Box Office: Free Guy finishes atop the charts this week

Free Guy’s number 1 debut a huge win!

In a stunning win for the box office and original ideas in the marketplace, Free Guy topped the weekend box office and now we finally have a weekend where we don’t have to speculate what went wrong and can talk about everything that went exactly right.

The box office for Free Guy exceeded expectations this weekend with a $28.4 million debut. The film was tracking in the mid to high teens ahead of the weekend so this is a fantastic result. Free Guy made such a stunning debut due to positive word of mouth, sheer star power (thank you Ryan Reynolds), and because it was an original idea that debuted in a sea of too many sequels and reboots. Director of Free Guy, Shawn Levy, doubled down on Free Guy being original by saying, “This is the first non-IP, non-sequel that Disney has released in literal years. And not just because of the pandemic, but because of the culture of our industry, which more and more rarely bets, and bets big –they’ll bet small—but bets big on a new, original movie. That was the bet that (former 20th Century Studios Boss, now at Paramount) Emma Watts placed and that Disney doubled down on.”

EVERYONE was looking at how the Free Guy box office would perform this weekend. The film is respecting the theatrical window by not also being available on streaming and will play for 45-days on the big screen before going to PVOD. The larger-than-expected debut shows me that, without an assist from streaming, the box office actually benefitted because the film isn’t available anywhere else for consumption. This weekend we’re finally not talking about how much money was left on the table. Globally, the film had a $51 million start which is also above expectations and there are signs that Free Guy might be able to leg it out in the weeks ahead. The film surged in box office grosses from Friday to Saturday by 24% and the movie received an “A” CinemaScore from opening night audiences. This film will definitely be one to watch in the weeks ahead.

Opening in second is Don’t Breathe 2 with $10.6 million. The horror sequel was tracking in the $8-10 million range so it lands pretty much exactly where industry insiders thought it would. Don’t Breathe 2 actually performed in the same way Free Guy did by actually increasing its numbers from Friday to Saturday. It was only a 7% jump but it’s another encouraging sign that the box office isn’t in bad shape. The demographic is still going out to the movies despite the recent surge of COVID-19 and the Delta Variant. The 18-34 demo, much like it did with Free Guy, propelled Don’t Breathe 2’s grosses this weekend. 50% of that crowd came out for Free Guy while 63% came out for Don’t Breathe 2. The unfortunate news for Don’t Breathe 2 is that the opening came in much lower than that of the first film. Don’t Breathe opened in August of 2016 to $26.4 million and was able to leg it out to a gross of $89.2 million domestically on a $10 million budget. Once global receipts were counted, the movie scored $157.1 million so it’s easy to see why a sequel was put into place. Don’t Breathe also scored with critics, posting an 88% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes while the sequel came in much lower at 52%. The movie cost $15 million to make and will see a bit of profitability by the end of its run but it won’t have the same box office impact as its predecessor.

Jungle Cruise slides to third place with $9 million this week and slips a mere 43% in the process. Jungle Cruise has actually seen decent holds weekend-to-weekend despite also being available to stream via the Disney+ Premiere Access program. The film still has some work to do given its reported $200 million budget but there is also a lot we don’t know here. Disney reported its first weekend’s Disney+ numbers at $30 million but has declined to report how the film performed on the streamer in the following weekends. It’s possible that Jungle Cruise is killing it enough on the streamer and theatrically that the Disney will likely move forward with a sequel. As of now, the film has grossed $82.1 million domestically and had tallied $132.1 million globally before the weekend was finished.

Also performing in line with tracking was the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, which debuted with $8.8 million. It’s a fourth-place finish for the film that actually scored with audiences (“A” CinemaScore) and had decent enough reviews to build interest (63% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). Respect skews older than the other films that are placed ahead of it and it shows that the older audience is a bit more apprehensive about heading to the theater as the Delta Variant surges. This is what will likely handicap Respect in the weeks ahead despite the positive feedback the film has received from moviegoers. The movie will have to hold like a rock in order to stay on steady ground and that will all be determined by if the older crowd comes out for the film more in the weeks ahead.

Rounding out the top 5 is The Suicide Squad which took a massive 70% tumble in its second weekend to $7.7 million. The film debuted to a lower than expected $26.3 million last weekend so a big weekend two drop was in the cards but this fall is much larger than the other tentpole releases that have debuted this summer. It’s hard to peg how Warner Bros. feels about this. The movie is also still available to stream on HBO Max and this has left the film open to a lot of piracy during its run. Since WarnerMedia won’t release its figures for streaming, we have no real idea how well the film is performing on the platform. Is it enough to justify its $185 million budget? Some feel the film’s downfall has to do with various factors such as a marketing misfire in identifying the film from its predecessor, previous dissatisfaction with the first movie, and the overall reaction to most DC-related films in recent years. The Suicide Squad has grossed $42.8 million to date at the domestic box office.

In sixth and seventh place we find Old and Black Widow. Old slides 42% to $2.4 million and has a running tally of $42.8 million to date. The M. Night Shyamalan film won’t be looked at as a total misfire because it’s a respectable gross, especially during the pandemic, but it’s well off from some of his most recent films at the box office. In its sixth weekend, Black Widow took in $2 million and fell 49% from the previous weekend. Despite all the Disney/Scarlett Johansson drama, Disney is bragging that Black Widow is the highest-grossing film at the domestic box office during the pandemic with a gross that has so far hit $178.1 million. The studio didn’t release any of its Disney+ numbers this week but perhaps that is a bit of a sore subject given the current circumstances.

Landing in eighth and ninth place we find Stillwater and The Green Knight which grossed $1.3 million and 1.1 million respectively. Stillwater slides weekend-to-weekend by 54% while The Green Knight took a 55% tumble. Stillwater has the same issue as Respect as it skews older and that demo is still on the fence about heading to the theater. The Green Knight, despite positive reviews, has a very niche audience and wasn’t really expected to expand to the general movie public. Stillwater has grossed $12.5 million to date while The Green Knight has pulled in $14.7 million.

Closing out the top ten is Space Jam: A New Legacy with $1.15 million which brings its domestic total to $68 million to date. The original Space Jam grossed $90 million domestically by the end of its run for LeBron James is going to have to settle for a very distant second-place finish to Michael Jordan.

What are YOUR thoughts on this weekend’s box office?