1. Mean Girls (review)- $28M
Who says movie musicals are dead? The truth is that this genre is more alive than ever, with Mean Girls joining Wonka and The Color Purple in successful recent musical releases. The adaptation of the Broadway Musical based on the 2004 classic high school comedy won the weekend with $28M, on its way to as high as $32M through the 4-day holiday. Worldwide, it added another $6.5M. Overall, this isn’t bad at all for a movie that cost $35M with Fey, who returned as screenwriter, as its biggest name.
2. The Beekeeper (review)- $16.7M
Jason Statham stung the box office with a personal best $16.7M debut weekend for The Beekeeper, and a likely $19M through the holiday. Okay, it’s Statham’s best for a movie that isn’t part of the Meg franchise, and to the best of my knowledge his best R-rated opening ever. I freely admit that I couldn’t be happier for him and director David Ayer, both who hit it out of the park with this ass-kicking, truly original actioner that lays it all out on the line fearlessly. This movie is so much fun, and I’ll be going to see it again very soon, and my suspicion is that I won’t be the only one. We’ll see how it plays in weekend two.
3. Wonka– $8.3M/$176.1M
Timthee Chalamet and director Paul King deserve a sweet reward, as Wonka surpassed the $500M mark globally after five weeks.
4. Anyone But You– $6.9M/$55.1M
5. Migration– $6.1M/$85.7M
6. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom– $5.2M/$1082M
7. Night Swim– $4.6M/$19.1M
8. Guntur Kaaram– $4.1M/
9. The Boys in the Boat– $3.5M/$39.3M
10. The Book of Clarence (review)- $2.5M
It was a blasphemous debut for Jeymes Samuel’s The Book of Clarence, his Biblical satire starring LaKeith Stanfield as a petty grifter passing himself as a messiah ala Jesus Christ. The film opened with a paltry $2.5M in over 2000 theaters, and might’ve been better served as a streamer like Samuel’s killer debut, the stylish Western film The Harder They Fall.
