The past couple of weeks have been a bit slow at the box office, partially because of Solo: A Star Wars Story underperforming, but we thankfully saw an uptick in the past three days. Gary Ross' Ocean's 8 wound up making more money than expected, and some of the season's biggest releases so far both passed some notable milestones. Check out the Top 10 below, and join me after for analysis!
While the more pessimistic expectations for Ocean's 8 suggested it would only make $30 million in its first weekend, the spin-off wound up doing quite well and pulled in $41.5 million. Without accounting for inflation, this actually makes it the most successful opening for this franchise - which has long been sold on its strong ensemble casts. This one traded George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon for Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Sarah Paulson, and it's definitely a victory. Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve was previously the biggest three day winner, making $39.1 million in December 2004, but this one obviously beat that out.
There is, however, a big discussion to be had about its legs. The film got solid reviews (68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and earned a "B+" CinemaScore, but the big concern should be the serious upcoming competition. Disney already has two billion dollar winners in 2018, and next week they will be releasing what should be their next big hit: Brad Bird's The Incredibles 2. The animated superhero film should draw a four quadrant audience, which should take a considerable number of people's attention away from Ocean's 8. As if that weren't bad enough, J.A. Bayona's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is arriving on June 22nd, and you may remember that its predecessor set the old record for biggest domestic opening weekend ever. I expect that the latest installment will still be able to cross the $100 million mark before the end of its run, but it has a rough road to get there.
There were two other wide releases to come out this weekend, though their openings were a bit softer and a touch less exciting. Ranking at number four is Ari Aster's Hereditary - which is the latest example of critics and audiences having very different thoughts about the horror genre. The movie is currently one of the critically best-received features of the year, but notably only got a "D+" on CinemaScore. So while the $13 million start isn't bad, it may have a bit of trouble getting attention in the coming weeks.
Drew Pearce's Hotel Artemis, meanwhile, has started at number eight - which is really too bad. The film only received mediocre reviews, and had the smallest release of all the new releases, and that resulted in a $3.1 million take. It's too bad, honestly, because it's a cool, creative sci-fi vision with a terrific ensemble cast delivering some aces performances. It's clearly not setting the world on fire, but hopefully it will eventually develop a cult audience.
Getting back to what I referred to in the opening, it's worth pointing out that both David Leitch's Deadpool 2 and Joe and Anthony Russo's Avengers: Infinity War are crossing milestones left and right. The former just crossed $650 million worldwide, and domestically is now the second biggest hit in the X-Men franchise (the top spot belonging to Tim Miller's Deadpool). As for the latter, it has now crossed that same $650 million mark... but that's just from here at home. That means it is now the fifth biggest U.S. hit of all time, passing Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World. Worldwide, it now stands at $1,998,033,699, which means tomorrow it will become one of only four blockbusters in history to make over $2 billion.
As mentioned, next week we will see the arrival of Pixar's The Incredibles 2, but also the new comedy Tag, the mobster thriller Gotti, and the reboot Superfly. Come back next Sunday to see how the Top 10 gets shaken up!
