Box office report: Dunkirk holds off Emoji Movie and Atomic Blonde
Dunkirk is poised for another victory on the box office battlefield. In its second weekend, Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic is set to gross an estimated $28.1 million in the U.S. and Canada, besting new releases The Emoji Movie and Atomic Blonde to claim the No. 1 spot.
Bolstered by glowing reviews and widespread audience satisfaction (as reflected by an A-minus CinemaScore), Dunkirk declined just 44 percent in its second frame, bringing its domestic total to $102.8 million after 10 days in theaters. Nearly a quarter of that amount, $23.1 million, has come from IMAX screenings. The Warner Bros. film, which cost about $100 million to make, will also add an estimated $45.6 million in international markets this weekend, bringing its overseas total to $131.3 million.
For much of the weekend, Dunkirk appeared to be neck-and-neck with Sony Pictures Animation’s smartphone-set comedy The Emoji Movie, which is on track to finish in second place with an estimated $25.7 million, in line with studio projections.
While critics overwhelmingly gave The Emoji Movie a frowny face and audiences assigned it a CinemaScore of B (low for an animated film), Sony can take solace in the debut considering the movie cost a modest $50 million to produce.
Featuring the voices of T.J. Miller, Maya Rudolph, Christina Aguilera, Anna Faris, James Corden, Jennifer Coolidge, Sofia Vergara, and Patrick Stewart, Emoji tells the story of a meh icon who has the unusual ability to express more than one emotion.
The weekend’s other newcomer, the Charlize Theron-starring spy thriller Atomic Blonde, will land in the No. 4 spot with an estimated $18.6 million, trailing the holdover Girls Trip and its estimated $20.1 million. The former figure is a solid, if not spectacular, debut for the Focus Features film, which cost about $30 million to make. For director David Leitch, the opening is about $4 million higher than his John Wick, another stylish shoot-’em-up (which went on to get a sequel).
Based on the graphic novel The Coldest City, Atomic Blonde stars Theron as a lethal MI6 agent and also features James McAvoy, John Goodman, Eddie Marsan, and Sofia Boutella. Reviews were generally positive, with many critics singling out Theron’s performance and the inventive action, while moviegoers gave the film a B CinemaScore.
Universal’s Girls Trip holds strong in its sophomore weekend, parlaying excellent word of mouth (A+ CinemaScore) into a decline of just 36 percent. Directed by Malcolm D. Lee and starring Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Queen Latifah, the film has hauled in $65.5 million domestically, making it the most successful live-action comedy of the year.
Further down in the top 10, EuropaCorp and STX’s sci-fi fantasia Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is on pace for an estimated $6.8 million, which represents a steep second-weekend plunge of 60 percent.
On the specialty front, this weekend saw the release of Kathryn Bigelow’s riot drama Detroit, Al Gore’s environmental documentary An Inconvenient Sequel, A24’s microbudget indie Menashe, and Sony Pictures Classics’ offbeat comedy Brigsby Bear.
A week ahead of its wide rollout, Detroit will take in an estimated $365,455 from 20 locations, for a per-theater average of $18,273.
Inconvenient Sequel will gross an estimated $130,000 across four locations, for a per-theater average of $32,500; Menashe will gross an estimated $61,409 at three locations, for a per-theater average of $20,470; and Brigsby Bear will gross an estimated $45,060 at three locations, for a $15,020 per-theater average.
Per ComScore, overall box office is down 1.3 percent from the same frame from last year. Check out the July 28-30 figures below.
1. Dunkirk — $28.1 million
2. The Emoji Movie — $25.7 million
3. Girls Trip — $20.1 million
4. Atomic Blonde — $18.6 million
5. Spider-Man: Homecoming — $13.5 million
6. War for the Planet of the Apes — $10.4 million
7. Despicable Me 3 — $7.7 million
8. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets — $ 6.8 million
9. Baby Driver — $4.1 million
10. Wonder Woman — $3.5 million