The Monkey is Neon’s second highest opening ever, but Brave New World took a huge stumble at the box office in week 2.
After Captain America: Brave New World opened with a decent – but underwhelming – $100 million four-day opening last weekend, many wondered whether or not the film would be able to sustain any kind of momentum at the box office. While the movie had a better week-to-week hold than The Marvels (which fell a disastrous 78%) and Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania (-70%), the 68% week-to-week decline is still quite steep. With a $141.2 million total, it looks unlikely that the film will even be able to crack $200 million domestically unless it can rebound at the box office somewhat next weekend.
Given the film’s rumoured price tag, which could be as high as $300 million if you consider all the reshoots and the subpar B-minus CinemaScore, Marvel is no doubt disappointed in the movie’s reception, which places added pressure on both Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four: First Steps to perform, lest the notion of superhero fatigue really start to stick.
However, the news wasn’t all bad, with Neon having their second-highest opening weekend ever thanks to Osgood Perkins’s The Monkey. Despite a poor (but not unusual for horror) C+ CinemaScore rating, the film made $14.2 million, so now Perkins can say he’s responsible for the indie label’s two biggest openings ever. Unsurprisingly, Neon is hot on him, with them scheduling his next film, Keeper, for October 3rd, 2025. In fact, teaser trailers for Keeper and Neon’s big Sundance horror acquisition, Together (which we loved), played before The Monkey this weekend.
Paddington in Peru managed a decent hold at the box office, adding $6.5 million to the polite bear’s $25.2 million total. It was in heavy competition with Dog Man, which came in fourth place with $5.9 million and a total of $78.7 million domestically. The huge-grossing Chinese family movie Ne Zha 2 was right behind with just over $3 million and a $14.8 domestic total. This movie has already grossed over a billion dollars worldwide.
In sadder news, Heart Eyes, after rebounding at the box office last weekend, lost much of its date night audience this weekend to The Monkey, grossing $2.8 million (a steep 71% decline) with a $26.7 million total. It’s done ok, but will it have made enough of a profit for it to be turned into a horror franchise?
Mufasa: The Lion King added another $2.5 million to its $245 million domestic total, while Lionsgate’s The Unbreakable Boy whiffed with a poor $2.5 million opening. However, the CinemaScore for this was an excellent A, so word of mouth might boost it. Finally, the Bollywood movie Chhaava made $1.49 million in ninth place, grossing $4.7 million domestically (solid for a Bollywood movie) grossing close to $50 million worldwide. The top 10 was rounded out by the Keke Palmer/ SZA sleeper hit, One of Them Days, which made another $1.4 million for a $46 million plus domestic total. Can it crack the $50 million mark?
Next week will no doubt be a sleepy one at the box office. Only the Woody Harrelson/ Simu Liu film Last Breath will open wide, as all eyes will be on the Oscars.
