Box Office: 'Dunkirk' Beats Out 'Emoji Movie,' 'Atomic Blonde' to Repeat as No. 1

An unlikely battle emerged at the box office this weekend between The Emoji Movie and Dunkirk. As of Saturday morning the animated feature and war epic seemed to be in a dead heat. But by Sunday morning, the dust had settled, and Dunkirk will once again be the weekend’s first place film.

Christopher Nolan’s latest from Warner Bros. over-performed last weekend as it opened to over $50 million, showing that the director, combined with positive critical reception, still has a strong draw — even for a movie lacking movie star power, and at risk of being written off as yet another World War II movie. This time around it looks to take in $28.1 million from 3,748 locations, for a strong hold.

That leaves Sony’s Emoji Movie in second for the weekend with $25.7 million from 4,075 locations. The animated adventure took a lot of heat from critics — reaction ranged from meh to horrible, earning its current Rotten Tomatoes score of 8 percent. Its B CinemaScore is also quite low for an animated movie, meaning audiences aren’t particularly enjoying the movie either.

T.J. Miller plays the central character, a “Meh” emoji who has “no filter,” meaning his expression can change. The same cannot be said for the rest of the cast, which includes James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Christina Aguilera, and Sofia Vergara. Oh yeah, and Sir Patrick Stewart plays “Poop.”

“We’re thrilled,” said Sony’s marketing chief Josh Greenstein. “The audience has spoken and made the ‘Emoji Movie’ a family event.”

That leaves this week’s other major release, Atomic Blonde, somewhat straggling. Focus Features and Sierra/Affinity is looking at a decent, but slightly below expectations launch for the Charlize Theron-starrer with $18.5 million from 3,304 locations. Theron plays a hardcore action star — the type of character that knocked out audiences in Mad Max: Fury Road — named Lorraine Broughton. The rest of the cast includes James McAvoy, John Goodman, and Sofia Boutella.

Better news, though, for the summer comedy event that Girls Trip has become. Universal’s launch is posting $20.1 million during its second weekend from 2,648 theaters, for only a 36 percent drop from last weekend. Conversely, EuropaCorp and STX’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets flopped last weekend, and is falling off fast. This weekend, Luc Besson’s epic domestic dud should make $6.8 million from 3,553 locations.

Annapurna showed Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit at 20 locations before its wide rollout next weekend. From those theaters, the critically approved crime drama took in $365,455 for a per screen average of $18,273.

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