Four turtles, a shark, some dolls, and an atomic bomb walk into a theater…. box office success ensues.
While Barbie is still queen bee at the box office for the third weekend in a row, there’s a fierce battle for second place this weekend, which is great to see for the industry. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Meg 2, and Oppenheimer are all neck and neck this weekend with $28-30 million each, but at this point rank is almost irrelevant. They ALL exceeded expectations.
After this weekend, the 2023 domestic box office is soaring past $6 billion; +22% over the same January-August timeframe a year ago.
Perhaps it’s because the slate of movies that have come out this summer are bigger, and more compelling than what came out a year ago.
After all compared to 2022, Oppenheimer > Nope. Elemental > Lightyear. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles > DC’s League of Super-Pets. And Barbie > Where The Crawdads Sing. Simply put, the July/August movies this year are more popular with audiences.
Barbie is still at #1, earning another $53 million for a total of $460 domestically, passing Wonder Woman as the highest grossing film EVER directed or written by a woman.
Credit again to the film’s clever hook, stellar marketing, perfect cast, and direction from Greta Gerwig.
Worldwide, it’s already at $1.03 billion after 3 weeks! Yes, it’s earned a “Barbillion” worldwide. Wow.
The Meg 2: The Trench exceeded expectations for its studio Warner Bros., with a $30 million opening (the industry was expecting $20 million).
However, the audience and critic scores in America are quite terrible (a “B-“ cinemascore compared to the first Meg’s “B+”), indicating that the sequel is not at all thrilling. Apparently, you also don’t even see the titular Megaladon shark until nearly an hour into the film.
But in the end, there’s always an appetite for stupid fun shark movies or “creature features”, especially in the dog-days of August when audiences are hungry for a fluffy action adventure film.
The Meg 2 also did open strong overseas ($145 million worldwide, including a $53 million opening in China, the home of the films costar Wu Jing).
So the film may still end with near $300 million worldwide. That may be just enough to recoup the films $130 million budget.
Interesting to note, the studio is reporting The Meg 2’s opening was largely fueled by interest from TV spots and in-theater trailers, and not promotions from the cast (like Jason Statham) due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
We’ll see if future films without cast promotion can replicate this success during the ongoing Actors and Writers strike.
Oppenheimer earned another $29.12 million in its third weekend, for a total of $228.5 million in the U.S.
It’s on track to eventually pass Inception ($291 million in the U.S.), for $300+ million in the U.S. and $750-$850 million worldwide. That would make it the highest grossing Christopher Nolan film ever, besides The Dark Knight. Spectacular! And on just a $100 million budget.
Personally, I’m still somewhat shocked that a film with such a grim tone, an apocalyptic subject matter, and a dense 3 hour runtime is playing like one of the biggest and best blockbusters of the year.
Credit again to Director Christopher Nolan, for making this story about “the most important man who ever lived” as accessible and entertaining as it is. You’ll love to see it.
Lastly this weekend, despite being the 7th iteration in the Turtles franchise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem written by and starring Seth Rogen, opened very well, with $28 million over the 3-day weekend and $43 million over the 5 day weekend.
But the most encouraging stats comes from the audience scores: moviegoers are loving this film, more than any other previous in the franchise.
Critics gave this a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, comparing the films’ tremendous animation to the SpiderVerse films.
Add that with an “A” grade from Cinemascore, and a Postmark Audience score of 88% “positive” and 70% “definitely recommend” (kids under 12 gave it a 94% “positive” score), audiences are loving the fresh new take on this franchise.
From the look of this Turtles film, with its grungy New York art style, 90’s hiphop soundtrack, charming voice acting and characters, this is the best these Turtles movies have ever been.
Given the amazing word of mouth, there’s enough ooze to keep this family film playing throughout the month of August and September.
Worldwide? I would expect $300 million-$350 million. And the best part: the films’ budget is only $70 million! Cowabunga!
In the end, with movies about Toys, Turtles, Sharks, and Bombs, the top 4 films all did exceedingly well at the box office this weekend. Why?
Because they all offered something different than anything else in the marketplace, with concepts, subject matter, and characters you couldn’t get anywhere else. Maybe there is a way to re-engage that portion of the public who swore off theaters for the comfort of their couch.
Zan Hollywood Box Office - Analysis Site 
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