Another weekend, another superhero film tops the U.S. box office totals. This time around it was Warner Bros.’ new David F. Sandberg film, Shazam!, starring Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Djimon Hounsou, Meagan Good, and Adam Brody.
The film sold just under $57 million in the U.S. over its first three days of release. Add to that $102 million in foreign sales and the Warners win again.
I’m naive. I thought this was going to be the first one to finally just all together flop. Shows what I know. But it does make me wonder what it will take for a superhero movie to fail at the box office. And adjacent to that, when will we see a superhero masterpiece come out of the low- or no-budget circuit? Or will that just not happen?
Also at the Box
The film that was supposed to take the No. 1 spot at the box office this past weekend, Paramount’s remake of Steven King’s Pet Sematary, sold just $25 million over its first weekend of release. Oof. Paramount was hoping for It-like numbers for this one.
Next up at the No. 3 spot was Tim Burton’s Dumbo, which sold just $18.2 million over its second weekend of release, bringing he flick’s 10-day sales total to just $76 million in the U.S. Lucky for Burton, foreign markets love his $170 million version of Dumbo, with the film having already sold more than $215 million worldwide.
Jordan Peele’s second consecutive hit horror flick, Us, took the No. 4 spot at last weekend’s box office with another $14 million in sales, upping the flick’s 17-day sales total to $152 million in the U.S. and $217 million worldwide. Yay Jordan! That’s all great news.
Captain Marvel rounded out last weekend’s domestic Top 5 with another $12.7 million in sales, upping the flick’s worldwide total so far to $1.04 billion. Whoa. All you gotta do is put the word Marvel in the title and boom, a billion bucks!
Robin Bissell’s The Best of Enemies, starring Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Anne Heche, and John Gallagher Jr., sold $4.5 million over its first three days of release. This one is supposed to be pretty great, y’all. Keep an eye out.
Oh, and lastly, Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum continued to bomb, selling just $494,000 last weekend while playing on more than a thousand screens. So far the film has sold only $3 million. Ouch. I’ve read some really interesting things about this film, and very much look forward to seeing it.
New this Week
Four films open wide this weekend, starting with the drama After, starring Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin. Looks not good, not this one. Nope.
Next up is Neil Marshall’s Hellboy reboot. What’s wrong with the amazing Hellboy films Guillermo del Toro just made a few years ago, hmm? The film stars David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, and Daniel Dae Kim.
Tina Gordon Chism’s new comedy, Little, looks awful and truly skippable while Chris Butler’s Missing Link, an animated flick with some strange-looking characters, features an interesting cast that includes Zach Galifianakis, Huge Jacked Man, Zoe Saldana, Emma Thompson, and Timothy Olyphant. Still, meh.
Nothing much here to see this week unless you’re in one of the dozen or so cities that will be screening Garth Davis’ Mary Magdalene, which stars the two most interesting American actors of the moment, Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix.
