FRIDAY PM UPDATE: A bit of a calm spell before the Freakier Friday-Weapons double bill happening next weekend, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps eyeing around $12 million today for a $40M-$45M second weekend, which gets it close to $200M+ (or $198M on the low end). On the low side, that’s a 66% decline in the vicinity of Captain America: Brave New World (-68%), but harder than Thunderbolts* (-56%) which indicates the front-loaded rush to Marvel’s first family. The pic is booked at 4,125 theaters.
Marvel / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys 2, playing at 3,852 sites, is doing slightly better than the 2022 original with a $9M first day (which includes previews) and an estimated three-day total of $22M.
Paramount’s The Naked Gun, knock on wood, is looking all right with $6M Friday and a $16M 3-day at 3,344. Excellent exits as we told you last night, and reviews, which are hard to come by with comedies. It needs the under-40 guy crowd to leg out. If the number holds, it will rep Liam Neeson’s biggest opening as leading star (not voice-over, cameo, narrator, supporting, etc) since 2014’s Taken 3 ($39.2M opening). If the numbers hold, it’s $1M higher than the opening of the Jennifer Lawrence R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings from 2023 — that was Sony’s attempt to revive the big-screen comedy.
Warner Bros/DC Studios’ fourth weekend of James Gunn’s Superman is $13.5M, -46%, for a running cume by Sunday of $315.8M. By that time pic should be pacing 5% behind the running total of Matt Reeves’ 2022 The Batman, which ended its stateside run at $369.3M.
Fifth is Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth at 3,240 locations with a Friday of $2.3M and a fifth weekend of $8.1M, -39%, and a running total by Sunday EOD of $317M. That’ll be 10% behind the running total of the previous chapter Jurassic World: Dominion, which finaled at $376.8M.
Neon’s Together is sixth with $2.2M today, between $6M-$7M over three days and $10M-$11M over five days. On the high end, that’s about par with Midsommar‘s Wednesday-Sunday take of $10.9M.
‘Together’
FRIDAY AM: The first weekend of August begins with DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s The Bad Guys 2 stealing $2.25 million from showtimes that began at 2 p.m. Thursday, which is higher than the first Bad Guys‘ $1.15M Thursday in 2022, which turned into a near-$8M first day and $23.9M in a recovering post-Covid box office. The outlook on Bad Guys 2 in regards to tracking was $20M.
Production cost on Bad Guys 2 is $80M net, $10M higher than the first movie, which repped a rebound for the Covid box office, that pic ultimately minting $97.4M domestic and $252.4M worldwide. The sequel’s Rotten Tomatoes critics score is 85% fresh, which is 3 points under the 88% certified fresh of the first film.
Paramount, on the precipice of its merger with Skydance, is trying to bring the big-screen comedy back to life with its reboot of 1980s classic The Naked Gun, that Liam Neeson-Pamela Anderson movie doing $1.6M last night from shows that started at 7 p.m. Comedy comps are hard, but The Naked Gun isn’t that far from Sony’s R-rated Jennifer Lawrence movie No Hard Feelings, which did $2.15M on its Thursday (4 p.m. start-time) previews in 2023 and turned into a $6.3M Friday and $15M 3-day at 3,344 sites. That’s what hoped for here on this redo directed by Akiva Schaffer and produced by Seth MacFarlane. Net production cost is $42M.
The Naked Gun had a good night in PostTrak exits with 4½ stars and a 73% definite recommend. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film won over critics, a near-impossible feat when it comes to comedy, at 90% certified fresh with an 87% audience score.
Alison Brie and Dave Franco in ‘Together’
Neon
Neon’s wide release of the Dave Franco-Alison Brie romantic horror movie Together grossed $1.35M in its second day at the box office for a running cume of $4M. The forecast is $8M-$10M over five days for the movie, which Neon snapped up for $16M out of Sundance. The last five-day genre movie that comes to mind is A24’s Midsommar, and Together, which has higher Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience scores (91% critics/79% audience to Midsommar‘s 83% critics/63% audience) is currently $300K behind that 2019 Ari Aster film. As we told you Thursday, Together gets a C+ CinemaScore, same grade as Midsommar.
It’s all about the second weekend of Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which ends the week with $158.3M after an estimated $7.4M Thursday, -14% from Wednesday. The second-frame outlook is $45M-$47M for the net $200M-budgeted movie, which is around a 61% decline. The Matt Shakman-directed reboot keeps all the premium screens.
Gowtam Tinnanuri’s Kingdom opened Thursday, making $1.1M at 360 locations. The pic follows an undercover cop who is plunged into Sri Lanka on a covert mission to dismantle a powerful syndicate. He learns the mastermind is his estranged brother, forcing him to confront family loyalty, and the moral cost of duty.
Here’s the top 5:
1.) The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Dis) 4,125 theaters, Thu $7.4M (-14% from Wed), Week $158.3M/Wk 1
2.) Superman (WB) 3,930 theaters, Thu $2.66M (-10%), Wk $37.7M (-57%), Total $302.3M/Wk 3
3.) Jurassic World Rebirth (Uni) 3,550 theaters, Thu $1.54M (-7%), Wk $20.3M (-43%), Total $308.9M/Wk 4
Let the record show that 2025 now has four movies that grossed north of $300M at the domestic B.O., also inclusive of Superman, Lilo & Stitch and A Minecraft Movie.
4.) F1 (Apple/WB) 2,615 theaters, Thu $750K (-13%), Wk $9.8M (-36%), Total $169.1M/Wk 5
5.) Smurfs (Par) 3,504 theaters, Thu $715K (-28%), Week $9.3M (-15%), Total $26.7M/Wk 2
