‘DC Super-Pets’ Nabs Soft $23 Million, ‘Vengeance’ Is Served Cold

The lone ”big” wide release this weekend was DC League of Super-Pets, which topped the domestic box office with a $23 million opening weekend. That’s a 2.47x weekend multiplier from a $2.2 million Thursday preview gross, implying that the film played less like an “everyone waited until Saturday and Sunday” family-friendly toon and more like a conventional franchise-specific release. It played 54% female, 53% over 25 and 42% over 35 and earned an A- from Cinemascore, including an A from women and an A from the audiences 18 to 34. The raw opening weekend gross is on the soft side, especially for an animated film that cost $90 million to produce.

That said, I was more optimistic about DreamWorks’ $80 million The Bad Guys opening with $23 million in April, partially because DWA toons are incredibly leggy. The enjoyable crime comedy (based on a popular kid-lit series) legged out to $96 million domestic while earning $245 million worldwide. While I was hoping for a more significant launch, partially because WB has been on a roll lately, we should also remember that it wasn’t supposed to be a “big” summer release. Sans Covid-caused post-production bottlenecks, Super-Pets would have opened on Memorial Day weekend alongside Top Gun: Maverick, while Black Adam opened this weekend. Meanwhile, Elvis is at $128 million domestic and racing past $150 million.

The pitch was The Secret Life of Pets, co-starring the Justice League, and another kid-friendly release pairing Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. It may have been too much of “Hey, it’s like those other things you like,” and again overestimating Superman’s overall popularity, without as much of a hook for adult audiences. Keanu Reeves is fun as “sad Keanu/Batman,” and Kate McKinnon steals the film as an evil guinea pig, but it’s pitched younger and less four quadrant than, say, The LEGO Batman Movie. Moreover, non-sequel animated films have been struggling theatrically since 2018. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a smash non-sequel animated release since Coco ($800 million) in late 2017.

However, the reviews are good (71% fresh and 6.3/10 on Rotten Tomatoes), and it got an aforementioned A- from Cinemascore. Moreover, it’s the last kid-friendly release until the reissue of Avatar on September 23 and the last *new* kid-friendly offering until DC Films’ Black Adam on October 21. Heck, it’s the last animated film until Walt Disney’s Strange World over Thanksgiving weekend. The same fx-driven delays that sent Black Adam to October also pushed Puss in Boots: The Last Wish from September to December and sent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse from October to next summer. This leaves Super-Pets the only game in town alongside the still-strong Minions 2 and the already-dead Lightyear.

If it legs like The Bad Guys, it’ll gross around $95 million domestic and $245 million worldwide, which will be good enough for a $90 million toon with plenty of post-theatrical upside. If it legs like WB’s original Smallfoot (which opened with $23 million in late 2018), it’ll earn $83 million domestic and $215 million worldwide. Legs like WB’s original Storks ($73 million domestic and $183 million worldwide from a $21 million debut in September of 2016) get Super-Pets to $80 million/$200 million. If the IP scares people off, legs like LEGO Ninjago Movie ($59 million/$123 million from a $20 million debut) get Super-Pets to only $66 million/$138 million. We’ll see.

Focus Features’ Vengeance is the only other new wide release of the weekend. The B.J. Novak-directed/starring mystery comedy is about a New York podcaster who travels to Texas to investigate the death of a woman with whom he casually hooked up. It is an occasionally quite profound old-school programmer. It also features the first significant role from Ashton Kutcher (as an insightful and compassionate small-time record producer) since Jobs in late 2013. He was a genuine “butts in seats” movie star for a decade, pulling in $15-$25 million openings for comedies (Guess Who?), fantasies (The Butterfly Effect), rom-coms (No Strings Attached), actioners (The Guardian) and toons (Open Season) until he just… stopped.

Nonetheless, this isn’t a commercial comeback, as we’re looking at a $1.75 million Fri-Sun debut. With an inconclusive B+ Cinemascore and a low profile, I’m guessing Vengeance will join Sony’s The Kid Detective as an under-the-radar murder mystery dramady that wins a cult audience in post-theatrical. Either way, I am officially interested in what Novak does next. Also, A24 brought Everything Everywhere All at Once back into wide release in weekend 19, complete with eight minutes of outtakes. The Daniels’ smash-hit multiverse action/fantasy melodrama earned $650,000 (+558%) for a $68.8 million domestic cume. The Michelle Yeoh vehicle is and will remain A24’s Oscar season offering and a surefire awards season player.