It was a quiet weekend at North American cinemas, dominated once again for “The Garfield Movie” from Sony, Warner Bros. “ Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga “and a series of remnants. Flipping the script of Memorial weekend openingsthe excited orange cat charged ahead of the desert warrior on his second outing.
“ The movie Garfield ” grossed $14 million in ticket sales, while “Furiosa” came in third place in a tight race with “IF,” according to studio estimates Sunday. Both “IF” and “Furiosa” are estimated to have grossed $10.8 million, with “IF” holding a slight edge.
“Garfield” dropped just 42% in its second weekend in North America. It also topped the global box office, adding $27 million in international territories, bringing its worldwide run to $152.2 million. The Chris Pratt-voiced animated picture will essentially have the market to itself until “Inside Out 2” arrives on June 14.
“Furiosa”, in turn, fell 59% from its first weekend, totaling just under US$10.8 million in 3,864 locations in the US and Canada. That puts its domestic running total at $49.7 million and its global haul at $114.4 million, against a production budget of $168 million.
There were several new releases debuting on over 1,000 screens this weekend: The Sony/Crunchyroll anime “Haikyu!! The battle of trash”; the IFC horror “In a Violent Nature”; the comedy “Summer Camp” by Diane Keaton-Alfre Woodard-Kathy Bates, from Roadside Atrações; And Bleecker Street’s father-son drama “Ezra.” None managed to crack the top five, however.
Disney also released the well-reviewed “ Young woman and the sea,” starring Daisy Ridley as the first woman to swim the English Channel, but did not report ticket sales. In the same way, ” Hitman ” is currently playing in select theaters across the country before streaming next week, but Netflix is not releasing box office numbers.
Second place went to “ IF”, with US$10.8 million in its third weekend. John Krasinski Imaginary Friends Fantasy starring Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming has grossed more than $80.4 million domestically and $138 million worldwide. Disney/20th Century Studios’” Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ” came in fourth place in its fourth weekend with $8.8 million. It has already earned US$140 million domestically and US$337.1 million worldwide.
And the Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt action comedy “ The fallen guy, ” which is currently available for home purchase, rounded out the top five with $4.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $80.3 million. Globally, the Universal release grossed $157.9 million.
“Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” based on the Japanese high school volleyball series, grossed about $3.5 million from 1,119 locations. Horror “In a Violent Nature” debuted with $2.2 million from 1,426 locations (a massive launch for IFC Films and Shudder). And “Ezra,” about a stand-up comedian (Bobby Cannavale) and his autistic son, grossed $1.2 million on 1,320 screens.
The 2024 box office is struggling compared to last year (down 23.9%) and pre-pandemic standards (down 42.2% from 2019 and 46.4% from 2018), according to data from Comscore. This weekend last year, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” opened with US$120.7 million, while “The Little Mermaid” still grossed more than US$41.4 million in its second weekend. This year there has still been no film grossing more than US$100 million domestically.
Although “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” had yet to hit theaters at this point last year, there were several substantial hits, including “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” ($1.36 billion global total), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($845.5 million) and “Fast X” ($704.7 million).
“It should come as no surprise, given the nature of this year’s trajectory, that we are so far behind,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “I understand why people are worried about where this year is going, but it’s never too late to get things working again.”
“It’s a dynamic business,” he added. “Attention is now focused on what the big movie will be to get the summer moving in the right direction.”
What great summer movie it could arrive in the form of “Inside Out 2,” which could gross more than $85 million according to initial projections, and boost other giants like “Despicable Me 4” (July 3) and “Deadpool.” & Wolverine” (July 26).
Dergarabedian also noted that in the absence of a big superhero film, it’s family-oriented films that have been making waves recently. They may not open to the biggest numbers, but as “IF” and “The Gafield Movie” have proven, they have staying power.
This year’s highest-grossing film remains “ Dune: Part Two”, which Warner Bros. released in early March and grossed more than $711 million worldwide. Its domestic haul of $282.1 million represents 10.5% of the 2024 box office total.
“Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said over the weekend that he was “disappointed to still be number one” while at the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto where he was receiving an award.
“I hope there will be other box office hits soon,” Villeneuve said, as reported by Yahoo. “I hope that sooner or later this summer’s box office will be much better.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final national numbers will be released on Monday.
1. “The Garfield Movie,” $14 million.
2. “SE”, US$10.8 million.
3. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” $10.8 million.
4. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $8.8 million.
5. “The Fall Guy,” $4.2 million.
6. “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” $3.6 million.
7. “Haikyu!! The Battle of Trash”, US$3.5 million.
8. “In a Violent Nature,” $2.1 million.
9. “Ezra,” $1.2 million.
10. “Vision,” $1.1 million.
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