by Conan Simmons – June 21, 2021 – 8:25 pm
The weekend box office held fairly steady with the action comedy ‘The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’ taking the top spot as expected. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek and Ryan Reynolds reprising their roles from ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ and are joined in the sequel by Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman.
Sci-fi horror film ‘A Quiet Place Part 2’ still holds firm in second place as does the animated film ‘Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway’, horror sequel ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ and family film ‘Cruella’ continuing to hold their respective spots from last weekend in the Weekend Box Office Top 5.
The biggest thing to happen to the Weekend Box Office Top 5 over the weekend is what didn’t make it.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical ‘In the Heights’, which was widely praised by critics but only made second place in its debut weekend, fell a whopping 65% to fall completely out of the Weekend Box Office Top 5. Available day-and-date streaming on HBO Max the film was hotly anticipated to be a summer blockbuster but fell short of that goal. While the film surely has its fans many critics seemed to buy into the hype more than the film itself.
Does the film live up to the hype? Read our review of ‘In the Heights’ here.
Day-and-date releasing is most definitely what hurt the film’s box office results in its opening weekend but our review should show why the film was unable to maintain a spot in the Weekend Box Office Top 5.
Disney’s ‘Cruella’ on the other hand is able to stave off the downside of day-and-date streaming in its fourth weekend. Though ‘Cruella’ never hit number one at the box office it is clinging on for fifth place. Perhaps the $30 premium Disney+ charges is discouraging audiences from streaming and ironically helping keep theater-goers filling cinemas.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (June 18-20, 2021)
- ‘The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’ – $11.7 million – comedy (debut)
- ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ – $9.4 million – horror (drop $2.3 million, 20% down)
- ‘Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway’ – $6.1 million – animated (drop $4.3 million, 41% down)
- ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ – $5.2 million – horror (drop $4.8 million, 48% down)
- ‘Cruella’ – $5.1 million – family (drop $1.6 million, 24% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 comes to $37.5 million. It is a 25% decline, or $12.7 million down, from last weekends total of $50.2 million.
Though director Edgar Wright’s music documentary ‘The Sparks Brothers’ did not make the Top 5 it did enjoy the best limited release over the weekend.
Next weekend will undoubtedly be dominated by ‘F9: The Fast Saga’, the ninth installment of the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise. The film stars Vin Diesel and John Cena.
Also, ‘Werewolves Within’ will be getting a limited release that horror fans will likely want to check out. The film is an adaptation of the video game and stars Milana Vayntrub and Cheyenne Jackson.