“The Meg 2: The Trench” made $3.2 million in Thursday previews
“Barbie” has officially surpassed $400 million at the domestic box office. The Greta Gerwig-led blockbuster earned $11.8 million on Thursday to hit the 14-day milestone. The $145 million-budget Mattel toy adaptation is expected to top $1 billion worldwide this weekend, maybe as early as Friday. It has already surpassed “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” to become the world’s biggest earner this summer. Not a bad way to celebrate Gerwig’s 40th birthday.
“Barbie” ahead of “Super Mario Bros. »
With the caveat that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” opened on a Wednesday, “Barbie” already surpasses this video game adaptation. The Illumination/Universal toon had earned $366 million on Day 14 and $376 million on Thursday before its third weekend. Assuming similar legs from now on, “Barbie” should climb to $640 million. That would be beyond “The Avengers” ($623 million) and “The Last Jedi” ($620 million). If it tops “Jurassic World” ($653 million), it will break into the top ten of all time. If it tops “Top Gun: Maverick” ($719 million), it will be in the top five.
It will pass “Wonder Woman” ($413 million) on Friday to become Warner Bros. third highest national grosser behind “The Dark Knight Rises” ($450 million) and “The Dark Knight” ($533 million). The Margot Robbie/Ryan Gosling comedy fantasy is almost certain to become, without inflation, WB’s biggest national hit.
In terms of worldwide revenue, it could/should surpass “The Dark Knight” ($1 billion), “The Dark Knight Rises” ($1.05 billion) and “Aquaman” ($1.15 billion) in the next few days, which puts it just below “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II ($1.345 billion) among WB’s biggest worldwide hits.” If it tops the latest Harry Potter movie, it will also top “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.35 billion) as the biggest global earner of 2023.
The picture continues to perform well beyond even the most optimistic expectations, showing again that Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t need to be fully defined by DC Comics and JK Rowling’s Wizarding World and again showing that great movies featuring/for women can be just as big as ones featuring/for guys. Whatever “lessons” Hollywood may have learned from “Top Gun: Maverick” last year, well, let’s see what lessons they learned from “Barbie.”
“The Meg 2” starts slower
The other new release from Warner Bros. Discovery’s “The Meg 2: The Trench” grossed $3.2 million in preview revenue. That’s below the $4 million total earned by “The Meg” on Thursday in August 2018. hope is eternal.
However, reviews are almost uniformly negative (28% and 4.8/10 on Rotten Tomatoes), it’s been five years and all the oxygen has been sucked in by Barbenheimer or ongoing work stoppages. Still, shark movies have a certain basic appeal. See also: “Deep Blue Sea” and “The Shallow”. It’s debatable whether audiences will care if critics like a film featuring a beloved action star once again battling various undersea monsters. The first “Meg” earned “only” 46% on Rotten Tomatoes and still far exceeded pre-release expectations.
Of course, if audiences don’t like it much more than critics, or if Thursday’s figure leans toward a more preloaded opening weekend (say closer to 13% weekend vs. 10%), then we might see an opening closer to $25 million than $35 million. Considering the “people were just curious the first time around” factor with franchises of this nature, an opening weekend closer to $35 million than $25 million would arguably be a modest win.
The real action will be how the Chinese-Hollywood co-production will perform in China. “The Meg” earned $155 million in North America and $155 million in China for a worldwide total of $530 million. It is hoped that the inclusion of Chinese mega-star Wu Jing in a co-starring role will help the film buck the trend of underperforming Hollywood tentpoles.
2023-08-04 23:05:23
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