“Hobbs & Shaw” Repeats Over “Scary Stories”

By: Keaton Marcus

Diving into the weekend, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw repeated on top of the charts, and exceeded it’s pre-weekend sophomore expectations, and continued to ram up solid international numbers. Topping the five newcomers was the well-reviewed Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark delivered another impressive debut for the teen horror genre, despite opening in runner-up. Otherwise, holdover The Lion King managed to roar into third place, and became the biggest global release for a Disney live-action re-imagining. An additional newcomer Dora and the Lost City of Gold managed some decent numbers, despite slightly underperforming, while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood topped 100M domestically and rounded out the top five. The final three new wide releases, The Art of Racing in the Rain, The Kitchen and Brian Banks flopped on top of each other.

Topping the charts once again was Universal’s release of Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw which earned an estimated 25.4M in ticket sales, the sophomore session is a bit more than expected. The picture dipped a considerable 57.7% from it’s solid debut, tallying a decent 108.5M in North America after 10 days in release. For the finish, the film is almost mirroring the performance from Kong: Skull Island ahead of it’s 168M finish, the next few weekends will tell whether the Fast & Furious production will perform as well, but for now, a 160-170M finish looks good.

Internationally, the motion picture added an additional 60.8M overseas this weekend, sliding just about 50% from last week’s global performance. Hobbs & Shaw has tallied a so-so 224.1M foreignly, resulting in a worldwide total of 332.6M after 10 days. The film debuted in five new material markets, with France leading the bunch with an estimated 6.9M, this is followed by Italy (2.6M), Belgium (1.6M) etc. The film is being released in Korea on August 14th, along with its anticipated debut in China on August 23rd.

Runner-up holds Lionsgate’s PG-13 rated horror picture Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which opened to an estimated 20.8M from 3,135 sites nationwide, averaging $6,635 per-screen. The film outpaced pre-weekend expectations, which were around 15-20M, and scored an impressive debut overall. Compared to other pictures, the positively received film managed to top Escape Room and its 18.2M three-day; but failed to reach the heights of Pet Sematary which opened to 24.5M. Review wise, the picture scored an impressive 80% “Certified Fresh” on RottenTomatoes, while it was handed a more skeptical, but still reasonably positive 62/100 on Metacritic. Audiences handed it a mediocre C CinemaScore, which is lower than Insidious: The Last Key and its B- score.

Taking third place is Disney’s live-action remake of The Lion King which delivered a fourth weekend of 20M, sliding a reasonable 48.1% from the previous week, cruising to a massive 473.1M domestically heading into its fourth week of release. Overseas, the film debuted in one new market, Japan, with an estimated 9.3M, a finish in second place. With its recent debut, and more material markets in play, the picture has earned 861.5M internationally, for a global total of 1.334 billion dollars. The reboot has become the biggest global release for the Disney live-action re-imaginings, topping Beauty and the Beast, which finished to 1.263 billion.

Fourth holds the second newcomer of this crowded weekend, Paramount’s TV-to-film adaptation of Dora and the Lost City of Gold, which debuted with a so-so 17M from 3,735 locations, which is a little behind its original 18-20M expectations, but still reasonably satisfying. Comparing, the children targeted feature beat its lowest comp, Wonder Park, which garnered 15.8M from 3,838 theaters earlier this year. However, it lost to both The BFG, which debuted with 18.7M, and its largest comparison used, Alice Through the Looking Glass, which opened to 26.8M back in 2016. The picture received very positive reception, scoring 81% “Certified Fresh” on RT, with an additional 63/100 on Metacritic, this was a great surprise, considering the pathetic TV show. Audiences well agreed, handing the picture an excellent A CinemaScore.

Internationally, the picture opened to 11 material markets, grossing an estimated 2.5M for an official global debut of 19.5M. The film’s leading market remains Russia, where it earned an estimated 878K for the opening. After expanding overseas for the next few months, the motion picture will finish in Brazil, with a release set for November 7th.

Rounding out the top five was Sony’s release of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood which grossed an additional 11.6M on its third weekend, dipping 42% from its sophomore session, managing to tally 100.3M domestically to be exact. The film has become the fourth Tarantino film to top 100 million in North America, continuing to impress. The picture also kicked off its international release with an estimated 7.7M, 100% from its opening in Russia, which is the film’s first major market, tallying to 108M globally. The film will debut in France, the UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, and Spain next weekend, followed by Mexico (Aug 23), Japan (Aug 30), Italy (Sep 18), and Korea (Sep 26).

Outside the top five, the three remaining wide releases debuted. Disney’s release of Fox’s The Art of Racing in the Rain opened to only 8.1M from 2,765 theaters, also debuting with 1.1M overseas. Secondly, in seventh place, WB’s The Kitchen flopped with an estimated 5.5M from 2,745 theaters, coming in as the worst-reviewed film of the weekend, also failing to reach its 8-10M expectations. Finally, Bleecker Street’s Brian Banks opened to just 2.1M from 1,240 theaters, pretty much opening on expectations.

Next weekend, we see an additional five nationwide releases make their ways to the table. First and foremost, Sony’s animated sequel, The Angry Birds Movie 2 is kicking off its early start on Tuesday from 3,500 sites, and is looking at an impressive six-day. Coming down to Friday, we see a new addition to the shark genre come to the plate with sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, which is debuting in an extremely wide 3,600+ theaters. Thirdly, coming-of-age comedic drama Good Boys will open in 3,000+ locations, while book adaptation Where’d You Go, Bernadette is hiding its way into 2,300+ sites, and finally, Blinded by the Light will laugh to 2,000+ sites.

TOP FIVE:

Hobbs & Shaw
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
The Lion King
Dora and the Lost City of Gold
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood