By Not unexpectedly, Illumination and Universal Pictures’ “Despicable Me 4” won the domestic box-office this weekend with $44.6 million – a drop of just 40% in its second outing.
The animated sequel has racked up $211.1 million domestically so far, and $437.8 million worldwide so far. The film looks set to push the overall franchise past the $5 billion mark by the time its wrapped its run.
All the headlines however are focused on who came in second, namely NEON’s serial killer thriller “Longlegs” which delivered the best opening for an original horror film this year so far, and the best ever opening for the distributor in its seven years of operation.
The Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage-led film racked up $22.6 million domestically, far outpacing projections the other week which were more in the teens.
The film was also clever economically – the production budget was under $10 million, some outlets reporting considerably less. Its marketing budget also reportedly came in under $10 million, the film going the all-digital route (no network TV ads) and relying on a smartly delivered campaign spread out over months.
The other film that opened this weekend wasn’t such a success. The Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson-led 1960s-set rom-com “Fly Me to the Moon” came in under projections at $10 million and in fifth place.
That’s a disastrous start for the film which reportedly came in at a budget of $100 million. It adds to the theatrical release woes for Apple Studios following “Argylle” earlier this year which failed to crack $100 million despite a $200 million budget.
Third was Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” with a further $20.7 million. Domestically it sits at $572.5 million and globally it now stands at $1.35 billion. Fourth was “A Quiet Place: Day One” with $11.8 million domestically with its total now $116.2 million in the U.S. and over $200 million worldwide.
Source: Deadline
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