘Sinners’ to USD 48 million. While the weekend is down from a year ago, the overall box office is still up over 16% from this time last year, and Dergarabedian gives a lot of credit to ‘Project Hail Mary’.
Upcoming films to look forward to
Things will likely pick up next weekend as the Michael Jackson movie ‘Michael’ arrives in theaters. Early tracking suggests the Lionsgate release is poised to earn more than USD 60 million (some put it as high as $75 to $90 million) in its first weekend in North America, which would make it the biggest ever for a musical biopic. The current record-holder is ‘Straight Outta Compton’ which opened to USD 60 million in 2015. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ debuted to $50 million and went on to earn over USD 910 million worldwide.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:1. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” $35 million.2. “Project Hail Mary,” $20.5 million.3. “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy,” $13.5 million.4. “The Drama,” $4.8 million.5. “You, Me & Tuscany,” $3.8 million.6. “Hoppers,” $2.9 million.7. “Normal,” $2.7 million.8. “Busboys,” $1.6 million.9. “Bhooth Bangla,” $1 million.10. “A Great Awakening,” $823,667.
