Propelled by great reviews and apparently strong word-of-mouth, Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible — Fallout“…uh, cruised to an easy 2nd weekend win at the box office. Not even the loveable Winnie the Pooh stood a chance against Ethan Hunt and the reloading arms (and controversial mustache) of Henry Cavill.
In its second weekend at the box office, ‘Fallout’ earned another $35 million, based on estimates. That’s easily enough for another #1 showing, beating the debuts of the aforementioned Pooh flick “Christopher Robin” and the R-rated comedy stylings of Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon in “The Spy Who Dumped Me.” While many expected ‘Fallout’ to reclaim the top spot, no one could have realized that the film would only drop -43% in its second weekend. Minimal drops like that are unheard of for blockbuster action films.
Compared to Cruise’s previous ‘Impossible’ film ‘Rogue Nation,’ ‘Fallout’s’ earnings are looking even better. ‘Rogue Nation,’ with largely the same team behind the scenes, earned an impressive $55 million opening weekend and only dropped -49% in its second weekend. ‘Fallout,’ on the other hand, has bested both of those numbers, with a larger opening and smaller drop. This bodes very well for the long-term projections of the latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ film.
The same can’t be said for “Christopher Robin.” While Disney never expected the Winnie the Pooh-meets-“Hook” film to have a gargantuan opening weekend, projecting only somewhere in the mid-$20 million range, industry estimates put the family film anywhere between $30 and $35 million for its debut. Unfortunately, the film only earned an estimated $25 million, good for 2nd place. Of course, this isn’t horrible news for the studio, but it does show that not every live-action reimagining is going to be a massive hit for Disney.
The clear comparison for “Christopher Robin” is 2016’s Disney reimagining “Pete’s Dragon.” Unlike films such as “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “The Jungle Book,” “Christopher Robin” is not a direct adaptation of a beloved classic. Instead, like “Pete’s Dragon,” the film is trying to put a spin on the classic tale. And like “Pete’s Dragon,” the Winnie the Pooh film had a similarly low debut. If it follows the “Pete’s Dragon” model, then we are looking at a film that will struggle to reach $100 million. Hopefully, the film does better overseas. Well, except in China…
Another major debut this weekend was the aforementioned Kunis and McKinnon action-comedy film “The Spy Who Dumped Me.” Hoping to bank on the scene-stealing comedy abilities of McKinnon and the apparent box office appeal of Kunis’ straight-woman stylings, ‘Spy’ was projected to have a pretty strong opening, somewhere near $20 million. Unfortunately, the comedy didn’t gel with audiences (or critics, sporting a terrible 37% on Rotten Tomatoes), and only earned a paltry $12.4 million this weekend, coming in at #3. With a reported production budget (before P&A) of $40 million, ‘Spy’ has an uphill battle towards profitability.
However, even as “Christopher Robin” and “The Spy Who Dumped Me” came in below expectations, the real loser this weekend was YA thriller “The Darkest Minds.” The pseudo-“X-Men” teen film didn’t connect with audiences, at all, and only earned $5.8 million in its opening frame. There’s no sugar-coating that debut. With a reported budget of $34 million, ‘Darkest Minds’ never needed to do “Hunger Games” numbers to be a success. But with this opening, it doesn’t look like the latest YA film is long for this world. So, if you’re interested in checking out ‘Darkest Minds’ in theaters, better rush out and do it soon because those screens will be given away pretty darn quickly. But what did you expect, honestly? The film has zero buzz, as the bigger YA films have come and gone and the popularity of the genre is waning. Not only that, the reviews for the film have been ghastly, earning an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. Plus, with no real star power, “The Darkest Minds” seemed destined for failure.
Now, the rest of the top 10 is pretty standard, with last weeks’ films having the typical weekend-to-weekend drops. But there’s some other interesting news outside of the top 10. First, the bad news (or good news, depending on your political leanings). “Death of a Nation,” director Dinesh D’Souza’s latest attempt at right-wing political propaganda, failed to live up to the rest of his filmography and only earned $2.3 million in its debut. Bafflingly, the director’s “films” tend to open much stronger than this, which may lead people to believe that the filmmaker is starting to lose his core audience, as his films become more and more extreme.
The good news goes to films “Eighth Grade” and “Black Panther.” On one end of the spectrum, you have an indie film, with incredibly strong reviews, making its big expansion and scoring pretty well with a weekend total of $2.9 million. That brings the domestic total to $6.6 million, as the acclaimed film from first-time director Bo Burnham begins to catch on nationwide. And as for the Marvel Studios behemoth known as “Black Panther,” the film has finally reached the coveted $700 million domestic total. The film has been on Blu-ray for weeks, but Disney decided to keep it in theaters as it came ever so close to the milestone. Now, after 25 weeks, the film has finally become only the third in history to reach $700 million domestically.
Next weekend is when we see the true box office late-summer slump take effect, as we get the debuts of “The Meg,” “Slender Man,” and “Dog Days.” However, if you’re hoping for a little bit of quality, and perhaps a surprise, Spike Lee’s latest, “BlacKkKlansman,” hits 1,500 theaters, as it attempts to enter the top 10.
Here’s the full top 10 for August 3 to 5:
1. Mission: Impossible — Fallout — $35M ($124M Overall)
2. Disney’s Christopher Robin — $25M (Debut)
3. The Spy Who Dumped Me — $12.4M (Debut)
4. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again — $9.1M ($91M)
5. The Equalizer 2 — $8.8M ($79.9M)
6. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation — $8.2M ($136M)
7. Ant-Man and the Wasp — $6.2M ($195M)
8. The Darkest Minds — $5.8M (Debut)
9. Incredibles 2 — $5M ($583M)
10. Teen Titans GO! To The Movies — $4.9M ($20.8M)