UPDATED: There was a lot riding on Warner Bros/DC’s The Flash and Disney/Pixar’s Elemental at the North American holiday weekend box office although the fact that both disappointed will not come as great surprise to Hollywood.
Both tentpoles were challenged. In the case of The Flash, a $200m-plus Ezra Miller headliner, it opened top of the charts on an estimated $55.1m over three days and earned $64.2m through Monday over the four-day Juneteenth federal holiday weekend.
The film had been tracking to open on or above $70m and there could be several reasons why it stumbled, despite a generally solid response when the studio previewed it at CinemaCon last April and good word for Miller’s performance.
Miller has been beset by personal troubles since 2022 and their absence in the marketing campaign may have had an impact even though they walked the red carpet at the premiere in Los Angeles last week.
What will also not have helped is the Writers Guild Of America strike, which commenced on May 2 and immediately forced nightly talk shows off air. Without that oxygen of publicity none of the film’s talent were able to promote the film in the weeks leading up to release. Andy Muschietti directed and the cast includes Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon and Ben Affleck.
Exit polls revealed a 63% male-skewing demographic with 70% aged over 25 and a B CinemaScore.
Disney/Pixar’s Elemental arrived in second place on an estimated $29.5m over three days in one of the lowest debuts by a Pixar film. Not only is this well behind the $182.7m brand record set by Incredibles 2 in 2018 but it trails Onward, which opened at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 on $39.1m, and Lightyear, which earned poor reviews and debuted in June 2022 on $50.6m.
Elemental emerged from Cannes with question marks hanging over it after a muted critical reception and was always going to be something of a challenge given the situation Pixar finds itself in.
Once lauded for its rare knack of producing critical and commercial hit after hit, the company – now led by Peter Docter (who directed Inside Out, Up, Soul and Monsters, Inc.) after John Lassiter was shown the exit door following allegations of misconduct – has been struggling to get back on track.
Observers say the brand suffered during the pandemic when then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek sent titles directly to Disney+ at a time when the theatrical marketplace was severely impacted by closures and fear of venturing into public places. That, observers surmise, may have taught families that the place to watch a Pixar film was on the small screen.
The film has an A CinemaScore rating and executives hope it will build up to a respectable box office through solid word of mouth in the coming weeks. Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie star in the voice cast in the immigrant-themed tale of radically diverse personalities living side-by-side in a city.
Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse added $27.3m over three days and a projected $32m over four to push the running total to a superb $284.6m through Monday. By way of comparison, 2018 predecessor Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse finished its North American run on $190.2m.
Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Oscar Isaac, Issa Rae and Daniel Kaluuya and Mahershala Ali feature among the voice cast.
Paramount/Skydance’s Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts ranked fourth on $20m over three days ans $23m over four, pushing the tally to $100.6m after two weekends.
Lionsgate opened its 2022 TIFF horror comedy The Blackening from Tim Story on an estimated $6m from 1,775 sites.
The tale of friends who reunite for a murderous Juneteenth weekend getaway cost $5m and Lionsgate picked it up from MRC following the TIFF world premiere. Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji, and Jay Pharoah star.
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