Five Scorchingly Hot Box Office Takes For A Disappointing $130 Million Weekend

'Superman' is now a luxury for WBD, but Blumhouse now faces an existensial crisis.

As noted in this morning’s accidental “bonus” article, this weekend’s $130 million cume is (without even adjusting for inflation) relatively low for the pre-holiday, late-June period. This is mainly due to three factors: A) fewer movies in theaters, B) Pixar’s decline as a top-tier theatrical brand, and C) a month driven mainly by underwhelming IP-for-IP extensions, such as Ballerina. However, in a healthy theatrical ecosystem, the total box office might be less important than whether the films perform well enough to justify their respective investment. 

However, even that caveat makes this weekend — which saw F1 open with $56 million in North America and $144 million worldwide, while M3GAN 2.0 struggled with $10 million domestically and $17 million globally — a little more complicated than expected. The one big hit is only (at least for now) a big hit on a relative curve, and the studio that produced it may not prove itself to be the industry’s overall benefit. So, without further ado, to those piping hot takes you came for!