Articles

July 6, 2019
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Spider-Man: Far From Home” Flies, “Midsommar” Cools Fast

 

The MCU continues to be America’s uber-franchise, as SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (Columbia/Sony) became the first summer mega-movie in several weeks to fully live up to expectations.  Few films have opened on the Tuesday before a Thursday July 4th, so comparisons aren’t exact, but Far From Home earned $91.5M on its Tuesday-Thursday (The Amazing Spider-Man, which had a Tuesday opening before a Wednesday Independence Day, took in $75M in its first 3 days), and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, its Friday rose 25% from the holiday to $31.5M.  That puts it on track for a 3-day weekend as high as $90M, and a $181.5M total by Sunday.  Its US total could be 5-10% higher than the $334.2M for its immediate predecessor Homecoming, especially since there are no new giant action movies on the way until Hobbes & Shaw on August 2, as the Marvel juggernaut rolls into what it’s calling “Phase Four.”  (It’s unlikely, however, that Far From Home will pass the $403.7M of 2002’s pre-MCU Spider-Man or the $373.6M of 2004’s Spider-Man 2.)

Word of mouth caught up quickly with MIDSOMMAR (A24), which isn’t a surprise since the trippy, critically hailed film that its director Ari Aster accurately calls “horror-adjacent” is something of the same kind of marketing bait and switch of Mother!, which also dived quickly at the box office.  The opening Wednesday was $3M, but that plunged 56% to $1.3M on Thursday, and although Friday was back to $2.2M, the weekend may not see $6M, for a $10.4M total by Sunday.  A $25M US total seems like a stretch, and even that would be far behind the $44.1M for Aster’s Hereditary.

Holdovers were led by TOY STORY 4 (Pixar/Disney), down a mild 31% to $11.8M from last Friday, better than the 3rd Friday drops of The Incredibles 2 (-44%) and Finding Dory (-42%), although those weren’t in holiday weeks.  A $35M weekend would keep it on track for $400M in the US.

YESTERDAY (Universal) dropped 45% to $3.3M from last Friday’s opening for a likely $10M weekend, on its way to a fair $55M in the US.  That’s not much below the $59.7M for writer Richard Curtis’s Love Actually, albeit in unadjusted 2003 dollars.

ANNABELLE COMES HOME (New Line/Warners) fell 50% from last Friday to $3.3M, for a likely $10M weekend and $70M US total, the lowest of the Conjuring universe (other than The Curse of La Llorona, which wasn’t marketed as a direct installment), but still considerable for a low-budget thriller.

ALADDIN (Disney) continued to show remarkable word of mouth, down 10% to $2.7M on its 7th Friday, and heading toward an $8.5M weekend and a US total that might pass $340M.  Aladdin has gone over $900M worldwide.

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 (Illumination/Universal) is holding well at a relatively low level, down 24% to $1.6M on its 5th Friday, for a $5M weekend and a US total stretching toward $150M, a long way from the $368.4M earned by the first Pets.

 



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."