Box Office: 'New Avengers' Tops Weekend, 'Clown in a Cornfield' Breaks Out, 'Karate Kid: Legends' Nabs $5.7M Overseas
'Sinners' is still holding firm, with a new $214 million domestic and $284 million worldwide total, while 'Shadow Force' and 'Fight or Flight' both bombed.
As noted yesterday, this weekend’s total of around $87 million will be nearly 40% below the same weekend in 2017, which was the last pre-COVID such “second weekend of May” that wasn’t complicated by an Avengers mega-movie opening in late April. On one hand, Hollywood needs to start making more of the kind of films (namely female-skewing dramas, rom-coms and thrillers) that could serve as so-called counterprogramming to the summer’s first tentpole. Once upon a time, the likes of Fox’s The Other Woman and New Line’s Monster-in-Law opened just before or after the official kick-off flick and more than pulled their weight. Heck, it wasn’t so long ago that second-weekend-of-summer flicks like WB’s The Great Gatsby ($354 million on a $105 million budget in 2013) and Universal’s Neighbors ($270 million/$17 million in 2014) played like minitentpoles unto themselves right alongside the early-May Marvel movie.
That said, we’re, at least temporarily, at a point where we don’t have to obsessively compare each weekend total to the respective weekend total from last year or the last decade, simply because there seem to be quite a few movies being offered up in wide or semi-wide release. Yes, it stinks that movies like Fight or Flight and Shadow Force can barely crack $2 million on opening weekend, and that Clown in a Cornfield is a record-setting smash via an under-$4 million opening weekend, but this is hopefully step one in Hollywood’s slow-and-steady attempt to reacclimate audiences to the value of seeing “just a movie” in theaters. Moreover, it’s tough for a horror movie and two action films to break out alongside a Thunderbolts* and a Sinners. If you’re an irregular moviegoer making your periodic trip to the multiplex, you’re probably not seeing Fight or Flight.
The biggest new release occurred overseas, with Sony giving Karate Kid: Legends an early start in Latin America. Opening domestically on March 30, it’s a hybrid/combo legacy sequel of sorts. It’s a sequel to the Ralph Macchio/Pat Morita martial arts melodrama franchise that also retroactively inserts the blockbuster 2010 Jaden Smith/Jackie Chan remake into the continuity and (I’ll presume?) at least somewhat acknowledges the just-ended Cobra Kai episodic. It earned $5.7 million, which was +37% from The Karate Kid in 2010, +32% compared to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in 2024, 24% higher than Dungeons and Dragons in 2023, and 10% above Creed III’s respective start in those same 12 markets at current exchange rates. Fun fact, the two biggest overseas cumes came from the martial arts drama starring the young Black actors and the Chinese superstar ($175 million), and the one starring a 90% Black cast ($120 million). Hmm…
Anyway, the more recent releases averaged around $107 million overseas, while the remake amassed $175 million internationally. I don’t know the budget for this one, but this is a promising start for a film that hopefully will be “good enough” even if it pulls grosses closer to Honor Among Thieves ($206 million) and Ghostbusters 4 ($201 million) than Creed III ($276 million) or Karate Kid version 2.0 ($360 million). As much as I’m inclined to roll my eyes at the notion of “This is totally your father’s Karate Kid, actually,” it looks decent enough. Rob Lieber has a track record of writing “better than expected” kid flicks like Peter Rabbit, Goosebumps 2, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Ditto director Jonathan Entwistle’s track record with YA melodrama like I Am Not Okay with This and The End of the F***ing World.