It was an easy win for Despicable Me 3 at the box office as it came in at number one despite debuting below initial box office tracking.
The four day take looks to come in at $86.9 million thanks to an estimated surge at today’s box office. The day before fourth of July is playing a bit like a Sunday as the box office will cool down a bit tomorrow due to audiences spending time at BBQ’s and watching the fireworks.
Tracking had the film coming in with $85-100 million over the three days so there is a bit of franchise fatigue at play here, which has seemed to be the trend of the summer. Despite coming in below expectations, this is a modestly budgeted film with a price tag of about $70 million so Universal has another hit on its hands, despite not coming in where tracking had placed it.
The real star of the weekend is our second place finisher, Baby Driver. Through six days (the film opened up last Wednesday) Driver has grossed an estimated $34.25 million which is an excellent showing for a film that isn’t tied to a franchise, a reboot or some rehash of a rehash. This is an original idea and thankfully the public has responded in a very positive way to the film. With its excellent critical showing and growth it has seen since opening Wednesday, I think strong word of mouth could carry this one to some solid grosses in the weeks to come.
Our last new opener missed the top 5 by landing at number 6 with fairly dismal results. The House has grossed an estimated $11.9 million over 5 days and even though that doesn’t look horrible on paper, it’s still way below expectations and continues the trend of comedy not hitting big at the box office. Industry insiders have claimed that we haven’t seen a legit comedic hit since last summer’s Central Intelligence as many comedies since then have underperformed or outright bombed. The House is now added to this list as it will probably fade pretty quickly in the weeks to come.
Check out the full top ten results below (results are for the weekend 3 day estimates)
1 Despicable Me 3 $72.4 million
2 Baby Driver $29.5 million
3 Transformers: The Last Knight $16.8 million
4 Wonder Woman $15.7 million
5 Cars 3 $9.4 million
6 The House $8.7 million
7 47 Meters Down $4.49 million
8 The Beguiled $3.1 million
9 The Mummy (2017) $2.9 million
10 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales $2.5 million
