Game Of Box Offices: “Hobbs & Shaw” fends off newcomers “Scary to Tell in the Dark” and “Dora and the Lost City of Gold”

Hanging onto the crown over the weekend was “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” adding another $25.2 million to its domestic total. In second place was newcomer “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” which brought in $20.9 million, which was well above its $11 million projection. “The Lion King” fell only one spot, to #3, earning another $20.2 million. Behind it was the second newcomer of the weekend, “Dora and the Lost City Of Gold,” which earned $17.4 million in its debut, which greatly missed its projection of $28 million. Rounding out the Top Ten was Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” adding $11.6 million to its total, which has now passed $100 million domestically, making it his fourth film to pass that same threshold (“Pulp Fiction,” “Inglourious Basterds,” and “Django Unchained” are the others) as well as making it only the second “original” film this year to pass that mark, with Jordan Peele’s “Us” being the only other.

“The Art of Racing in the Rain” finished just outside the Top Five at #6 with $8.1 million, hitting almost exactly what it was projected to make in its debut. Right behind it was “The Kitchen,” starring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss, earning $5.5 million, less than half of what it was projected to make. Surprising on the List was “Bring The Soul: The Movie,” the documentary about the South Korean boy band, BTS, which opened at #10 with $2.3 million. “Brian Banks” also opened in 1,500 theaters and earned $2.1 million, landing it at #11. Lastly, “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” starring Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson, opened in 17 theaters to $204,803, with an average $12,047 per theater, making it the POPCORN AWARD winner of the weekend. Made for only $20,000, the film as already made ten times its money. The documentary “Maiden” increased by +15.6% and being one of the only films to increase this weekend earned it the GOLDEN PERCENTAGE AWARD. In fact, “Luce” was the only other film to increase percentage-wise over the weekend. Not a single film move up the List this week, with a whopping ten films falling five spots or more.

Falling off the List completely were eight films. “Dark Phoenix,” which has been receiving terrible press lately, as Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger called it out for losing Disney large amounts of money from the Fox merger this year, fell off again. As it approaches its home video release, this is not a surprise. Also approaching its home video release is “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” which fell off as well. And following in the footsteps of those big budget films that have yet failed to earn a profit stateside is “Men In Black International,” which fell off in its ninth weekend. Two documentaries fell off in “Echo in the Canyon,” which has fallen off before, and “Pavarotti,” which held on for ten weeks. Also, in their fifth weekends, “Stuber” and “Super 30” both fell off. Lastly, A24’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” fell off in its tenth weekend. Last week, “Menteur” was reported to have fallen off the List because no information was available at the time of posting but it in fact held its ground at #18. It remained on the List this week as well, with information being available at the time of posting, just to add some clarification.

Just like last weekend, this upcoming weekend will see five more films trying to find their place on the List. The one that will likely take the weekend is Sony’s “The Angry Birds Movie 2” sequel which will try and land a first place finish with $17 million. The original opened to $38.1 million so there’s your ceiling. “Hobbs & Shaw” will fight it out for second place with “47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” aiming for a $13 million debut, and Universal’s “Good Boys,” aiming for a $12 million debut. The original “47 Meters Down” only opened to $11.2 million and that actually had Mandy Moore starring, so with a less star-powered sequel, I would imagine that opening number going down. Looking at fellow R-Rated comedies that were associated with Seth Rogen, like Universal’s “Neighbors” and “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,” which opened to $49 million and $21 million respectively as well as “Sausage Party,” which opened to $34 million, why “Good Boys” isn’t projected to make more than $12 million is a bit puzzling. Also opening is the Bruce Springsteen inspired “Blinded By the Light” which looks to make $5.5 million its opening weekend as well as United Artists’ latest film “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” starring Cate Blanchett, which is aiming for a $6 million debut. Don’t count out a re-release of “Apocalypse Now: Final Cut” either.

With five to six new films take spots on the List, expect the bottom half of the List to fall off, including “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” and “Rocketman” which are both approaching their home video releases. Also, “Avengers: Endgame” might fall off because of its home video release this week, but something tells me it sticks around for a couple more weeks. “Menteur” is more likely to fall off, as its a lesser known title as well as “Luce,” which has remained toward the bottom of the List since its debut. Then, in the last spots to fall off, it’s a roll of the dice, as previously stated, ten films fell five spots or more over the weekend. I’m inclined to think “Midsommar” will stick around so films like “Annabelle Comes Home” and “Maiden,” even though it increased this weekend, could fall off in its stead.

BOX OFFICE KING: “Hobbs & Shaw”
BOX OFFICE QUEEN: “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”
POPCORN AWARD*: “The Peanut Butter Falcon”
GOLDEN PERCENTAGE AWARD**: “Maiden”

#	Title	Weekend	Total	Budget	Week	LW	CH
1	Hobbs & Shaw (Uni)	$25,265,795	($108,379,575)	$200m*	2nd	#1
2	Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (LG)	$20,915,346	($20,915,346)	$25m	1st	N
3	The Lion King (BV)	$20,205,322	($473,309,148)	$260m*	4th	#2
4	Dora and the Lost City of Gold (Par)	$17,431,588	($17,431,588)	$49m	1st	N
5	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Sony)	$11,652,652	($100,384,022)	$90m	3rd	#3
6	The Art of Racing in the Rain (Fox)	$8,137,584	($8,137,584)	$20m*	1st	N
7	The Kitchen (2019) (WB)	$5,527,410	($5,527,410)	$38m	1st	N
8	Spider-Man: Far From Home (BV)	$5,277,572	($370,950,062)	$160m	6th	#4
9	Toy Story 4 (BV)	$4,525,439	($419,703,807)	$200m*	8th	#5
10	Bring the Soul: The Movie (Tra)	$2,383,604	($4,505,147)	**	1st	N
11	Brian Banks (BST)	$2,156,272	($2,156,272)	$10m*	1st	N
12	The Farewell (A24)	$2,097,213	($10,201,644)	**	5th	#7
13	Yesterday (Uni)	$1,129,040	($70,483,770)	$26m	7th	#6
14	Aladdin (2019) (BV)	$801,338	($352,756,605)	$183m	12th	#9
15	Crawl (Par)	$743,685	($38,113,759)	$13.5m	5th	#8
16	The Secret Life Of Pets 2 (Uni)	$408,095	($156,576,550)	$80m	10th	#11
17	Annabelle Comes Home (WB)	$273,556	($72,400,843)	$32m*	7th	#10
18	Maiden (SPC)	$258,285	($1,921,197)	**	7th	#17
19	Avengers: Endgame (BV)	$209,992	($857,929,760)	$356m*	16th	#14
20	The Peanut Butter Falcon (RAtt)	$204,803	($204,803)	$20,000	1st	N
21	Menteur (A24)	$204,153	($3,680,111)	**	5th	—
22	Midsommar (A24)	$165,374	($25,690,588)	$10m*	6th	#13
23	Rocketman (Par)	$148,723	($95,899,640)	$40m	11th	#15
24	Luce (Neon)	$134,168	($307,576)	**	2nd	#20
25	John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (LG/S)	$129,798	($170,467,365)	$55m*	13th	#16

<<<ALL DOMESTIC NUMBERS FROM BOX OFFICE MOJO>>>>

OFF THE CHARTS THIS WEEK

(OFFICIALLY CLOSED)

*POPCORN AWARD goes to the highest per theater average within the Top 25 List
**GOLDEN PERCENTAGE AWARD goes to the highest increase within the Top 25 List