‘Superman’ Remains at Top as ‘IKWYDLS’, ‘Smurfs’ & ‘Eddington’ Disappoint at the BO!!

DC Studios and Warner Bros’ Superman has landed atop a second weekend of $57.2M, which catapults the Burbank, CA lot to the top of the studio domestic box office with $1.32 billion, higher than Disney/20th Century Studios’ $1.27 billion for the period of Jan. 1-July 20. Again, Disney is bound to reclaim the top spot next weekend with the $100M-plus opening of Fantastic Four: First Steps, however, the works of Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy as Warner Bros Motion Picture Group Chairs, and the revamped DC Studios, are paying off.

Warners has also had six movies open to No. 1 more than any other studio this year with nine weekend at No. 1. They’ve also had five movies in a row bow to $45M+, a first for any studio. Also, Warner Bros. has had more $10M+ grossing days this year more than any other studio (as of today Warner Bros has 34 days of films grossing over $10).

Superman‘s second weekend ease is -54%, a second weekend percentile decline on par with Deadpool & Wolverine, and better than the second weekend superhero holds we’ve seen YTD, Thunderbolts (-56%) and Captain America: Brave New World (-68%). Imax auditoriums delivered another $7.2M (13% of weekend 2) for a running cume of $32.8M. Running ten-day cume on Gunn’s Superman is $235M.

Word of mouth remains excellent with continued Screen Engine/Comscore PostTrak polling showing a high definite recommend at 74%, with parents at 70% and kids under 12 at 65%. Warners is having a great weekend overall, the fourth weekend of Apple Original Films’ F1 is only down -26%.

Also, let’s give props to Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth: The Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali movie posted a 3rd weekend ease of -42%, the best third weekend hold for any Jurassic World movie with a 3-day of $23.4M. Previously, 2015’s Jurassic World had a third weekend hold of -49%.

Overall weekend for all titles before Fantastic Four: First Steps gives the summer box office another bump is $135.2M, which is -9% off from a year ago when Twisters opened to $81.2M.

The new stuff isn’t really impressive…

Despite any heralding of profit by Sony on I Know What You Did Last Summer with a net production cost of $18M, $13M opening isn’t a win. It doesn’t indicate any kind of revived interest in this ’90s fave property. Some rivals are betting the movie comes in lower, like $12M, but the reboot 27 years later after its previous sequel is bound for the lowest opening in the theatrical pic franchise. That’s not the grand B.O. plan when it comes to reviving these classic horror IPs. Sony was richer in their reboot of 28 Years Later debuting to $30M, and with a current running total of $68.7M. Snarked one film finance source about Summer, “It didn’t feel like there was any stickiness in the marketing materials.” Overall social media universe reach was 196.8M, which was even below Sinners‘ 222M and under the original M3GAN‘s 330M reach. In regards to CinemaScore, I Know What You Did Last Summer gets a C+, the lowest in the series next to the 1997 original’s B-, and the 1998 sequel’s B. Sure, a sequel can be pulled off at a low cost, but with a depreciating scale of grosses.

Says social media monitor RelishMix, “negative chatter on the new I Know What You Did Last Summer is filled with critiques and doubts. Since this feature-length revival comes not even four years after the television adaptation of the franchise, some are quick to judge its quality: ‘Looks like the TV series, which was awful,’ and ‘This looks like a straight to streaming movie. It does not look like it was meant for the theater. It reminds me of the Scream TV show that aired on MTV.’ Even the return of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. falls short of satisfying fans, ‘Bringing back aged old casts feels cliché. I just knew they would do this. Another movie that no one asked for. Original version always is better.’”

Low definite recommend on Summer at 43%. 50/50 male to female showed up. Demo breakdown is men over 25 (36%), female over 25 (30%), female under 25 (20%), and men under 25 (14%). Sixty-one percent 18-34 turnout. Even cash flow across the country, but South is the best. AMC Grove in LA is the highest cinema for the pic with $34K through Saturday. Few PLFs on Summer since they’re staying with the Man of Steel.

Paramount Animation’s Smurfs is coming in lower at $11M. Though down from yesterday’s $12M forecast, it’s still better than expected as some feared the blue guys and gal would get crushed in the high single digits. Again, it’s an international and consumer products play. No one was going into this thinking they were going to re-invent the wheel and soar these grosses into some rebooted stratosphere. It’s a very old property (gosh, 1980s?) sans the coolness of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The first movie in pre-streaming 2011 opened to $35.6M (and finaled at north of $142M+) — because at that time there had never been a Smurfs movie before. The movie cost a net $58M before P&A. The Rihanna-starring Smurfs gets a B+, which is the lowest CinemaScore in the series of four films to date. The previous one, The Lost Village, received the franchise’s only A grade.

How to make Smurfs cool again? That’s the big question. It’s hard to Dave Filoni this property. One could try to make it edgier for boys. Even in at their height in the 1980s, the Smurfs were embraced and then faced backlash like any other long-running it property.

There’s a big reach on social with Smurfs at 309M across Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube with “Rihanna fully activated and cross-promoting her beauty brand, feeding 420M fans and pumping materials along with Nick Offerman at 3.4M fans with other cast not activated.” Rihanna has also been a trooper showing up to do extensive press at the pic’s Belgian premiere and LA fan event.

Definite recommend at 50% isn’t a rush. Per Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak, 59% of the audience are parents with a child and mostly moms at 73%. Younger-skewing property for kids, as we told you and PostTrak shows that with 68% under 9 years old (47% between 7-9). Mostly girls here at 61%. Female leaning at 61%. Under 35 is 69%. Kids under 12 gave the movie an 80% positive, with a low 44% must-see right away. Grosses are evenly spread throughout the country but best in East, South and South Central. AMC MJ Harlem is the leading cinema stateside with $22K through Saturday.

Diversity demos are 47% Caucasian, 29% Latino and Hispanic, 13% Black, and 4% Asian American.

Ari Aster’s Eddington gets a C+, which is the same grade as the director’s Midsommar. Definite recommend on PostTrak is 39%. Aster loves being divisive. The opening per A24 $4.25M after a first day/previews of $1.88M. Midsommar, a genre movie, posted a 3-day of $6.5M in what was a $10.9M 5-day start. Hereditary with a D+ CinemaScore remains Aster’s best opening at $13.5M. The wow here given Eddington‘s mash-up of two genres –70s Altman comedy and Rambo— is that it’s guns-a-blazing ahead of Aster and Joaquin Phoenix’s previous partnership, Beau Is Afraid which died with a $2.66M semi-wide break at 965 theaters, and $8.1M domestic gross. Seriously, coming away from the pic’s premiere at Cannes, the sentiment felt Eddington was destined for the B.O. nightmares of Beau Is Afraid (that VFX filled movie carried at net production cost of $35M; we’ve heard gross is as high as $50M). The movie is playing on the coasts, which is no surprise, with AMC Burbank the highest grossing venue for the movie with just over $33K though last night. Demo breakdown is men over 25 (46%), women over 25 (27%), men under 25 (15%) and women under 25 (11%). 18-34 turnout is 60%. Who loves this movie? Per PostTrak 13-17 year olds (2% turnout, 80% grade) and 35-44 year olds (44% showed up, 79% positive grade). Diversity demos are 61% Caucasian, 18% Latino and Hispanic, 8% Black, and 8% Asian American.