‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ (Photo credit: Sony Pictures)
Sony Pictures/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home easily won the box office derby in its second outing last weekend as Paramount’s horror movie Crawl and Fox’s action comedy Stuber were D.O.A.
Universal’s coming-of-age comedy Booksmart is another case of a movie which critics adored, scoring a 97 per cent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but failed to engage with audiences, except at Cinema Nova.
Meanwhile Richard Lowenstein’s feature doc Mystify: Michael Hutchence reached $761,000 after notching $179,000 in its second weekend on 79 screens for Madman Entertainment.
The second weekend drop of 51 per cent due to loss of screens prompted Madman MD Paul Wiegard to tell IF: “We were very disappointed that a number of the multiplex sites played the film for a single week, despite the strong results. On the positive front, the top 30 sites are very healthy and the film will certainly move through $1 million.
“We have an additional 12 new locations starting this Thursday. Since 2000, only seven Australian feature documentaries have grossed more than $1 million.”
Driven by the family and kids’ fare, the top 20 titles delivered $21.4 million, down 17 per cent on the previous frame, according to Numero.
The Spider-Man sequel directed by Jon Watts banked $6.5 million, easing by 37 per cent, hoisting the total to $28.7 million, past the lifetime cume of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017.
The superhero adventure starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Samuel L. Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Aussies Remy Hii and Angourie Rice has generated $847 million globally, within slinging distance of Spider-Man 3 ($891 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($880.2 million).
Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4 flew to $34.5 million after making $5.1 million in its fourth orbit. Directed by Josh Cooley, the comedy voiced by Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Tony Hale, Annie Potts, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele and Keanu Reeves has racked up $346.4 million in the US and $424.7 million in the rest of the world for a global cume of $771.1 million.
Universal/Illumination’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 drew $2.3 million in its fourth, lifting the total to $15.6 million. The animated adventure comedy directed by Chris Renaud and co-directed by Jonathan del Val has clocked a mediocre $147.1 million in the US and $298.5 million worldwide.
Universal/Working Title’s Yesterday warbled its way to $9.7 million after snaring $1.6 million in its third stanza, outshining the US, where the Danny Boyle-directed fantasy romantic musical has orchestrated $48.3 million.
Disney’s Aladdin vaulted to $960.2 million, with international’s $628.7 million dwarfing domestic’s $331.5 million. Here, the Guy Ritchie-directed musical fantasy stands at $34 million after adding $872,000 in its eighth outing.
New Line/Warner Bros’ Annabelle Comes Home garnered $661,000 in its third, advancing to $5 million, beating the $601,000 debut by Crawl. Pro-rata, that is way below the estimated US opening of $12 million for the Alexandre Aja-directed movie that stars Kaya Scodelario as a young woman who becomes trapped in a flooding house during a hurricane and must battle against Florida’s most feared predators.
Directed by Michael Dowse and starring Kumail Nanjiani as a mild-mannered Uber driver who foolishly picks up a grizzled cop played by Dave Bautista, Stuber took a dismal $555,000. That was no surprise given the Fox production opened with $8 million in the US, released by Disney.
The directing debut of Olivia Wilde, Booksmart grossed $444,000 on 221 screens and $498,000 including previews. The comedy starring Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein (sister of Superbad’s Jonah Hill) as best friends who hit the party scene as they get ready to graduate from high school had already bombed in the US and the UK.
The highest-grossing location was Cinema Nova, where GM Kristian Connelly said the film clicked with sophisticated moviegoers. Strong word-of-mouth saw Mystify’s takings jump by 14 per cent over the first weekend at Nova.
Roadshow’s US romantic drama After sank by 52 per cent to $409,000 in its second outing. Directed by Jenny Gage and starring Josephine Langford as a college student who begins a turbulent relationship with a “bad boy” (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin), the film has taken $1.8 million, a respectable performance in light of the $12 million US total.