Weekend Box Office (July 28 - 30, 2017)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND Two new wide releases couldn't take down Dunkirk but both opened to decent results.

With strong critical reviews and tremendous audience support, Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk took the top spot for a second straight weekend, dropping a reasonable 44% to an estimated $28M. Its total now stands at $102.8M and looks headed to at least $200M if not more. Internationally it added an estimated $45.6M bringing its total to $131.3M and a worldwide cume of $234.1M.

The two debuting films both got a B Cinemascore, but were on complete opposite ends of the critics scale. In second place was The Emoji Movie which made an estimated $25.6M from 4,075 theaters for a per screen average of $6,294. It currently stands at a whopping 9% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, proving that poop sells to kids. How well it does over the next few weeks is up in the air but with a $50M budget, it'll likely recoup its costs and who knows, maybe there will be a sequel?

At 75% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, the other wide debut this weekend was Charlize Theron's action-thriller, Atomic Blonde which opened to an estimated $18.5M from 3,304 theaters for a per screen average of $5,616. If you take out the pre-release hype, this is a good opening for this type of film. I think expectations started to run a little high in the days leading up to the weekend. It'll recoup its $30M budget easily and once again, a sequel could be in play.

Sandwiched in thrid place between the new releases was Universal's Girls Trip which fell only 35.6% in its second go-around to an estimated $20.1M bringing its total up to $65M. Already after two weeks its the highest grossing comedy of the year. A total of $125 or more is likely.

Spider-Man: Homecoming swung into fifth place this weekend with an estimated $13.5M, bringing its total up to $278M after four weeks. Fox's War for the Planet of the Apes dipped 50% in its third weekend to an estimated $10M, bringing its total up to $118M. Universal's threequel Despicable Me 3 fell 40% to an estimated $7.7M bringing its total after five weeks up to $230M.

Luc Besson's expensive sci-fi epic Valerian crashed and burned in its second weekend, falling 60% to an estimated $6.8M, bringing its total up to only $30M. Hitting even $50M domestically will be a stretch for the $175M production.

In ninth place was an actual pleasant surprise this summer, Baby Driver, which continued its strong run dipping only 33% in its fifth weekend to an estimated $4M, bringing its total up to $92M. And rounding out the top 10 was the #1 movie of the summer, Wonder Woman, which made an estimated $3.5M in its ninth weekend, bringing its total to an outstanding $395M.

A couple of heavyweight filmmakers opened movies in limited release this weekend. Oscar Winner Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit brought in an estimated $365,455 from 20 theaters for a per screen average of $18,273 which is good, but probably a little bit below what the studio was hoping for before the film goes wide next weekend. And Al Gore's timely An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power opened in four theaters with an estimated $130,000 for a per theater average of $32,500.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $138.3M which was off 21% from last year when Jason Bourne opened at number one with $59.2M; but up 1.6% from 2015 when Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation debuted in the top spot with $55.5M.


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Watch the trailer for A Wrinkle in Time.

Compared to projections, The Emoji Movie opened slightly ahead of Gitesh's $21M forecast while Atomic Blone opened almost exactly on target with Gitesh's $19M prediction.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Detroit expands nationally and The Dark Tower & Kidnap both open wide.

THIS WEEKEND's TOP 10

Last Updated: July 30, 2017 at 4:00PM ET

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