- The Bad Guys (review)- $24M
It’s not just superhero movies that audiences are willing to pay to see in theaters. Family films can still bring them out in droves, as evidenced by The Bad Guys‘ $24M opening weekend, pushing out Fantastic Beasts after just one week. Ouch. The animated film about a group of criminals forced to do good has an excellent 85% Rotten Tomatoes score and an ‘A’ Cinemascore, so it’s doing well across the board. That includes internationally where it has racked up another $63M for an $87M total.
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2– $15.2M/$145.8M
3. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore– $14M/$67.1M
The problems continue to mount for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, as Warner Bros. ponders whether to continue on with the Harry Potter franchise. A 67% drop is bad enough, but the $14M haul for this week is indicative of the poor debut last week. On the plus side, the film is doing well globally with $280M worldwide. Can international numbers keep sequel plans alive?
4. The Northman (review)- $12M
This is turning out to be a phenomenal season for specialty pictures, with Robert Eggers Viking revenge film The Northman kicking off three in a row on this list. A $12M debut for the the Alexander Skarsgard-led action film says a lot for how Focus Features marketed this as early summer blockbuster entertainment. This is easily Eggers’ most accessible film, with these numbers surpassing his two prior debuts, 2015’s The Witch ($40M worldwide overall) and 2019’s The Lighthouse ($18M ww overall).
5. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (review)- $7.1M
A bit surprising that the more easily crowd-pleasing film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, only opened with $7M? Is it perhaps too much of a Nicolas Cage niche movie? In my review I wondered how this would play for non-Cage fans. Did they choose The Northman instead? Or perhaps Everything Everywhere All At Once?
6. Everything Everywhere All At Once– $5.4M/$26.9M
7. The Lost City– $4.3M/$85.4M
8. Father Stu– $3.3M/$13.8M
9. Morbius– $2.2M/$69.1M
10. Ambulance– $1.8M/$19.1M
