Box office: ‘Twisters’ spins into theaters well ahead of projections with $80.5 million
Despite the country cooling down slightly this weekend temperature-wise, moviegoers still flocked into theaters for the latest weather-related disaster film, which harked back to a previous blockbuster from the ’90s. Read on for the weekend box office report.
Universal and Warner Bros.’ “Twisters,” directed by Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and starring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos, came into the weekend with solid advance reviews at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. Universal released the movie into 4,151 theaters on Friday, but by then, it had already amassed $10.7 million in Thursday previews with $2.7 million of that coming from Wednesday showings. The action sequel made $32.2 million on Friday (including those previews), and Universal is estimating an $80.5 million weekend for “Twisters,” which is well ahead of even the loftiest of predictions for the action sequel, putting it just ahead of “Godzilla X Kong” and just behind “Dune: Part 2” as far as the year’s big openers.
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With “Deadpool and Wolverine” opening on Friday, “Twisters” is more likely to end up in the range of the former, making $200 million or less, domestically, but audiences enjoyed the movie enough, going by the “A-” CinemaScore, and this is great for stars Powell and Edgar-Jones, who have to be given some credit for bringing people into theaters with Powell having a number of upcoming starring vehicles that should benefit. (Note that Warner Bros. is handling international for “Twisters,” and it has yet to report overseas numbers.)
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Universal also took second place with “Despicable Me 4,” which dropped 45% to second place with $23.8 million and $259.5 million grossed domestically, so far. With another $52 million grossed internationally in 79 territories this weekend, “Despicable Me 4” has grossed $574.4 million globally.
Disney still can boast the largest blockbuster of the year with Pixar’s animated sequel “Inside Out 2,” which took in another $12.8 million this weekend (down 36%) to bring its domestic total to $596.4 million. Besides nearing the $600 million milestone this coming week, only the 15th movie ever to achieve that milestone, it also puts the movie ahead of last year’s “The Super Mario Bros Movie,” which grossed $574.9 million. Compared to other Pixar releases, it’s also only just slightly behind the domestic gross of “Incredibles 2,” which made over $608 million domestic in 2018.
With another $34.2 million made overseas this weekend, that brings “Inside Out 2” to $846.9 million internationally. With $1.44 billion grossed worldwide, it’s slowly creeping up on 2019’s “Frozen II” to become the biggest worldwide animated hit of all time; it only needs about $11 million more to hit that milestone.
Oz Perkins‘ serial killer thriller “Longlegs” continued to do exceptionally well, making $11.7 million this weekend. That’s down 48% from setting a new opening record for Neon last weekend, with $44.7 million grossed so far. It is officially Neon’s second-highest grossing movie after the Best Picture-winning “Parasite” from 2019.
Paramount’s prequel thriller “A Quiet Place: Day One” remained in fifth place with $6.1 million (down 46%) to bring its domestic total to $127.6 million. Despite opening ahead of the two John Krasinski movies, it’s not looking likely for it to achieve the $160.2 million box office take of the 2021 sequel.
The Scarlett Johansson–Channing Tatum historical rom-com “Fly Me to the Moon” took a massive tumble in its second weekend, clearly overshadowed by “Twisters,” dropping 64% to sixth place with $3.3 million and just $16.4 million total. Honestly, this will probably do better once it hits Apple TV+, though that might not happen anytime too soon.
On the other hand, Sony’s bigger summer blockbuster “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” took seventh place with $2.7 million (down 37%), bringing its own domestic total to $189.3 million.
Both Ti West‘s “MaXXXine” and Kevin Costner‘s “Horizon: An American Chapter One” dropped under the million mark and just barely remained in the Top 10. “MaXXXine” has grossed $13.9 million, which is more than the previous two installments of the Mia Goth trilogy, while Costner’s Western is at $28.5 million, with no sign when Warner Bros. might release the second chapter, having removed it from the August release schedule.
IFC Films released the Irish horror film “Oddity,” directed by Damian McCarthy, into 790 theaters, but it missed getting into the Top 10 with its estimated $550,000, averaging $703 per location. That may have been due to Universal pairing “Twisters” in drive-in theaters with Jeff Nichols‘ “The Bikeriders,” giving it a 75% bump up to $700,000 for the weekend and $21.2 million total domestic.
Most players had “Twisters” opening in first place in the box office prediction game, but only 21 players had it making more than $75 million, which will be the biggest difference-maker in this week’s game.
Only two players got perfect scores in the July 12 game, but since I don’t like tooting my own horn, congrats to “exxdee” on coming in second place, at least in terms of points.
On Friday, Marvel Studios returns with “Deadpool and Wolverine,” possibly one of the most anticipated movies of the year? Check back on Wednesday for more about it in Gold Derby’s weekend preview.
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