Box Office: ‘It Ends With Us’ Begins With Impressive $24 Million Opening Day, ‘Deadpool’ Holds Strong as ‘Borderlands’ Crumbles

As a seasoned movie buff with decades of film-watching under my belt, I must say that the August box office is proving to be quite the rollercoaster this year. On one hand, we have Sony’s “It Ends With Us,” which is off to a spectacular start with its $24 million opening day and looking at even higher projections. It’s a breath of fresh air to see a drama with a modest budget like this doing so well, especially when compared to the typical summer tentpole.

The upcoming August box office is shaping up to be vibrant, thanks to Sony’s drama “It Ends With Us” which had an impressive opening day earning $24 million from 3,611 screens on both Friday and previews. This adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 bestselling novel is forecasting even greater earnings, potentially surpassing $45 million over the three-day period. This strong start for a drama with a modest budget of only $25 million is noteworthy, considering that most studio summer blockbusters typically exceed this spend.

Due to the surge of interest for Hoover’s novel on TikTok and a focus in marketing towards female audiences, many experts anticipate that “It Ends With Us” could surpass previous predictions. Currently, it appears that the movie will take second place during its opening weekend, with earnings almost equal to the third installment of Marvel’s blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Ryan Reynolds alongside his wife Blake Lively. On its first day in theaters, “It Ends With Us” was the highest grossing film, despite subtracting $7 million from preview earnings. Its $17 million Friday revenue surpasses that of “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

In the film directed by Justin Baldoni, Rachel Lively plays a florist who develops feelings for another character, played by Baldoni himself – a neurosurgeon. However, their relationship becomes complicated when Brandon Sklenar, an old friend, enters the scene. With an A-grade rating from Cinema Score and positive buzz among early viewers, the movie is starting to feel like it belongs in a series, competing with other summer blockbusters.

The adaptation of the “Borderlands” video game series by Lionsgate, titled “Borderlands,” has had a less fruitful box office run. In its opening weekend, it grossed only $4 million across 3,125 theaters, despite higher ticket sales from Imax and other premium large-format auditoriums. This sci-fi comedy is at risk of debuting below $10 million, a disappointing outcome given its production budget of $115 million. In fact, it might even fall short of director Eli Roth’s previous film, the low-budget slasher “Thanksgiving,” which earned eight figures in its initial release last fall.

For some time now, there have been signs indicating issues with “Borderlands”. Now, over three and a half years since principal filming began, this potential franchise launch has received the poorest critical reception of any summer-wide release. Even die-hard fans who were eager to watch it as soon as possible are labeling it as a flop (receiving a D+ grade on Cinema Score).

Lionsgate has safeguarded some of its finances by recovering about 60% of production expenses through international pre-sales. However, the negative hype surrounding “Borderlands,” featuring big names like Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, and Jamie Lee Curtis, suggests that this action movie may end up being a significant box office flop.

In its third weekend, Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, continues to impress with another strong showing on Friday, earning $15.6 million. This is only a 44% decrease from its earnings a week prior, indicating that this R-rated action-comedy has a longer lifespan than most superhero films, which typically have more front-loaded performances and significant weekly drops at the box office. The domestic total for “Deadpool & Wolverine” is expected to surpass $500 million shortly after the weekend, and the $1 billion global milestone is within reach, making it one of only 54 films to ever achieve this feat.

Universal climbs into the top 5 with the releases of “Twisters” and “Despicable Me 4.” Amblin’s disaster thriller is still performing strongly in North America, though its international release through Warner Bros. hasn’t quite kept pace with its domestic success. “Twisters” grossed $4.4 million on Friday and is projected to drop by a modest 32% in its fourth week of release – marking the second straight weekend it’s experienced a decline under 35%, thanks to director Lee Isaac Chung. Earlier this week, the film crossed the $200 million mark domestically and now ranks among the top five highest-grossing domestic releases of the year so far.

Simultaneously, “Despicable Me 4” is projected to earn approximately $8.75 million this weekend, representing a minimal decline of 24%. Released in early July, this Illumination sequel has been maintaining its popularity among family audiences, extending its success into late summer. Currently, it stands as the third-highest-grossing North American film of the year with a total of $330 million.

Beyond the first five positions, Neon’s independent horror film “Cuckoo” earned approximately $1.34 million on its debut day from a total of 1,503 cinemas. This psychological thriller features Hunter Schafer, who gained prominence in the series “Euphoria.”

2024-08-10 18:46

Box Office: ‘It Ends With Us’ Begins With Impressive $24 Million Opening Day, ‘Deadpool’ Holds Strong as ‘Borderlands’ Crumbles

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