Box Office Success Continues in July

After months of sub-$100 million weekends at the box office, theaters are back on track thanks to June. Now July is starting off with a fourth straight weekend of $145+ million spent by moviegoers. From Memorial Day to mid-June, 2023 had four straight weeks of $160+ million, so there is still some work to do, especially as that streak probably ends next weekend. Given the current returns, some may be thinking of Belloq's line to Indiana Jones that 'someday it will take more than children to save you.' Well, teach them well and let them lead the way, because they are doing just that right now.

After three weeks of Disney and Pixar topping the charts, Universal and Illumination now take a turn with the latest in their signature franchise. Despicable Me 4 opened on Wednesday to $27 million, and with $75 million over the weekend, the film already has $122 million in the bank after five days. That is lower than the $145.5 million that Minions had in its first five, the $143 million of Despicable Me 2, and the $140.6 of Minions: The Rise of Gru. But it is a vast improvement over the $99 million of Despicable Me 3, whose fifth day was the July 4 holiday that brought in $12.7 million of that total. The fourth film got the holiday on its second day, when it took in $20.4 million, a bit less than 3's $24.3 million Saturday haul on day two.

Despicable Me 4's opening weekend is the eighth-best ever for the first full three-day of July, behind Ant-Man and the Wasp's $75.8 million and ahead of the first Transformers' $70.5 million back in 2007 and ahead of Hancock's $62.6 million in 2008. The top seven on that list all reached $300 million, except for Ant-Man and the Wasp. DM4 has the second-lowest five-day total amongst them. It should remain in first place next week, but it may need a pretty small drop -- no lower than between $35-40 million -- in order to maintain a pace to become just the second film this year to hit that milestone. The $100 million budgeted film (the highest cost of the whole franchise) is already up to $229 million worldwide and can start counting its profits later this week.

Every film in the series since the original has grossed over $920 million worldwide, with the third film and the first Minions hitting over a billion. Over to the possibly unchallenged victor of the year, as Inside Out 2 made another $30 million. That is the 10th-best fourth weekend in history behind Marvel's The Avengers ($36.6 million), Barbie ($33.8 million), and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($32.6 million). Now at $533.8 million total domestically, it owns the eighth-highest 24-day total ever and is still about $7.5 million ahead of Barbie's $526.4 million pace and over $30 million ahead of Incredibles 2's $503.7 million. There is a very real possibility it could become just the 10th film to gross $650 million domestically.

It also continues to climb the all-time worldwide chart, and with $1.216 billion, it surpasses 2008's Iron Man to enter the top 25. In third place is A Quiet Place: Day One, falling 60% to $21 million. That is a drop akin to the pandemic-era sequel, which dropped 59.2% to $19.2 million in its second weekend. Part II had $88.3 million after 10 days, while Day One is at $94.3 million. As the numbers lie right now, being ahead of the last film's pace optimistically gets the film between $160-170 million.

Pessimistically, however, the numbers are more in line with films like Snow White and the Huntsman or, even worse, The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton, which ended up with $155 million and $134 million, respectively. Next week's numbers will provide a better portrait, but even the lowest projections still have the film getting over $200 million worldwide, enough to turn a profit and keep this series going. The fourth slot belongs to Ti West's MaXXXine, the conclusion to the trilogy that started with X and continued with Pearl. $6.7 million is a solid opening after the first two films opened to $4.2 million and $3.1 million, respectively. Reviews are not as strong for the final chapter compared to the first two, but all three remain Certified Fresh on the Tomatometer.

This is the fifth-best opening for A24 among the dozen films they have opened in over 2,000 theaters, just below The Green Knight ($6.79 million) and ahead of Midsommar ($6.56 million). The first two films cost a million each to produce and now the trilogy combined will be over $30 million by next weekend. Not too shabby. Rounding out the top five is Bad Boys: Ride or Die with $6.55 million, bringing its first full month total to $177.3 million. We are now looking at a viable path to the film getting out of its $190+ million estimates and over the $200 million hump.

The film is about $1.5 million behind the total of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins after its first month and bested its fifth weekend total by about $600,000. We're upping our estimates to the film getting between $200-205 million, not far behind Bad Boys For Life, which hit $206 million and likely lost a couple million when theaters were shut down for the pandemic. Worldwide it has grossed over $360 million. Bad Boys for Life finished its run with $426.5 million. Sony's The Garfield Movie is also over $245 million worldwide.

Both are solid hits for the studio. Last year audiences paid forward the Sound of Freedom. This year Angel Studios has Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, and maybe July 4 is their holiday. The true story of a 'Deep East Texas' community that went above and beyond adopting displaced and troubled children grossed $3.59 million in its full opening day Thursday (with Wednesday previews) and then grossed just $3.22 million over the weekend. Sound of Freedom grossed $14.2 million on last year's holiday (a Tuesday) and went on to make over $41.6 million through the weekend.

With two fewer days, Hope stands at $6.81 million. Their year of releases includes Cabrini in March ($19.5 million) and Sight in May ($7.2 million). In seventh place is Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 with $5.4 million, a 50+% drop from last week. The $50 million production is up to $22 million total. As far as R-rated adult entertainment from the month of June goes, the number is not up to Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight back in 1998, which opened with $12 million, fell to $6.5 million, had $23.1 million after 10 days, and finished with $37.1 million.

Horizon is not nearly as critically-regarded as Soderbergh's film and is going to end up between $30-35 million -- mathematically a loser and one of the bigger ones of 2024 to date, but not nearly the kind of red numbers associated with either 1997's The Postman ($17.6 million gross / $80 million budget) or even 1994's Wyatt Earp ($25 million gross / $63 million budget), Even 1995's Waterworld ultimately turned a profit, if well post-theatrical. Rounding out the top 10 this week, Kalki 2898 AD dropped 424 theaters but still cooked up $1.83 million for a running total of $16.5 million. Meanwhile, the Certified Fresh Bollywood extreme action film Kill, released by Roadside in 827 theaters, managed to round up $550,000 since opening Thursday. Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders fell 61% in its third weekend to $1.3 million for a total of $19 million. The $40 million production will be nearly as big a loser as Horizon.

As reported last week, Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness has peaked: Searchlight added 430 theaters this wee