‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ is performing the best out of this entire franchise. The sixth movie made $35 million in its second weekend, a better sophomore performance than any previous ‘M:I’ movie. Both audiences and critics are enamored with this Tom Cruise action flick, with it earning an A CinemaScore and holding at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
But overall, it was a fairly inactive weekend at the box office, most likely because school is about to resume in many parts of the country. ‘M:I”s $35M was enough to take the #1 spot, but in general, that’s not a huge number. Relatively speaking, Disney’s ‘Christopher Robin’ opened with $25M, which isn’t huge either, but is more than ‘Pete’s Dragon’ made two years ago.
Disney’s Cathleen Taff stated:
“There’s a huge nostalgia for the film and the characters have been in the (Disney) family for decades. It’s a gift for fans to see these characters come alive in a special way. Christopher Robin creates more of an affinity and a deeper relationship with these characters because you’re seeing them in a different way.”
Unfortunately, ‘Christopher Robin’ was tagged as opening in the mid-$30M range, so it fell short there. Then again, this was a modestly budgeted picture, so it doesn’t have to do ‘Beauty & The Beast’ numbers to wind up in the black.
It appears that Lionsgate knew ‘The Spy Who Dumped Me’ was a dud and didn’t preview it at CinemaCon earlier this year. Accordingly, it clocked in with a $12.3M opening, on a budget of $40M before promotion. That’s still better than the other wide release this weekend, ‘The Darkest Hour‘. That YA adaptation didn’t even make the Top Five, with a lousy $5.8M.
Top Five:
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount/Skydance Media) – $35M
- Christopher Robin (Disney) – $25M
- The Spy Who Dumped Me (Lionsgate) – $12.3M
- Mama Mia: Here We Go Again (Universal) – $9M
- The Equalizer 2 (Sony) – $8.8M
Disney’s ‘Black Panther’ is still playing in theaters, even though it’s already out on Blu-Ray and DVD. It has now crossed the $700M mark at the box office, making it Marvel’s top-grossing movie, and the third highest grossing movie of all time, lagging just behind ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ and ‘Avatar’.
Next week, will audiences venture into the late summer heat and shell out money for ‘The Meg’ when ‘The Last Sharknado’ will be on TV for free in just a few weeks? We’ll have to wait and see, but the Jason Statham-starring shark flick could bite into ‘Mission: Impossible”s action-based following.
Also opening is ‘Slender Man’ which has been delayed a few times, due to the fact that in the real world, Slender Man has been the inspiration for real violent acts, including a nearly fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old girl in 2014. Advocates have been fighting the release of this film since it was announced, but it looks as though it will finally come out next weekend. But will the controversy help sell tickets or is this doomed?
Check back to find out!
Source: Deadline
