Box office: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s ‘The Fall Guy’ stumbles with $28.5 million May opening
When Universal decided to jump on the first weekend of May, a slot normally taken up by Marvel’s popular superhero movies, they were hoping the combo of “Barbenheimer” stars, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, would make “The Fall Guy” a huge early summer hit. That’s not what happened. Read on for the weekend box office report.
Going into the weekend, “The Fall Guy” had everything going for it, from two of the biggest Oscar-nominated stars from 2023’s biggest blockbusters – one who recently hosted “Saturday Night Live” to great success – plus reviews had been great going back to its premiere at the SXSW Film and TV Festival. Universal even screened the movie for exhibitors (i.e. theater owners) at the annual CinemaCon to get excitement going for the start of the summer movie season.
On Friday, Universal opened “The Fall Guy” nationwide into 4,002 theaters, another indicator that many were expecting a huge hit, as is often the case with early May releases. Instead, it only made $3.2 million in Thursday and earlier previews, which added up to just under $10.5 million for its opening day, and it then ended up making an estimated $28.5 million for the weekend, which is well on the lower end of most predictions.
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In fact, it has achieved the worst May kick-off weekend (pandemic not-withstanding) since 2005, when Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven” opened against the horror film, “House of Wax,” and eventual Best Picture winner, “Crash.” A year later, Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible III” launched the summer movie season with $47.7 million, which wasn’t considered good for the time. The following May opened with “Spider-Man 3” and its $151 million opening, and then 2008 launched “Iron Man” and the MCU, which has grabbed that opening May weekend ever since, skipping 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic.
At least audience reactions might turn things around for “The Fall Guy,” as it received an “A-” CinemaScore, and overseas, it added another $25.4 million this weekend for a global total of $65 million since opening a few weeks back.
Zendaya‘s tennis drama “Challengers” had some serious competition for its second Friday from two new releases (one a re-release, actually). The big spoiler for the weekend ended up being Lucasfilm and Disney’s decision to re-release George Lucas‘ 1999 “Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace” into 2,700 theaters to celebrate its 25th anniversary (and the ersatz “May the 4th Star Wars Day”). It ended up grossing $8.1 million over the weekend, almost $3,000 per theater, which was enough to take second place.
SEE Box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million
“Challengers” dropped to third place with $7.6 million, down 49% from its opening weekend, having grossed $29.5 million in its first ten days of domestic release.
Sony offered up the high-concept horror of “Tarot” into 3,104 theaters, hiding reviews until the last minute, for obvious reasons once they hit on Thursday afternoon with just 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. It wasn’t too big a surprise when it opened in fourth place with $6.5 million, just over $2,000 per location, but it also received a terrible “C-” CinemaScore, showing that audiences clearly didn’t like the movie much more than critics.
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” dropped to fifth place with $4.5 million, down 38%, as it continues to do well with a wide variety of North American audiences, with $188 million grossed domestically so far.
Alex Garner‘s “Civil War” dropped to sixth place with $3.6 million (down 50%), which brings its total over $62 million, officially making it A24’s second highest-grossing movie ever domestically.
The biggest drop of the weekend was Lionsgate’s “Unsung Hero,” which dropped from second place all the way down to seventh with an estimated $3 million, which is a 61% drop from its opening weekend, bringing its domestic total to $13.1 million.
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It was followed in eighth and ninth place by Universal’s animated “Kung Fu Panda 4” with $2.4 million (down 33%) and the horror film, “Abigail,” with $2.3 million, which is down 56%. “Kung Fu Panda 4” has grossed $188.4 million domestically, which makes it DreamWorks Animation’s biggest hit since “Madagascar 3” way back in 2012.
A24 released Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow,” starring Justice Smith (“Jurassic World”), into four theaters in New York and L.A. where it racked up an estimated $116k, averaging $29,085 per venue. Plans are to expand it into a nationwide release on May 17.
Most players had “The Fall Guy” winning the weekend with $25 to $50 million in the Gold Derby box office prediction game, with “Challengers” taking second place, but as mentioned above, “The Phantom Menace” entered theaters as a major spoiler, opening in second place. Only 12 players picked that to happen, while 26 players had “Challengers” dropping to third place and a few more had “Tarot” opening in fourth.
On the other hand, four players got perfect scores in the April 26 box office game, while regular board leader “Mellow Drama” had to settle for the third-best point score, surpassed by “DanC,” “paulhardister,” and “Jason.”
The big movie coming out this Friday is 20th Century’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” so check back on Wednesday for the weekend preview of how that might do.
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