Box Office Report for the Week of July 20

Superman still reigns supreme as the king of the box office, even though it had some relatively hefty competition with two IP-driven franchises, with a reboot of Smurfs and a requel of I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Sadly, both films didn’t fare very well, and couldn’t surpass the second-week hold Superman had, with a 54% drop and a $57.2 million domestic tally, already putting it at $406 million globally. On the other hand, I Know What You Did Last Summer opened at a meager $13 million, while Smurfs barely made an impression with a dismal $11 million opening.

Reviews for both films weren’t very kind, but this is the third failed reboot of the popular blue characters created by Belgian artist Peyo, and it doesn’t seem as if an animated studio will be getting it right anytime soon.

For I Know What You Did Last Summer, the loss won’t be as cataclysmic as Smurfs, since the film has already amassed $24.6 million globally on an $18 million budget. Even though it may not be the hit Sony had hoped, it still isn’t an outright disaster.

Meanwhile, Ari Aster’s Eddington failed to spark any fireworks (if you know, you know) at the cinemas, opening at a relatively lukewarm domestic tally of $4.2 million. It seems the appetite for COVID-related movies isn’t very present, though Aster’s status in the independent filmmaking sphere is already solidified, and its box office tally isn’t as important as some of the bigger films of the week.

That said, we’ll now be diverting our attention to the Fantastic Four, with Marvel set to make its grand return on the big screen after the unfortunate commercial failures of both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*. Could it overtake Superman‘s reign? Could it become the highest-grossing movie of the weekend? There’s one way to find out, but it’ll certainly be an interesting DC vs. Marvel battle to actively look forward to!

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

1. Superman (Warner Bros/DC Studios): $57.2M (-54%) – 4,275 theatres
2. Jurassic World Rebirth (Universal): $23.4M (-42%) – 3,854 theatres
3. I Know What You Did Last Summer (Sony): $13.0M – 3,206 theatres
4. Smurfs (Paramount): $11.0M – 3,504 theatres
5. F1 The Movie (Warner Bros/Apple TV+): $9.6M (-26%) – 3,094 theatres
6. How to Train Your Dragon (Universal): $5.3M (-32%) – 2,835 theatres
7. Eddington (A24): $4.2M – 2,111 theatres
8. Elio (Disney): $2.0M (-50%) – 2,035 theatres
9. Lilo & Stitch (Disney): $1.5M (-45%) – 1,325 theatres
10. 28 Years Later (Sony): $1.3M (-51%) – 1,219 theatres

Source: Comscore