It’s getting ugly. While we predicted that Eli Roth’s Borderlands was shaping up to be a box office flop, according to Deadline’s early numbers, the film is turning out to be nothing short of a catastrophe. Last night, the film only so little that the site forecasts the film is likely to end the weekend with a single digit gross, in the range of $8-10 million. While the reviews have been bad, audiences seem to hate the film even more, with it posting a truly atrocious D+ CinemaScore rating. When all is said and done, this $100 million plus blockbuster may not even earn north of $20 million (total) in North America. It will likely go down as one of the biggest box office disasters ever, unless overseas business is brisk – which seems unlikely.
In another surprise, the Blake Lively-led Colleen Hoover adaptation, It Ends With Us, is doing truly blockbuster business. In fact, the film out-earned Deadpool & Wolverine on Friday, with Lively’s movie earning $24 million (including previews) next to the superhero blockbuster’s $15 million gross. Lively and hubby Ryan Reynolds are definitely this summer’s box office power couple, that’s for sure (don’t forget that his family movie, IF, also earned north of $100 million). It Ends With Us should finish the weekend just shy of $50 million, putting it in second place to Deadpool & Wolverine’s estimated $55 million.
Meanwhile, Neon’s Cuckoo, starring Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, is opening more modestly than the indie studio’s recent horror breakout Longlegs. It should make about $3 million this weekend, which seems weak for such a well-reviewed film (our critic loved it). To note, for all the doom and gloom reports about the summer box office, Deadline reports that year to year, this weekend is up a full 44% from a year ago, when we were smack dab in the middle of the WGA and Actor’s Guild Strikes.
What did you go see this weekend? Let us know in the comments!