Key Takeaways
- Box Office Performance: Pixar’s Hoppers exceeded expectations with a $46 million opening weekend.
- Negative Reception: Scream 7 experienced a significant 73% drop in its second week due to poor word of mouth.
- Financial Disaster: The Bride, despite a $90 million budget, grossed only $7.2 million, marking it as a potential box office failure.
- Upcoming Releases: Next weekend features new films including Reminders of Him and Project Hail Mary.
The box office got a much-needed shot in the arm this weekend, with Pixar’s Hoppers coming in over box office expectations (including our own), minting a $46 million opening. While a far cry from Pixar’s glory days, it’s actually the highest opening for a non-sequel they’ve had since Coco back in 2017. Many are praising the film for focusing on a light, fun storyline, with it having been set up to appeal to a wider audience than some of Pixar’s more divisive recent work, with Lightyear and Elio being notable flops, while Elemental did fair business. Whether or not Hoppers manages to exceed the $150 million-plus earned by Elemental remains to be seen, as it will depend largely on word of mouth, but the A CinemaScore rating is promising.
One movie being torpedoed by word of mouth seems to be Scream 7, which fell an astounding 73% in week two. Even for an admittedly front-loaded horror film, that’s a steep decline, with the B-minus CinemaScore quite telling. Even if audiences rushed out to see it the first weekend, it’s clear they didn’t like what they saw, so word of mouth is sinking the movie like a stone. That said, it’s already made $93 million, so it will still turn a hefty profit for Paramount Pictures, although perhaps some creative shake-ups are in order to ensure the series’ longevity.
One movie that came out this weekend that’s proven to be an absolute disaster is Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride. A feminist reimagining/updating of The Bride of Frankenstein, the $7.2 million gross is likely a worst-case scenario result for the movie, which WB pumped at least $90 million into, without prints and advertising. Deadline is reporting that foreign grosses are even more anemic, with the global total a middling $13.6 million, which is astounding as tracking earlier this week suggested the movie would make $40 million internationally. At this rate, it will be lucky to gross $40 million all in worldwide by the end of its run, but even that is wildly optimistic. Given the cost, it seems likely The Bride will go down in history as one of the biggest box office disasters of all time. Ouch.
Sony’s GOAT managed to make another $6.6 million, for an $83 million domestic total despite competition from Hoppers. Wuthering Heights, while not the box office triumph Warner Bros. was hoping for, is still looking like something of a belated success (especially compared to The Bride), with it adding another $3.7 million to its $78 million total. Whether or not it turns a profit is still a question mark, but with worldwide grosses included it should at least break even.
One movie that seems likely to lose a bundle is Amazon/MGM’s Crime 101, which cost a reported $90 million and — including this weekend’s $2 million gross — has only made $33 million so far. Hopefully the studio’s next movie, Project Hail Mary, will turn things around for them, as they are taking some big swings, and you hate to see that go unrewarded.
Sam Raimi’s Send Help is still chugging along, with another $1.6 million added to its $62.7 million gross. The Christian film I Can Only Imagine 2 seems to have missed the mark with its audience, with this weekend’s $1.5 million gross giving it a weak $16 million total, which is only a fraction of the $80 million-plus its predecessor grossed. Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis in Concert continued to do solid business, grossing $1.5 million toward a $10.9 million domestic total. Finally, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle was re-released this weekend and managed another $1.3 million toward its hefty $135 million gross.
Next weekend sees the release of another Colleen Hoover adaptation, Reminders of Him, the A24 horror flick Undertone, and early 70mm screenings of Project Hail Mary in limited release. What will top the box office? Let us know in the comments!
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