Box Office: ‘Ghostbusters’ Nabs $9.8M Friday As ‘Dune’ Tops ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’

Ghostbusters: Afterlife earned another $9.75 million, up 84% from Thursday, to bring its eight-day cume to $73 million. We’re looking at a likely $25.1 million (-43%) Fri-Sun second-weekend gross and a $36.1 million holiday haul, giving Sony’s $75 million revamp $88.6 million after ten days. That’s a better second-weekend hold than Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Justice League and not far off from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (-39% in 2016), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (-36%) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (-46% from a $102 million debut weekend in 2005). So, yeah, it’s thus far playing like a general audiences tentpole and as the consensus choice for large groups of moviegoers over the holiday. That shows the film is working regardless of whether anyone really wanted a Ghostbusters legacy sequel.

Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Dune passed $100 million on Thursday, and yesterday it passed Godzilla Vs. Kong ($100.5 million) to become Warner Bros.’ biggest domestic grosser since Joker ($334 million from a $96 million debut) in October 2019. That’s a solid accomplishment, especially on a Covid curve, and it might just stick around over the next month (screen losses notwithstanding) as it becomes “in theaters or EST only” title amid the Oscar season. All eyes are now on The Matrix: Resurrection as the final title in WB’s controversial “Project Popcorn” experiment. Yes, it helped keep theaters alive in the first half of 2021 while boosting HBO Max.. It also cost WB quite a bit in likely box office revenue (and in terms of having to overpay talent in terms of best-case-scenario bonuses). So, call it a draw?

Eternals earned another $3.1 million (+2% from last Friday) for a new $145.8 million cume. We can expect a $7.73 million (-30%) weekend and $11.08 million holiday haul for a new $150.322 million 24-day cume. Fair or not, it needs to pass $171 million domestic to avoid being the lowest-selling MCU movie ever behind even Incredible Hulk ($132 million in 2008) in adjusted ticket sales. It’ll be a nail-biter. Paramount’s $64 million-budgeted Clifford: The Big Red Dog will earn $4.86 million (-40%) in weekend three for a $6.865 million Wed-Sun gross and $43 million 17-day total. Will Smith’s terrific King Richard earned $1.315 million (-32%) on its second Friday for a likely $3.34 million (-38%) weekend, $4.8 million Wed-Sun haul and $11.5 million ten-day cume. That’s a miserable total, but Smith is still the frontrunner at this year’s Oscars.

It’s not like Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, which was proclaimed the year’s Best Picture frontrunner following a successful festival debut, is doing better. The uncommercial (a black-and-white period piece about a young boy growing up in Ireland during “the Troubles”) drama will earn $970,000 (+3%) in 1,128 theaters (+544) for a $1.29 million Wed-Sun gross and $4.98 million 17-day cume. In non-Oscar news, Venom: Let There Be Carnage will have $2.285 million over the holiday for a new $209.6 million domestic cume, while No Time to Die will gross $1.81 million (-35%) in its eighth weekend for a $2.575 million holiday haul and $158.157 million domestic cume. It should end with close to triple its $55 million domestic debut, or at least leggier than Spectre ($200 million/$70 million). The $250 million 007 flick should be over/under $750 million worldwide tomorrow.