Weekend Box Office (June 22 - 24, 2018)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND Hollywood's summer sequels pulled in millions of movie fans as the top spot debut of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and the sophomore frame of Incredibles 2 led the North American box office to the highest grossing June weekend in history.

Universal saw a terrific start for its dinosaur pic Fallen Kingdom which opened to an estimated $150M this weekend from an ultrawide 4,475 locations for a stellar $33,520 per location including premium screens like IMAX and 4DX. It was down 28% from the $208.8M opening weekend of the last Jurassic World, however the sequel was never expected to come close to the levels of that pic. Fallen Kingdom did deliver the fourth biggest debut of 2018 behind Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, and Incredibles 2 which were all from the Disney empire.

Reviews for the new dino pic were lackluster, not surprisingly, but audiences have been enjoying the ride as the PG-13 thriller earned an A- CinemaScore grade. Studio data showed that the crowd was 54% male, 56% under 25, and 52% non-white. Reaching $400M by the end of the domestic run is a possibility with the summer playtime ahead.

The weekend kicked off with an opening day Friday gross of $58.8M including $15.3M from Thursday night pre-shows. Saturday was off 15% to $49.8M and the studio is projecting a Sunday slide of only 17% to $41.4M. The first Jurassic World experienced a Sunday dip of 18% and it opened a little earlier in June when more schools were in session on the following Monday.

Internationally, the new Jurassic film opened in a handful of territories while also seeing steep declines in many key markets. Mexico led the newcomers with a $12.3M bow and China was tops among all markets this weekend with $32.4M in its sophomore lap dropping a big 71%. The overall international marketplace collected a big $106.7M boosting the offshore cume to $561.5M. Global is now at $711.5M heading for that magical $1 billion mark. The two Jurassic World movies should easily achieve a combined global box office of at least $2.7 billion making for a most lucrative franchise reboot. Each cost under $200M to produce. The next film in the series is already on the calendar for June 11 in 2021.

Falling down to second place but still capturing a ton of business was the Pixar smash Incredibles 2 with an estimated $80.9M in its second weekend. The Disney release dropped a hefty 56% and suffered a larger sophomore decline than some other Pixar sequels opening in June like Finding Dory (46%) and Monsters University (45%). Instead it fell like last summer's Cars 3 which took a 55% dive in the second round. Given the record debut that Incredibles 2 was coming off of, and the incoming competition for families by the dinosequel, the decline for the super hero squad was understandable.

The domestic cume is $350.3M and with most schools now out for the summer and the Independence Day holiday week coming up, there is plenty more to earn as it will cross the $400M and $500M marks. Overseas markets contributed $56.8M this weekend including a $21.2M launch in China. Totals are now $134.7M international and $485M global with much of the offshore market still to open.

Warner Bros. supplied movies for grown-ups taking the next slots on the charts. The heist sequel Ocean's 8 dropped 39% to an estimated $11.7M joining the century club with $100.4M to date. The comedy Tag fell 45% in its second round to an estimated $8.2M for $30.4M thus far. Both were respectable holds for where they are in their runs.

It was a milestone weekend for Deadpool 2 which saw its cumulative box office grosses cross $300M domestic, $400M international and $700M global. Spending its sixth frame in the top five in North America, the super hero sequel slipped 40% to an estimated $5.3M pumping the total to $304.2M. Overseas sales rose to $403M putting worldwide at $707M on its way to nearly $740M.

Not energizing moviegoers this summer was Solo which tumbled 60% to an estimated $4M for $202.2M overall. Disney sits at only $353.5M worldwide with the global run coming to an end soon at under $400M. Fright pic Hereditary followed with $3.8M, down 44%, and $35M to date for A24. Sony's Superfly followed by falling 51% to an estimated $3.4M with $15.3M thus far.

The year's biggest global hit Avengers: Infinity War declined by 54% to an estimated $2.5M raising the domestic total to $669.5M. China has banked $374.8M, all international markets have combined for a hefty $1.36 billion and the new global haul is $2.03 billion. Rounding out the top ten was a newcomer as the hit Mister Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor expanded again and collected an estimated $1.9M which was good enough to enter the list. Focus averaged a solid $5,388 from 348 locations in its third weekend and has grossed $4.1M so far with more theaters to come as it widens to over 500 theaters next weekend.

The top ten films grossed a new June record estimate of $271.6M which was up a sturdy 109% from last year when Transformers: The Last Knight opened at number one with $44.7M; and up 53% from 2016 when Finding Dory stayed in the top spot with $73M.

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Watch the trailer for Halloween.

Compared to projections, Fallen Kingdom opened ahead of my $126M forecast.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Uncle Drew both open.

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Last Updated: June 24, 2018 at 1:40PM ET

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