As expected, the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt-led film, “Jungle Cruise,” topped the box office in its debut weekend. To add to the reported $30 million, it made on Disney+ Premiere Access, it also took in another $61,830,000 worldwide ($34.2 million domestically) in its first weekend. The film was certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 63% consensus from critics, it also holds an Audience Score of 93%, proving to be a hit with moviegoers. The Disney+ Premiere Access experiment has proven to work for Disney all things considered. “Cruella,” “Black Widow,” and now “Jungle Cruise” all had impressive debuts theatrically and on Disney+ with the $30 fee. While there is some controversy surrounding the breaching of contracts with this model, it is still a positive sign that movies goers are willing to still go to the theater for these tentpole films even if there was more money to be made if it was exclusively theatrical. There aren’t any other Disney movies planned for this hybrid model at this time, but it will be interesting to see if that plan changes.
A24’s epic fantasy film, “The Green Knight,” opened domestically to a nice $6,784,000 while playing in 2,790 theaters (about 1,500 less screens than Jungle Cruise). “The Green Knight” has been a hit with critics, with a healthy 89% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but the same cannot be said for all audience members, as it has an Audience Score of 54%. The film is a slow burn, and those expecting a story on the scale of “Lord of the Rings” will likely be disappointed. This misconception could potentially impact its performance in the coming weeks, but as it stands, a debut of $6.8 million is pretty good for a film not based on a huge property.
“Stillwater,” starring Matt Damon, was the third film to debut this weekend. Its $5,120,000 gross was actually better than expected, and it was good enough to round out the top five at the box office.
Old came in just $24,000 less than “The Green Knight” in its second weekend domestically, but that is a 59.9% drop from its first weekend. That pushes it past the $30 million mark for its domestic take-in, but is a steep drop. “Snake Eyes” fell even harder, a 70.1% drop is brutal, resulting in a mere $4 million gross domestically, which is especially unfortunate for a film that is attempting to set up a larger universe.
The rest of the box office wasn’t overly-notable. “Space Jam: A New Legacy: made another $4,265,000 which put its overall gross past $200 million worldwide. “F9: The Fast Saga,” “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions,” and “The Forever Purge” all seem to be slowly tapping out as every week passes by.
With “The Suicide Squad” coming out this weekend, its only real competition will be “Jungle Cruise,” which will be in its second weekend. “The Suicide Squad” has also had very positive reactions coming out of press screenings, even pushing it so far to tie the record held by “Black Panther” of a 96% approval score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, so expect John Cena to once again take down Dwayne Johnson.
