WEEKEND RECAP: It ended up a lighter weekend than expected, mostly due to the struggles of the weekend's two new wide releases as both King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Snatched fell below Mojo's forecast. In the case of King Arthur it opened well below our estimation as the $175 million budgeted feature couldn't even crack $15 million over the three-day. Meanwhile, at #1 it was Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which is already flirting with $250 million domestically after ten days in release and has now topped $630 million worldwide.
For the second weekend in a row it's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 at the top of the weekend box office as it delivered an estimated $63 million for a domestic cume over $246 million. While this falls below our $69.9 million forecast, the 57% drop is an improvement on the average for first sequels in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and better than the second weekend holds for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World. Added to that, don't be surprised to see it climb a little once actuals come in tomorrow and possibly improve on the 56.6% second weekend drop for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Internationally, Guardians 2 opened in its final international market, pulling in an estimated $3 million in Japan as it delivered an estimated $52.2 million from 56 markets this weekend. The film's international gross has now climbed over $380 million for a global cume that now stands at $633 million.
In second was Fox's release of the Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn comedy Snatched bringing in an estimated $17.5 million. Headed into the weekend industry estimates were for an opening in the mid-teens and our basement projection was $18 million, which Snatched could still hit if it sees a little more support over Mother's Day than currently projected. That said, the film was unable to pop the way Schumer's Trainwreck did when it dramatically outperformed expectations, pulling in a $30 million opening in 2015.
In terms of demographics, Snatched played to an audience that was 77% female vs. 23% male with 72% of the overall audience coming in 25 years or older. Further breakdown shows the audience was 64% Caucasian, 16% Hispanic, 10% African American and 6% Asian. Opening day audiences gave the film a "B" CinemaScore, which isn't exactly wonderful news as compared to the "A-" for Trainwreck, but with limited genre competition next weekend it could show some legs, though with a $42 million budget this isn't exactly a stellar start.
Next we come to Warner Bros.' King Arthur, a $175 million budgeted feature that was expected to kick off a franchise of films and it floundered upon release, generating an estimated $14.7 million from 3,702 theaters. Industry expectations heading into the weekend were around $23-25 million and even those numbers were somewhat alarming given the money spent on the production. The film received a "B+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences of which 59% were male vs. 41% female and of the overall audience, 56% were under the age of 35.
Now attention turns to the international performance where the film would need to do quite well to recoup production costs, but after an estimated $29.1 million from 51 markets this weekend and a worldwide opening just shy of $44 million things aren't looking too bright. Looking ahead, the film opens in France, UK and South Korea on May 17, followed by Australia a day later on the 18th.
Also opening this weekend, BH Tilt's Lowriders did quite well in limited release, pulling in an estimated $2.4 million from only 295 theaters for a $8,180 per theater average and an eighth place finish. Comparatively, Roadside's release of Doug Liman's The Wall brought in a mere $891k from 541 theaters for a disappointing $1,648 per theater average. As a result, The Wall debuted in 14th position, well below our expectations if you read our weekend preview.
The weekend's top limited performer was Paris Can Wait, from Eleanor Coppola, making her feature-length writing and directorial debut. That said, it would appear filmmaking is simply in the Coppola blood as the film brought in an estimated $101,825 from just four theaters for an impressive, $25,456 per theater average. Paris Can Wait will remain in limited release over the next couple weeks before going wide on June 16.
Other limited releases include Roadside's The Wedding Plan, which brought in an estimated $33k ($4,130 PTA); FilmRise's Manifesto with an estimated $10,500 from one theater; Abramorama's The Last Shaman with $7,040 from one theater; and FilmRise's release of Dead Awake, which brought in $6,000 from 12 locations.
Next weekend sees the release of Alien: Covenant, which could make for an interesting finish next weekend. The latest film in the Alien franchise will be looking at a #1 opening, but with early tracking two weeks ago anticipating a $30 million debut it's not certain that would be enough to take down Guardians 2, which is likely to drop around 50% or so new weekend.
Next week also sees for Fox releasing Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul and Warner Bros. will be hoping to bounce back from this weekend's rough release of King Arthur with the drama Everything, Everything.
