Box office: ‘The Garfield Movie’ saunters into first place during a downer of a May closing weekend

It’s a fairly rare weekend at the box office when there are five new wide releases, but it’s even rare when none of those movies even crack the top six. Read on for the weekend box office report.

After one of the worst Memorial Day weekends in decades, the transition weekend between May and June wasn’t going to be much better with none of the new releases opening in more than 2,000 theaters. That wasn’t helped by the fact that Disney, the one major studio in the mix, decided to dump their latest well-reviewed movie into a few hundred theaters with very little fanfare.

After settling for second place over Memorial Day, Sony Pictures’ animated “The Garfield Movie” moved into first place with an estimated $14 million, down just 42% from its three-day opening weekend, to bring its domestic total to $51.6 million. Overseas, the Chris Pratt-starring family film added another $41 million with an $8.2 million opening in China and expansions to Australia ($2 million) and Poland ($2.4 million) to bring its global total to $152.2 million with $100.6 million of that from international.

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Of course, “Garfield’s” chart-topping victory meant that “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” took second place, right? Not so fast.

John Krasinski‘s family film, “IF,” ended up with an estimated $10.8 million (down 33%) over the weekend to bring its domestic total to $80.4 million. That gives it two weeks to try to make it to $100 million before Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” steals all of its family audiences.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. is reporting George Miller‘s action prequel to have made an estimated $10.75 million in its second weekend, down 59% from its disappointing opening and bringing its North American total to $49.7 million since opening before Memorial Day. Being that there is only a $50,000 difference between the two movies, things can still go either way depending on actual numbers for Sunday, which will be reported Monday afternoon. Overseas, “Furiosa” continues to do better with another $21 million this weekend for a global total of $114.4 million, which still isn’t very good.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” remained in fourth place with $8.8 million, down 34% from last weekend, to bring its domestic total to $140 million, the best showing for a movie going back to March. Overseas, the apes added another $15.2 million to bring its international total to $197.1 million and global total to $337 million.

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt‘s “The Fall Guy” held up well in its fifth weekend, dropping just 30% to remain in fifth place with $4.2 million and bringing its domestic total to $80.3 million. It’s at $77.6 overseas for a worldwide total of $157.9 million, which wouldn’t be bad if the movie hadn’t cost a reported $130 to $150 million before marketing.

Lionsgate’s “The Strangers: Chapter 1” continues to do decently for a horror film, holding onto sixth place with $3.6 million, down 35% from Memorial Day weekend, with a domestic total of $28.4 million. Considering the cost of this planned trilogy, this is already working out better for Lionsgate than the efforts by Universal to reboot “The Exorcist.”

Crunchyroll’s latest Anime film, “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” opened in just 1,119 theaters, but it did the best of the new movies. After making $800k in Thursday previews beginning at 4pm, it ended up with an estimated $3.5 million for the weekend to open in seventh place. It ended up making $8 million this weekend in 38 global markets, including North America.

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Chris Nash‘s gory slasher film, “In a Violent Nature,” released by IFC Films and Shudder into 1,426 theaters where it made $2.1 million or $1,487 per theater, which isn’t bad for an indie film with no big name stars.

By comparison, Bleecker Street released Tony Goldwyn‘s “Ezra,” starring Bobby Cannavale, Robert De Niro, Rose Byrne and newcomer William A. Fitzgerald, into 1,320 theaters, but it only brought in $1.2 million, averaging $894 per location, but still allowing it a place on the low end of the Top 10.

Angel Studios’ “Sight” barely held onto its place in the top 10 with a 61% drop in its second weekend to add $1.1 million for a domestic total of $5.9 million.

Then there was the Roadside Pictures comedy, “Summer Camp,” starring Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, Eugene Levy and Dennis Haysbert, which received horrid reviews but still was released into 1,787 theaters, the widest of the new releases. It only made $100k in Thursday previews, and reportedly, it made just over a million for the weekend. It was also the only new wide release this weekend to report to audience poller CinemaScore, and it got a “C” for its efforts.

Neon also expanded Ilana Glazer‘s comedy, “Babes,” into more than 1,100 theaters on Friday, but that wasn’t enough to remain in the top 10 as it brought in an estimated $910k to bring its total to $2.7 million.

Meanwhile, Disney’s biopic “Young Woman and the Sea,” starring Daisy Ridley, was released into a few hundred theaters, but oddly, the Mouse House decided not to formally report a theater count or even any box office despite the movie receiving stellar reviews. Apparently, this was always meant as a Disney+ release and its release into theaters was just for awards consideration.

The Viggo Mortensen-directed Western “The Dead Don’t Hurt,” co-starring Vicky Krieps (“Phantom Thread”) opened in 735 theaters this weekend, but only grossed an estimated $354k, which wasn’t enough to get into the top 10.

Meanwhile, Pablo Berger‘s Oscar-nominated animated movie, “Robot Dreams,” only opened in two theaters in New York City but was able to make $32,000, which isn’t bad for a movie that NEON is taking a slower approach with its release strategy.

Roughly a third of Gold Derby’s players picked “Garfield” to move into first place in the box office prediction game, but only ONE SINGLE PLAYER predicted “IF” to move into second place, so if that pans out, someone is going to have some serious bragging rights coming their way. (Spoiler: It wasn’t me.)

Twelve players got perfect scores in the May 24 box office game with “dean317” and “Pick Me” both using their Super Bets wisely to score over 69,000 points – “dean317” somehow ended up with five points more.

June looks to pick up on Friday with the return of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and Ishana Shyamalan‘s fantasy-thriller, “The Watchers,” so check back on Wednesday for the weekly weekend preview.

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