by Conan Simmons – July 26, 2021 – 5:17 am
M. Night Shyamalan’s newest horror film, ‘Old’ leads a slow and quiet weekend at the box office. It is the only film in the Weekend Box Office Top 5 that isn’t a sequel or interconnected franchise installment.
‘Old’ beat out the latest G.I. Joe franchise flick ‘Snake Eyes’, starring Henry Golding, as expected. We pointed out last week that the G.I. Joe movies don’t have the greatest track record at the box office.
Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’ stuck in third place as ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’, the two-plus hour long advertisement for HBO Max fell to fourth place. After taking the number one spot on the Weekend Box Office Top 5 last week, the Lebron James/Looney Tunes romp managed to outdo ‘Black Widow’ in yet another way: it dropped 69% in its sophomore weekend as opposed to the 68% ‘Black Widow’ dropped previously.
Vin Diesel and “family” round out the Top 5 as ‘F9: The Fast Saga’ becomes one of Hollywood’s only bona-fide hits of this summer.
It is interesting that so many action films are playing to muted numbers at the box office. Are audiences craving more than slam-bang-shoot’em-up explosions?
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (July 23-25, 2021)
- ‘Old’ – $16.5 million – horror (debut)
- ‘Snake Eyes’ – $13.4 million – action (debut)
- ‘Black Widow’ – $11.6 million – action (drop $14.2 million, 55% down)
- ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ – $9.6 million – animated (drop $21.5 million, 69% down)
- ‘F9: The Fast Saga’ – $4.7 million – action (drop $3 million, 39% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is $55.8 million. This is a decrease of 29%, or $22.3 million down, from last weekends total of $78.1 million.
Next weekend will see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson take his ‘Jungle Cruise’ to the top spot in spite of being a day-and-date release on Disney+.
Though do be on the lookout for ‘The Green Knight’, based on a popular role-playing game inspired by Arthurian legends. The game has a strong fanbase (if not as vocal as comic book fans) and there’s been some quiet positive buzz around the film for some time now.
The new Matt Damon thriller ‘Stillwater’, though advertised and premiering at Cannes with some hype, is likely to live up to its name at the box office.
After next weekend the box office will undoubtedly be won by ‘The Suicide Squad’ releasing August 6. Directed by popular filmmaker James Gunn and starring a slew of big names from Margot Robbie & Idris Elba to John Cena & Sylvester Stallone, the DC comics adaptation will be a hit even with day-and-date release on HBO Max.
The real question will be if it stays #1 in its second weekend as competition emerges in the form of the Ryan Reynolds action-comedy ‘Free Guy’, the Aretha Franklin biopic ‘Respect’, and the sequel to a fan favorite horror film, ‘Don’t Breathe 2’. All three wide releases will be exclusively in theaters, making that August weekend of Friday the 13th one that could finally spell bad luck for day-and-date streamers.