Finally the American box office has raised its head again after a truly disappointing start to the summer season: in the weekend of 7-9 June total takings exceeded 102 million dollars, an important injection of hope for cinema exhibitors. However, the comparison with 2023, in terms of ticket sales since the beginning of the year, is still merciless: -26%.
And there is one studio, among all, that is celebrating: Sony Pictures has in fact the first and second position at the box office, with an excellent debut for Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which grossed $56 million in three days, which was slightly higher than expected. The third film in the saga was released at the beginning of 2020 and was the last major global success before the start of the pandemic. This fourth film cost 100 million dollars (therefore without any particular increase on its predecessor), and also had a promising debut on an international level, with a global launch of 104 million dollars. It will remain to be seen whether it will be able to reach the peaks of Bad Boys for Lifewhich closed its run with 206 million in the USA and 426 million worldwide, but in any case the CinemaScore A- in the USA promises positive word of mouth and therefore good stability.
It’s good news for Sony and for theaters, of course, but also for Will Smithwhich seems to have definitively left behind what happened at the Oscars two years ago, at least as far as public opinion is concerned.
Second position for Garfield: A Tasty Mission, which grossed another $10 million. The animated film then rises to 68.6 million dollars in the USA and 192 worldwide, and is an excellent commercial success given the 60 million dollar budget.
In third place is another family film: IF – Imaginary friends grossed another 8 million dollars, showing excellent stability and thus rising to 93.5 million dollars in the USA, which rose to 160 worldwide. Unfortunately John Krasinski’s film cost more than 100 million dollars, and therefore the road to becoming a success is uphill.
Ishana Night Shyamalan’s debut disappoints in fifth place: The Watchers, in fact, grossed only 7 million dollars in the USA and 11.7 million worldwide. The psychological thriller shows the difficulty that the horror genre is going through in this period in a broader way. M. Night Shyamalan independently financed this and his film, Trapout in July, and sold them both to Warner Bros., which bought them The Watchers for 30 million dollars. At the moment it doesn’t appear to have been a deal breaker.
Sixth position for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which with $5.4 million is close to $150 million after five weeks, rising to $360 million worldwide. A good result, even if it will struggle to reach the global earnings of its predecessors.
Sixth place for Furiosa: Mad Max Saga, which loses a lot of ground and grosses 4.2 million dollars, rising to 58 million overall. George Miller’s film exceeded 144 million worldwide, an unsatisfactory result in light of the budget. The same goes for The Fall Guywhich in seventh place grosses 2.7 million dollars and rises to 85 million in total, which becomes 165 all over the world: a figure that when compared with the budget can only disappoint.
In seventh and eighth place, however, the data are surprising The Fellowship of the Ring And The two Towerswhich gross $2.4 million and $1.9 million respectively in their 4K re-releases: Fathom Events predicts that The Return of the Kingin cinemas today, will collect another 1.7 million.
Another disappointing horror closes the top-ten: The Strangers: Chapter 1 grossed 1.8 million dollars and rose to 32.2 million dollars.
USA BUSINESS 7-9 JUNE 2024
- Bad Boys: Ride or Die – Weekend: $56,000,000 – Total: $56,000,000
- The Garfield Movie – Weekend: $10,000,000 – Total: $68,613,000
- IF – Weekend: $8,000,000 – Total: $93,520,000
- The Watchers – Weekend: $7,000,000 – Total: $7,000,000
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – Weekend: $5,400,000 – Total: $149,772,773
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – Weekend: $4,245,000 – Total: $58,709,000
- The Fall Guy – Weekend: $2,700,000 – Total: $85,122,000
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Weekend: $2,441,275 – Total: $317,986,025
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Weekend: $1,914,981 – Total: $344,463,965
- The Strangers: Chapter 1 – Weekend: $1,840,000 – Total: $32,208,939
Source: The-Numbers
