This year’s Easter weekend saw the release of two very different movies in wide release, Warner Bros’ “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” and Mark Wahlberg‘s real-life biopic, “Father Stu.”
The third movie in a planned five-movie prequel to Warners’ hit “Harry Potter” franchise, “The Secrets of Dumbledore” brought back the characters from the 2018 sequel, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” all except for the title character played by Johnny Depp, who was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen (“Doctor Strange”). Jude Law also got more screen time as the title character for the third chapter, but even with those notable changes, the troubled threequel ended up opening significantly lower than its predecessors. It was released into a hearty 4,208 theaters where it made $20.1 million on Friday with roughly $6 million of that amount from Thursday previews. Its estimated $43 million weekend is $19 million less than “Grindelwald” three-and-a-half years ago, and $31 million less than the first “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” opened with in 2016. At least the movie is doing better overseas, where it added another $71.7 million to its global take of $193.4 million this weekend.
With mixed reviews and a “B+” CinemaScore, “Dumbledore” really only has two weeks to make its money domestically, because it will probably lose a good number of theaters when Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” kicks off the summer movie season in May. (Look for my monthly box office preview before April winds down.)
After becoming the second-biggest opener of the year and biggest career opening for star Jim Carrey, Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” dropped to second place with an estimated $30 million, down 59% from its opening weekend, as it crossed the $100 million mark with $119.6 million
A24’s action-comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” starring Michelle Yeoh, expanded into 2,220 locations, roughly 1,000 more than last week’s wide expansion. That was enough for it to burst into the top 5 with $6.2 million to take fourth place, the well-reviewed feature from filmmaking duo Daniels having made $17.7 million so far.
Wahlberg’s real-life dramedy “Father Stu” retells the story of a tough, foul-mouthed boxer who became a Catholic priest, with Mel Gibson and Jacki Weaver co-starring. It opened early on Wednesday with previews Tuesday night, which added up to $2.3 million before the weekend, when Sony released the movie into 2,705 theaters. That was enough for it to open in fifth place with an estimated $5.7 million despite receiving even worse reviews than “Fantastic Beasts.”
Jared Leto’s “Morbius” took another plunge in its third weekend, dropping to sixth place with $4.7 million, down 53% from last weekend. It has grossed $65.1 million domestically so far, which isn’t that great, considering Sony’s awkward attempts to tie the movie into its “Spider-verse.”
Michael Bay’s action-thriller “Ambulance” also dropped significantly (down 54%) in its second weekend to seventh place (from fourth) with $4 million added to its take of $15.7 million.
A few of the movies that have desperately clung onto positions in the top 10 found themselves vexed by a mysterious entry called “K.G.F.: Chapter Two.” The Indian sequel from Prashanth Neel – which has dubbed itself the “most awaited movie ever” – was released into 800 theaters in North America, translated into a number of different languages from its native Kannada. It scored an estimated $2.9 million this weekend for a ninth place opening, but it did significantly better in India where the sequel scored the equivalent of $58.3 million, making it the second-biggest four-day opener there after “Baahubali 2” in 2017. The filmmaker of the latter went on to make “RRR,” another recent Indian hit that’s still playing in U.S. theaters.
The majority of players in Gold Derby’s weekly box office game picked “Fantastic Beasts” to win the weekend, but there was a 58 to 53 split between those who thought it would open with more than $50 million vs. those who thought it would open lower. Most players also had “Sonic 2” dropping to second place, followed by “Father Stu,” “The Lost City” and “Morbius,” although the latter lost almost as many theaters as “Everything Everywhere” gained. Only 18 players had A24’s popular word-of-mouth hit making it into the top four this weekend with 34 predicting it to take fifth place instead of “Morbius.” The fact that “The Lost City” remained in third place, followed by “Everything,” and then “Father Stu” means that the three players who had “Everything” in fourth place look to be in a good shape if they also picked the other two correctly.
A minor caveat about Easter weekend is that estimates can be a little screwy, because it’s hard to gauge how much business movies will bring in on the holiday Sunday. Because of this, there could be some shuffling in the third through fifth places once actual numbers are reported on Monday.
On Friday, three new movies will be released into more than 3,000 theaters, the first time this has happened since December. DreamWorks Animation and Universal release the animated “The Bad Guys,” while Nicholas Cage stars in Lionsgate’s “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” and filmmaker Robert Eggers (“The Witch”) returns with his Viking epic, “The Northman,” starring Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicole Kidman.
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