Ghostface can continue his murder spree gleefully rolling on for another few beats; Scream 6 roared into the weekend with high projections and did not disappoint with $44.5 million, the best of the series. That’s nearly a 50% jump from last year’s Scream (and the highest Scream debut since 2000’s Scream 3) and further attests that the series can forge on without its major player (Neve Campbell), similar to Creed 3‘s lacking of Sylvester Stallone. Perhaps franchise veterans do not need to stick around for continued sequels/reboots? Another discussion for another day. In any case, if it legged out like its predecessor last year, we could be looking at a $95-105 million domestic run and around $170 million worldwide. Keep the wins rolling, Paramount; maybe Mission Impossible 7 will blow the summer train away.
Meanwhile, dam Driver’s 65 is in another boat with underwhelming and shocking waves. On the one hand, its $12.3 million debut is notable for a non-IP-related feature. However, it comes at the cost of underwhelming reviews and non-feasible post legs when it’ll try to hang on against Shazam 2 and John Wick 4 in the coming weeks. Audiences may be pleased it’s another “de-facto” dinosaur film, but when it’s not in the same realm as Jurassic World, then it’ll tank even further. The one similarity between Dominion and this is the gap between audiences’/critics’ standpoints on expectations. In the end, it probably won’t gain enough to be profitable.
Creed 3 dipped 53% in its second weekend, but it’ll top $100 million domestic and looks to reach $150-160 million domestic once its run ends. Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors are adding to their growing star power with this feat. Nothing can stop the duo if the word is accurate about their continued collaboration going forward.
The same can’t be said for Marvel for the moment, though. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania added $7 million in its fourth weekend for a domestic total slightly under $200 million (which it’ll pass on Monday or Tuesday). With slightly under $450 million, there’s a scary chance it might not even break $500 million worldwide (under the likes of Maleficent 2 and Oz: The Great and Powerful). Had Kevin Feige promoted this threequel as another “funzie film” instead of a critical feature that kickstarted Phase 5, we would’ve seen more grace from the film’s mediocrity. Marvel fatigue has started to hit a cornucopia of folks, especially when Marvel films/TV shows release every other month now, hurting the interconnected storytelling as a new hero hits the screen every other day. Granted, not all look horrendous going ahead as James Gunn is wrapping up his Guardians trilogy, and Nia DaCosta will make her MCU debut with The Marvels. But, in the grand perception now, Christmas seems to come every quarter with a new Marvel feature. A reset of how the tales are presented going forward may allow Disney to salvage their S-tier status with the “superheroes save the world every weekend” cliche.
Cocaine Bear added $6.2 million in its third weekend, while Jesus Revolution added $5.175 million to its total in the US. And Avatar: The Way of Water keeps creeping closer to $2.3 billion. As a side note, March continues to look strong for the next two weekends, with projections remaining high and wide, a sign of wonders for a box office resurrecting from pandemic times.
Next weekend sees the release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
