The horror genre got its redemption over the weekend after a slew of lackluster releases that have underwhelmed since the start of 2020. The Invisible Man, bolstered by great reviews, a solid marketing campaign & its appeal to older audiences, opened at the top of the box office this weekend and it gives Blumhouse Productions yet another hit to celebrate.
The Invisible Man grossed $28.2 million over the weekend, besting its $25 million tracking and thus kicking off a great start for a film that only cost $7 million to make. There is an indication that word of mouth could be significant moving forward. The film scored a “B+” CinemaScore which is great for horror and it carries an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (to go along with its 90% fresh rating with critics). The film also did something that horror movies rarely do and it actually increased business on Saturday versus its debut on Friday by 12.1%. The Invisible Man did not play like a front-loaded horror movie. Rather, it was more a thriller (i.e. Universal/Amblin’s Girl on the Train saw a Friday-to-Saturday increase of +3% on its way to a $24.5 million opening weekend). The Saturday bounce for The Invisible Man isn’t that far from Split‘s +13% and is in the same teen percentile orbit as Get Out (+17%). Internationally, the film added another $20.2 million from 47 markets for a $49.2 million global debut.
Falling to number two is Sonic The Hedgehog which grossed $16.2 million. The film dropped 37.9% which is a much better hold than last weekend which was heftier because it was coming off of the holiday weekend. Sonic has now grossed $128.5 million at the domestic box office & it’s likely going to top the $144 million of Detective Pikachu to becomes the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all-time. Internationally, Sonic added another $26.8 million from 62 markets for a $137.2 million overseas total.
In third we have The Call of the Wild which grossed $13.3 million. That’s a drop of 46.1% which is a tad heavy for a family-oriented film and especially steep considering the film’s reported $125 million budget. Yesterday we posted up a story that the film is set to lose about $50 million for the studio and that’s because they allowed the budget to get out of hand to create the CGI canine companion of the story. The Call of the Wild has grossed $46 million at the domestic box office & internationally, the film added another $11 million this weekend for an overseas gross totaling $33.4 million and a global tally that stands at $79.3 million.
Opening surprisingly well in fourth place is My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising with $5.7 million. This is a FUNimation Entertainment release of a popular anime series based on a Japanese manga. These releases tend to do well on opening weekend because the fans rush out immediately and then they fade quickly but I’m still always surprised the fanbase is so strong domestically to push these films into the top five at the box office. FUNimation Entertainment was also behind Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which crashed the top ten for a week in January of 2019 with a $9.8 million opening weekend. That film ultimately grossed $30.7 million at the domestic box office by the end of its run.
Rounding out the top five is Bad Boys For Life with $4.3 million. Down $25.6%, the film is ever so close to joining the $200 million club and that’s going to happen any day now. Bad Boys For Life has grossed $194.7 million at the domestic box office and internationally the film pushed its overseas total to $208 million for a $406 million global haul, approximately $8 million behind the worldwide total for the first two films combined. Even though it came at the start of the year, Bad Boys For Life is likely going to be viewed as one of the true success stories of the 2020 box office year when it’s all said and done.
Check out the full top ten results below:
| Film | Total | % Change | Gross to Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onward | $10,601,952 | -72.9% | $60.3 |
| Bloodshot | $9,176,695 | NEW | $9.17 |
| I Still Believe | $9,103,614 | NEW | $9.10 |
| The Invisible Man | $5,890,805 | -61.1% | $64.3 |
| The Hunt | $5,304,455 | NEW | $5.3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | $2,522,584 | -67.3% | $145.7 |
| The Way Back | $2,356,115 | -71.2% | $13.3 |
| The Call of the Wild | $2,226,720 | -67.1% | $62 |
| Emma. | $1,295,215 | -73% | $9.9 |
| Bad Boys for Life | $1,102,208 | -63.5% | $204.2 |
