by Conan Simmons – June 28, 2021 – 7:28 pm
Theaters experienced the biggest movie debut since 2019 this weekend as the latest in the Fast and Furious franchise hit the nitro and blasted onto screens. With less than 100% of theaters currently open ‘F9: The Fast Saga’ proves that audiences want to see movies on the big screen.
Making $70 million in its debut weekend it was only 24% away from the total earnings of the Weekend Box Office Top 5 from Memorial Day when both ‘A Quiet Place Part 2’ and ‘Cruella’ debuted boosting the Top 5 to a total of $91.6 million that holiday weekend.
John Krasinski’s sci-fi horror film still holds on in second place this weekend and Emma Stone’s ‘Cruella’ also maintains a spot in the Top 5. Both films are in their fifth consecutive week on the list.
Last weekend’s debut film, ‘The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’ dropped a hard 58% to take third place away from animated children’s film ‘Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway’ which dropped one place with a quaint 20% decline showing steady success.
Day-and-date streaming films, minus ‘Cruella’, dropped out of the Top 5 completely. Horror film ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ had been in fourth place last weekend but after three weeks it finally drops off the list. Likewise, many critics felt ‘In the Heights’ would manage to gain traction to become a breakout hit but, alas, that hope is gone. After one weekend in second place it dropped out entirely with no chance of bouncing back. Both films were day-and-date streaming on HBO Max.
‘Cruella’ looks to be staving off the streamers defeat by the $30 premium charge on top of the Disney+ subscription fee. That and family films have been enjoying solid success at the box office recently if not long running hits like family friendly animated fare ‘The Croods: A New Age’ and ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (June 25-27, 2021)
- ‘F9: The Fast Saga’ – $70 million – action (debut)
- ‘A Quiet Place Part 2’ – $6.2 million – horror (down $3.2 million, 34% drop)
- ‘The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’ – $4.9 million – comedy (down $6.8 million, 58% drop)
- ‘Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway’ – $4.9 million – animated (down $1.2 million, 20% drop)
- ‘Cruella’ – $3.7 million – family (down $1.4 million, 27% drop)
The Vin Diesel action-adventure film will see some competition next weekend as the U.S.A. celebrates the 4th of July holiday. New releases looking to bump ‘F9’ from the top spot will be horror franchise installment ‘The Forever Purge’ and the animated sequel ‘The Boss Baby: Family Business’.
The holiday weekend is shaping up to be a good one for theaters and it’s looking up from there. The following two weekends will enjoy the release of the newest Marvel Cinematic Universe film ‘Black Widow’ starring Scarlet Johansson followed by ‘Space Jam 2’. Both films will be day-and-date releases, ‘Black Widow’ on Disney+ for a $30 surcharge which shouldn’t hurt its box office too much, and ‘Space Jam 2’ streaming on HBO Max which doesn’t have the best track record with day-and-date releases. At least, nowhere near their initial hopes when CEO Jason Kilar sidewinded everyone in Hollywood by announcing the full slate of Warner Bros. films in 2021 would be streaming day-and-date.
And that presents a huge problem for the upcoming remake of ‘Dune’ due out in October. Perhaps the company can rectify things before then.