‘Sonic 2’ And ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ Both Top $300 Million As ‘The Batman’ Survives HBO Max

In holdover news for the weekend, DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys jumped 101% from Friday to Saturday, giving the Universal release a $16.1 million (-33%) second weekend and $44.44 million ten-day gross. The $80 million kid-friendly caper comedy has earned $119 million worldwide thus far, and the hold this weekend portends to long legs. It earned $25 million worldwide, including $4.5 million in China. Give or take how it plays in South Korea this week and/or Japan in October, it should end up at around $200 million worldwide. That said, give or take how scary Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness turns out to be, The Bad Guys is the only kid-friendly biggie in town until Jurassic World: Dominion or (if that one is, again, too scary for the under-eight set) Lightyear in mid-June.

Once again, Disney really should have released Turning Red into theaters back in March. It’s already pulling fewer viewers on Disney+ (so says Nielsen) than the theatrically released Encanto, so all they did was cost themselves a chance to earn at least as much as Illumination and Universal’s Sing 2 ($400 million global despite being available on PVOD for most of its theatrical run). Chapek’s streaming-centric blunder was a huge gift to The Bad Guys, and to Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The $110 million sequel earned another $11.5 million (-27%) for a $161 million 24-day total. It’s the biggest-grossing video game movie ever in raw domestic grosses, and it now sits behind only Tomb Raider ($131 million in 2001/$212 million adjusted) on the tickets-sold list. I don’t have overseas updates, but it’s surely past $315 million.

That puts it past Sonic ($306 million) and the two biggest Resident Evil movies ($312 million for The Final Chapter and $300 million for Afterlife) on the video game movie list. Next are Prince of Persia ($330 million) and Angry Birds ($352 million), but the over/under $400 million cume of Sony’s Uncharted could be a bridge too far. Also crossing $300 million worldwide this weekend was Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Grindelwald, which earned $8.3 million (-41%) for a $79.6 million 17-day cume. That’s terrible for a J.K. Rowling Wizarding World movie, just as the Divergent Series-centric prophecy foretold three years ago. While a $330 million global running cume (and $390-$400 million final gross) isn’t horrible on a Covid curve, it’s exactly the kind of brutal drop from Crimes of Grindelwald ($659 million) we all expected.

Alas, Focus and Regency’s The Northman earned just $6.31 million (-49%) in weekend two, giving Robert Eggers’ acclaimed action fantasy a $22.8 million ten-day cume. Budget aside, that’s not a horrible performance for a star-free, R-rated, period-piece action original, but the film cost around $70 million so this is (at best) a “for the love of the game” release and a modest win for exhibition in terms of varied product both existing and playing to not-quite empty auditoriums. Likewise, the folks who wanted to see Lionsgate’s meta-aware, Film Twitter-friendly The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent did so last weekend. The Nicolas Cage (as Nicolas Cage) action comedy earned $3.925 million (-45%) in weekend two for a $13.5 million ten-day total. That’s not great for a well-reviewed, $30 million star-driven original. Oh well, maybe it’ll excel on PVOD.

In better news for well-reviewed, star-driven originals, Paramount’s The Lost City earned another $3.8 million (-13%) for a $90.7 million 38-day cume. Yes, this Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum rom-com adventure is going to cross $100 million domestic, a huge win for theatrical and for studios that would like to make more than just IP adaptations. Sony’s Father Stu earned $2.21 million (-34%), giving the Mark Wahlberg/Mel Gibson faith-based “from boxer to priest” drama a $17.6 million 12-day total. Sony’s Morbius earned $1.52 million (-34%) in weekend five for a $71.5 million domestic and $161.5 million global total. It’s a whiff even on a mere $75 million budget, but kudos for not overspending. Michael Bay’s $40 million Ambulance earned $1.16 million (-35%) for a $21.05 million domestic and $49 million worldwide cume. Hopefully PVOD can make up some of the difference.

Meanwhile, The Batman earned $775,000 (-47%) in its ninth weekend of theatrical release, bringing its domestic cume to $369 million. That’s a better hold than its first week playing both in theaters and on HBO Max (and available on digital to rent or own for around $25), so maybe the concurrent availability and mere 45-day window was, once again, not a death blow to its theatrical prospects. Frankly, most theatrical successes (A Quiet Place part II, No Time to Die, etc.) didn’t just drop dead theatrically after being available “early” at home, but The Batman was a far more high-profile title, HBO Max is arguably a bigger streaming platform compared to Peacock or Paramount+ and Warner Bros. Discovery pushed its HBO Max release harder than normal for this kind of thing. Nevertheless, The Batman has persisted.