Family Flicks Thrive Against Scary ‘Strange’ Sequel

In weekend box office news that isn’t about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys earned another $9.77 million (-40%) in its third weekend. That’ll give Universal’s $80 million animated caper comedy a $57.5 million domestic and $148 million worldwide. It’ll be on PVO
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D next week but the sheer lack of kid flicks over the next month, along with Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange 2 being more Drag Me to Hell than Oz: The Great and Powerful, means that the kid-targeted toon should stick around over the next month. Ditto Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which earned $7.1 million (-38%) for a new $169 million domestic cume. It has now passed the grosses of Sing 2, No Time to Die, and Eternals and will soon displace Black Widow ($183 million) and F9 ($173 million) on Covid-era charts.

With Downton Abbey: A New Era and Top Gun: Maverick playing to adults (the Tom Cruise sequel is pretty kid-friendly, but I don’t know if today’s kids care about a sequel to a flick their parents liked in the summer of 1986), there’s not much for younger kids between now and (at best) Jurassic World: Dominion on June 10 and Pixar’s Lightyear on June 17. Sonic 2 has earned $348 million worldwide while Sony’s Uncharted crawls to $400 million. Despite it being a more kid-friendly flick than The Crimes of Grindelwald, Warner Bros.’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore earned $3.9 million (-52%) weekend. That’s an $86 million domestic and $364 million worldwide total. That’s not good for J.K. Rowling’s indifferently received $200 million prequel threequel. Having a rival PG-13 wizarding fantasy in the marketplace didn’t help, but c’est a vie.

Despite losing 1/3 of its screens and facing off against another multiverse flick, Everything, Everywhere All at Once didn’t quite collapse. The A24 release earned $3.3 million (-40%) over the weekend in 1,542 theaters for a $41.5 million cume. It’ll pass Hereditary ($44 million) next weekend to become A24’s third-biggest domestic earner. Whether it gets past Lady Bird ($49 million) and Uncut Gems ($50 million) is a matter of how it holds over the next month. The pickings are slim before Top Gun: Maverick and Bob’s Burgers: The Movie on Memorial Day weekend. Even if Downton Abbey: A New Era plays like Addams Family 2 (an $18 million debut after a $33 million-opening predecessor), I wouldn’t be shocked to see it level out again after this MCU-driven drop. Although, under normal circumstances, -40% is a decent hold anyway.

Robert Eggers’ $70 million The Northman will earn $2.77 million (-56%) in weekend three for a $28 million domestic and $52 million worldwide cume. The Lost City will earn $2.5 million (-35%) despite losing 698 theaters for a $94.4 million and $163 million global cume. The Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum rom-com adventure should still crawl to $100 million domestic by the end. Nicolas Cage’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent will earn $1.525 million (-61%) for a poor $16.1 million 17-day cume. Liam Neeson’s Memory dropped 61% in weekend two for a $1.22 million gross and miserable $5.3 million ten-day cume. The Batman lost 930 theaters in weekend ten, so it earned $105,000 (-86%) in 202 theaters for a $369.2 million cume. I guess putting it on HBO Max after 45 days was of almost no theatrical consequence.