Box-Office Preview: ‘Wonder Woman’ to Bury ‘The Mummy’
The monster movie reboot has taken a drubbing by critics; psychological horror film ‘It Comes at Night’ and drama ‘Megan Leavey’ also launch this weekend.
One of Hollywood’s most classic monsters looks like it will be no match for an Amazonian princess-turned-superhero at the North American box office this weekend.
If prerelease tracking is correct, Universal’s The Mummy reboot, starring Tom Cruise, might have trouble scaring up more than $35 million from 4,000 theaters, putting intense pressure on the movie’s foreign performance.
In the U.S., Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman will easily stay at No. 1 in its second weekend with as much as $50 million after opening to a historic $103.3 million — the top domestic launch of all time for a female director — and whipping up strong midweek business for a $138.7 million domestic total through Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, at least one major tracking service further downgraded its forecast for The Mummy from $35 million to $33 million, whereas the same service predicted $40 million several weeks ago. One likely culprit for the latest tweak are poor reviews, which hit Wednesday. The summer event film currently sports a 22 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, tying with Losin’ It (1983) to mark the worst aggregated score of Cruise’s acting career behind 1988’s Cocktail (5 percent).
The Mummy, which is launching Universal’s new Dark Universe franchise, is instead counting on a huge international showing, where the pic bows in almost every major market. Already, it has scored the biggest opening day of all time in South Korea with nearly $7 million. Directed by Alex Kurtzman, the modern-day action film cost $125 million to make after tax rebates and also stars Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson and Courtney B. Vance.
Two other movies open nationwide this weekend: the psychological horror film It Comes at Night and the drama Megan Leavey, starring Kate Mara as a young Marine fighting in Iraq and a bomb-sniiffing combat dog named Rex.
It Comes at Night, from indie distributor A24, is projected to gross $6 million to $7 million from an estimated 2,500 theaters. The critically acclaimed film was directed by Trey Edward Shults (Krisha) and cost less than $5 million to produce. Joel Edgerton, Riley Keough, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo and Kelvin Harrison Jr. also star.
Bleecker Street’s Megan Leavey is based on a real-life story, with Gabriela Cowperthwaite directing. Edie Falco and Common also star.