Box Office Report for the Week of May 17

A quiet weekend at the cinema saw Antoine Fuqua‘s Michael climb back to the top spot of the box office, with a $26.1 million cume, adding to its global tally of $703.9 million. If a sequel isn’t in the works, you better believe it is now.

Despite a quieter weekend, Universal and Blumhouse still made a tangible impact with Curry Barker‘s Obsession, which has received rave reviews since its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year. Some changes were made once Universal acquired distribution rights to the movie, notably a slight tampering with the violence, but the buzz has been quite significant for the feature film debut of a very popular YouTuber poised to make his mark within the Hollywood ecosystem.

In fact, before Obsession was even released, Barker signed on to direct a reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for A24, which shows just how confident distributors were in the film and in the filmmaker’s prospects as a whole. The movie overperformed expectations and turned a quick profit for Universal in one weekend, grossing $16.1 million domestically and $23.1 million globally on a conservative budget of $750,000 to $1 million. Incredible.

Audiences also felt the need for a Top Gun 40th anniversary re-release, with Paramount programming both Tony Scott’s 1986 original and Joseph Kosinski‘s Top Gun: Maverick in several premium cinemas, including IMAX. Paramount also premiered a new 4K restoration of Scott’s film at Cannes (which was also shown in cinemas this weekend), and the film grossed $3.1 million, proving that moviegoers still crave a seminal motion picture of American cinema.

Small budgeted fare also made a bit of an impact, with Guy Ritchie‘s In the Grey, released with little to no fanfare (for some reason, not in Canada, and this writer has lost count at how many Ritchie films has skipped theatrical releases in his country), made $3.0 million domestically, despite top talent attached to the project in Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal and Eiza González.

Finally, Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is was also released through Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures label, and opened with $2.2 million, which could be a strong start for an independent project with strong critical buzz. While its release was fairly muted, the movie currently sits at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and has been showered with praise from audience members who saw it. In fact, this writer just came back from it, and if there’s one movie to see this weekend, it’s definitely this one. Don’t miss it.

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

1. Michael (Lionsgate): $26.1M (-31%) – 3,560 theatres
2. The Devil Wears Prada 2 (Disney): $18.0M (-57%) – 3,830 theatres
3. Obsession (Universal): $16.1M – 2,615 theatres
4. Mortal Kombat II (Warner Bros): $13.4M (-65%) – 3,534 theatres
5. The Sheep Detectives (Amazon MGM Studios): $9.3M (-38%) – 3,554 theatres
6. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Universal): $4.4M (-33%) – 2,793 theatres
7. Project Hail Mary (Amazon MGM Studios): $3.8M (-41%) – 2,177 theatres
8. Top Gun – 40th Anniversary Re-Release (Paramount): $3.1M – 2,295 theatres
9. In the Grey (Black Bear Pictures): $3.0M – 2,018 theatres
10. Is God Is (Amazon MGM Studios): $2.2M – 1,510 theatres

Source: Comscore