Box Office Report for the Week of June 15

Interestingly enough, two remakes of Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders-directed movies are at the top of the box office. It paints a rather grim picture of the state of family entertainment (though Elio releases next week and could bring some much-needed original counterprogramming to the otherwise deserted slate we’ve had this year, minus the incredible Ne Zha 2), but there’s no denying how profitable the films have been.

Yes, the IPs are recognizable, and Lilo & Stitch is still making tons of bank as we speak, adding $15 million domestically this weekend, for a global tally of $815 million, and Universal is capitalizing hard on How to Train Your Dragon, but there is literally nothing else being offered for families but those two films. Case in point: the DeBlois-directed live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon has grossed $83.7 million domestically, as we wait to see what fate the original Elio will get next week.

Speaking of, Elio will be the first original animated film released in a cinema this year. Let that sink in. The rest of the family-driven “content” has all been sequels, remakes, or adaptations of popular video games, like A Minecraft Movie. The highest-grossing family movie of the year (and movie overall), Ne Zha 2, was a sequel to an already profitable animated film, itself based on Xu Zhonglin‘s Investiture of the Gods. As reviews will pour out for Pixar’s latest offering early next week, I’m curious to see how it will land and if word of mouth will build positively for a studio that has seemingly filled its future slate with lots of sequels…

As far as some of the smaller films this weekend, Celine Song’s Materialists had a fairly strong debut, opening at #3 with a $12.0 million domestic opening. Meanwhile, Mike Flanagan‘s The Life of Chuck expanded to more cinemas, and while it experienced a considerable boost, it still fell short of expectations, with a $2.1 million tally, despite great reviews and amazing word-of-mouth ever since its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

If you’ve seen all of the aforementioned movies, but not The Life of Chuck, run, don’t walk. That’s all I will say on this one, because I know you’ll want to thank Chuck for 39 great years as soon as the credits roll and tell everyone you love that they need to see it immediately. That’s the power that a great movie can bring to you, if you’re curious enough to step inside a dark movie theater…

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. How to Train Your Dragon (Universal): $83.7M – 4,356 theatres
2. Lilo & Stitch (Disney): $15.5M (-52%) – 3,675 theatres
3. Materialists (A24): $12.0M – 2,844 theatres
4. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Paramount): $10.3M (-31%) – 2,942 theatres
5. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (Lionsgate): $9.4M (-62%) – 3,409 theatres
6. Karate Kid: Legends (Sony): $5.0M (-42%) – 3,008 theatres
7. Final Destination Bloodlines (Warner Bros): $3.9M (-40%) – 2,138 theatres
8. The Phoenician Scheme (Universal): $3.0M (-51%) – 1,731 theatres
9. The Life of Chuck (NEON): $2.1M (+855%) – 1,072 theatres
10. Sinners (Warner Bros): $1.4M (-48%) – 951 theatres

Source: Comscore