Summer Days are Long but Gru and Maika's Legs are Longer: Weekend Box Office Results (Jul. 12-14)
The
Despicable Me franchise continues to rule the summer. With
Despicable Me 4's $44.6M, the franchise --which comprises 6 films, including the
Minions-- has gone past
$5B in global box office grosses. It's the first animated franchise to accomplish the feat. Not even
Toy Story, with its
$3.2B, can say the same.
The latest entry is stacking up very similarly to the last entry in the franchise,
Minions: The Rise of Gru.
DM4 is just
3% behind
Rise of Gru's $46.1M second weekend. After two weeks, the running totals are nearly identical:
Rise of Gru at
$210.6M to
Despicable Me 4's $211.1M. That
$211.1M makes
Despicable Me 4 the third highest grossing movie this year, passing
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's $196.3M. Its
$437.8M global total has it 5th amongst Hollywood releases.
The surprise of the weekend was the highly anticipated
Longlegs. And it didn't disappoint with a record
$22.6M opening for Neon. That blows away Neon's previous best
$5.3M opening courtesy of Sydney Sweeney's
Immaculate. It's the best original horror opening of the year, besting
Night Swim's $11.7M. It's already the sixth highest grossing horror movie of the year and poised to become the second best, trailing only
A Quiet Place: Day One's $116.2M. Second place belongs to
The Strangers: Chapter 1 and its
$35.2M.
It's a tremendous win for Nic Cage. It's his first live action film to open at
$20M since 2012's
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (
$22.1M).
That's this year. There are horror films from a couple of years ago that are potentially more interesting compared. Particularly
Smile, which was also rated R and also opened with
$22.6M  in 2022. That movie was slightly more well received by audiences, who scored a
B- en route to a
$105.9M finish.
Longlegs received a
C+ score, the same as 2022's
Barbarian, which opened with
$10.5M and finished with
$40.8M. So I would say that
Longlegs, if it performs similarly, is looking at anywhere from
$87.4M to
$96.7M when its run is done.
Inside Out 2 fell to third place with
$20.7M. With
$572.4M, it's $2.5M away from passing
The Super Mario Bros. Movie's $574.9M total. That running total is more than double the
$282.1M that
Dune 2 (the #2 movie of the year) made this year.
Taking fourth place with
$11.8M was
A Quiet Place Day One. That was juuuuussst behind
AQP: Part 2's $12M 3rd weekend. Its
$116.2M running total --8th highest grossing movie of the year-- is ahead of
AQP: Part 2's $109.3M at the same point in time, not adjusted for inflation.
Apple's rom-com,
Fly Me to the Moon opened with
$10M to close out the top five. Probably not the opening Apple was looking for when they dolled out a $100M to make this movie and secure Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. It also continues the downward opening trend of Apple films at the box office:
Killers of the Flower Moon (
$23.2M),
Napoleon (
$20.6M) and
Argylle ($17.4M).
Speaking of Channing, his rom-com,
Lost City, opened with
$30.4M two years ago. The difference there? Sandra Bullock instead of ScarJo.
Notables
MaXXXine tumbled all the way down to 8th place with
$2M -- making even less than Kevin Costner's bomb,
Horizon. It fell by 69.1%, poor even for horror movie holds.
Did you know it was the 30th anniversary of
The Lion King? Disney re-released it in 1,330 theaters, where it made
$1M. Didn't even know it was being re-released. Didn't see one TV spot. Still finished top 10.
The Bikeriders finished in 14th place with
$410K, which got it to
$20.3M.
The Top Ten
Rank | LW | Movie | Gross | %± LW | Theaters | Total Gross | Weeks | Distributor |
1 | 1 | Despicable Me 4 | $44,650,000 | -40.5% | 4,449 | $211,102,340 | 2 | Universal |
2 | - | Longlegs | $22,600,000 | - | 2,510 | $22,600,000 | 1 | Neon |
3 | 2 | Inside Out 2 | $20,748,000 | -31.6% | 3,815 | $572,592,077 | 5 | Disney |
4 | 3 | A Quiet Place: Day One | $11,800,033 | -42.7% | 3,378 | $116,229,000 | 3 | Paramount |
5 | - | Fly Me to the Moon | $10,000,000 | - | 3,356 | $10,000,000 | 1 | Columbia |
6 | 5 | Bad Boys: Ride or Die | $4,400,000 | -33.8% | 2,200 | $184,875,768 | 6 | Sony |
7 | 6 | Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 | $2,440,000 | -54.5% | 2,587 | $27,027,739 | 3 | Warner Bros. |
8 | 4 | MaXXXine | $2,071,372 | -69.1% | 2,370 | $11,776,432 | 2 | A24 |
9 | 7 | Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot | $1,340,415 | -56.5% | 2,137 | $9,765,982 | 2 | Angel Studios |
10 | - | The Lion King
2024 Re-release | $1,076,000 | - | 1,330 | $1,076,000 | 1 | Disney |