Battle at the Box Office 8/13

The allure of Jason Statham battling a prehistoric shark swept the box office this weekend as The Meg destroyed expectations and easily took the #1 spot at the box office.

Predicted to pull in, at most, $30 million, The Meg took in $45 million, which is higher than Rampage, Ocean’s 8, Ready Player One and the original Pacific Rim and the best non-Fast & Furious opening for Jason Statham.  On Box Office Mojo’s “Shark” category, it’s the best live action opening for a shark creature feature, topping Deep Blue Sea, The Shallows, and all Jaws films.  The movie also took in $101 million internationally, including $50 million from China, which the movie was very obviously focusing on just as hard, if not harder, than the US audience.

Mission: Impossible Fallout dropped to second with another $19.4 million, bringing it up to over $161 million domestic and over $436 worldwide.

Christopher Robin dropped to third with $12.9 million, which puts it at just over $50 million for its two weeks out.  It is outpacing Pete’s Dragon but is definitely far behind the other recent Disney live-action reboots.  It is, however, now the highest grossing Winnie the Pooh movie, passing The Tigger Movie which had $45 million for its total run at the box office.

Two other new releases rounded out to the top 5.  Slender Man took fourth place with $11.4 million, which was higher than expectations but it seems poised to nosedive next weekend as audiences seemed to hate it, giving it a D- Cinemascore.  BlacKkKlansman took fifth with $10.8 million, which is the third best opening for director Spike Lee behind Inside Man and The Original Kings of Comedy.

Further down the list, outside the top 10, Dog Days took in $2.5 million.  It opened on Wednesday last week, so it’s total gross was $3.6 million.  It’s in the top 30 for worst openings between 2,000 and 2,500 theaters, sitting at #28 between Grind and Won’t Back Down.   In other flop news, The Darkest Minds fell out of the top 10 in its second weekend, only making another $2.1 million, making its two weeks total just shy of $11 million, which is not great compared to its almost $40 million budget.