The August box office is in good shape, as Sony’s drama “It Ends With Us” scored a spectacular $24 million opening in 3,611 theaters on Friday and in previews. The adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling 2016 novel is now expected to bring in even higher earnings of over $45 million for its three-day theatrical run – a fantastic start for a drama with a production budget of just $25 million, well below the spend of a typical studio summer blockbuster.
The popularity of Hoover’s novel on TikTok and the marketing’s focus on a female audience led many analysts to believe “It Ends With Us” could perform well above previous projections. The film now appears poised for second place when it opens this weekend, coming in close to third place for Marvel’s megahit “Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Blake Lively’s spouse Ryan Reynolds. “It Ends With Us” was the highest-grossing film on opening day, even excluding the $7 million it earned in previews. Its $17 million Friday tally tops “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
In the Justin Baldoni-directed film, Lively plays a florist who falls in love with a neurosurgeon (also Baldoni), who is then forced to face harsh realities when the arrival of a childhood friend (Brandon Sklenar) complicates their relationship. Fueled by enthusiasm for Hoover’s novel and the enthusiasm of early moviegoers (audience research firm Cinema Score gave it an A-), the film has begun to feel like a franchise installment among its summer blockbusters.
Less successful was “Borderlands,” Lionsgate’s long-awaited adaptation of Take-Two’s shoot-em-and-loot-em video game series. The film grossed a meager $4 million from 3,125 theaters, despite increased ticket sales from Imax screenings and other top-tier large-format theaters. The sci-fi comedy is in serious danger of opening under $10 million – a terrible result considering its $115 million production budget. It could even come in under director Eli Roth’s last film, the modestly budgeted slasher “Thanksgiving,” which grossed eight figures when it debuted last fall.
Borderlands’ fate has been decided for some time. The supposed franchise starter is now in theaters more than three and a half years after filming began, and has received the worst reviews of any major release this summer. Even fans of the franchise who wanted to see the film as soon as possible are calling it a flop (a terrible D+ on Cinema Score).
Lionsgate has secured itself somewhat financially by recouping nearly 60% of production costs through international pre-sales. Still, the very poor response to Borderlands, which stars names as diverse as Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt and Jamie Lee Curtis, suggests that the ensemble action film is shaping up to be a significant failure in theaters.
Meanwhile, Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine is poised for another fantastic third weekend. The two-person film starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman grossed $15.6 million on Friday, just 44% less than its week-ago total. The R-rated action comedy has shown much more staying power than the typical superhero film, which usually relies more heavily on its lead actors and suffers heavy box office declines week to week. Marvel Studios’ production is expected to surpass the $500 million mark domestically shortly after the weekend. The $1 billion mark worldwide is also fast approaching; it will be one of 54 films to ever cross that threshold.
Universal rounds out the top five with its releases of “Twisters” and “Despicable Me 4.” Amblin’s disaster thriller continues to be an impressive success in North America (though its international release at Warner Bros. failed to match its U.S. momentum). “Twisters” grossed $4.4 million on Friday and is expected to post a slight 32% decline in its fourth weekend of release – the second consecutive drop below 35% for the Lee Isaac Chung-directed film. The film crossed the $200 million mark in North America earlier this week and is now among the top five domestic films of the year.
Meanwhile, Despicable Me 4 is expected to earn $8.75 million this weekend, a decline of just 24%. After opening in early July, the sequel to Illumination has been popular with family audiences through the end of the summer season. With a current box office total of $330 million, the film is the third highest-grossing North American film of the year.
Outside the top 5, Neon’s indie horror film “Cuckoo” grossed around $1.34 million from 1,503 theaters on its opening day. The psychological thriller stars “Euphoria” hit Hunter Schafer in the lead role.
