Our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man webs the competition to claim the top spot in this week’s charts.
As expected, Marvel’s final phase three movie ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home‘ used its webbing to swing in and nab the number one spot over the weekend with a take of $93.6million. Although the film lagged slightly behind the opening of its predecessor, ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming‘ which nabbed $117million on opening, the film is yet another full-fledged success for the comic book studio and for Disney. The film opened on Tuesday to an incredible $39.5million, giving the film a $185million domestic running total. Adding in the international market and the film currently sits pretty on a worldwide total so far of $580million. The $160million budgeted extravaganza, again starring Tom Holland as the friendly neighbourhood web-crawler gained an impressive 91% critical average. With support from Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, Zendaya as M.J and introducing Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio, the audience left the theatres with smiles of satisfaction and speculating on where phase four of the MCU will go.
Falling to second place, ‘Toy Story 4‘ still pulled in the masses, gaining the fourth entry in the franchise a further $34.2million. The toys have now played their way into a domestic total of $306.5million and $650million worldwide. However, the film is lagging behind the third films success by quite a way, ‘Toy Story 3‘ gaining a $1.06billion finish back in 2010.
Director Danny Boyle’s Beatles inspired musical comedy ‘Yesterday‘ came in third. Earning a further $10.7million, the film now sits on $36.8million domestic and $56.9million worldwide against its $26million budget. Not too bad for a film that hasn’t been reviewed that well.
‘Annabelle Comes Home‘ came home in the fourth position with $9.7million. The third film in ‘The Conjuring‘ spin-off franchise cost $30million to produce but has managed to scare up a $50.1million U.S take and $134.7million around the globe. Can we assume that a fourth entry into the franchise will make its way to multiplexes sometime in the future? With box office successes like this, it will only be a matter of time before it gets the green light.
The live-action version of Disney’s ‘Aladdin‘ lost a bit of its magic as it slipped down to a fifth-place finish. We won’t feel too sorry for the film due to the fact that after its $9.3million weekend, the film has magicked its way to an incredible $320.7million domestically and $921.7million worldwide, blowing away its £183million budget and giving director Guy Ritchie and actor Will Smith their best box office figures in years.
The horror film ‘Midsommar‘ opened in the sixth position to the tune of $6.5million. The creepy, somewhat inspired by ‘The Wicker Man‘ movie has a domestic total of $10.9million against a budget that is reported to be less than £10million. Starring actress Florence Pugh (Fighting With My Family) and Jack Reynor, the film has been gaining good reviews, earning it an 82% average critically. The film is a slow burner, considering its 150 minutes run time but builds up to a shattering climax that has confused some viewers but has astounded others.
The animated animals of ‘The Secret Life Of Pets 2‘ lost their charm as they tumbled down to this week’s seventh position. The film has earned itself $140.7million domestic after its $4.7million weekend and $262million worldwide but is not even close of matching the success of the original film which took $368million in the U.S and $875million worldwide.
‘Men In Black International‘ looks like it’s done with its intergalactic defending as it slid down the chart to land at the eighth position. Taking a further $3.6million, the Chris Hemsworth/ Tessa Thompson led sequel/reboot has now beamed itself to a disappointing $71.9million domestic total and a worldwide grab of $244,8million against a budget of $110million. After being plagued by problems from the start, Director F. Gary Gray reportedly tried to quit the film three times and the producer constant tampering with the script, even handing the cast pages to learn as they were just about to shoot every day, the film is a box office fizzle.
You’ve got to hand it to them, haven’t you? Even after their record-breaking numbers, their disappearance from the chart only to return as the film is re-released with additional stuff after the end credits, ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ is still hanging around, drawing in cinemagoers and still taking the cash as it finished this weekend in the ninth position in the chart, earning itself another $3.1million. The epic conclusion to some of the MCU’s most loved characters stories now has a domestic total of $847.8million and is agonisingly close to overtaking ‘Avatar‘ as the box office champion. As things currently stand, ‘Avatar‘ has $2.78billion worldwide whereas ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ has $2.77billion. I have to remain impartial but if you were to ask me would I like Avengers to overtake Avatar, the answer would be in the affirmative. I’m not taking anything away from James Cameron’s blockbuster as it is a fine film in its own right but I LOVED Endgame. Everything about it was almost perfect and hit all the right notes. And I will freely admit that a few tears were shed by me at the conclusion of the film. I haven’t seen a better film at the movies so far this year and, with the possible exception of ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker‘, cannot see the film being bettered by anything left to be released this cinematic year.
Closing out the ten most popular films at the US Box office this week was biopic ‘Rocketman‘ which hasn’t broken anyone’s heart as it stands on $89.1million domestic and $173.8million worldwide against a $40million budget. The film probably won’t see Oscar success like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ even though Taron Egerton gives a masterclass performance as Sir Elton John in the musical extravaganza. The film hasn’t done the same kind of numbers as ‘Rhapsody‘ mainly due to the fact that ‘Rocketman‘ has the restrictive R Rating whereas ‘Rhapsody‘ had the more liberal PG-13.
Finally running out of ammunition and leaving us this weekend was ‘John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum‘ alongside reboot ‘Child’s Play‘ which ran out of batteries. Both though have made their money, both have been box office gold and both have already had sequels greenlit, giving us, the audience a few years to prepare ourselves for Wick’s and Chucky’s next onslaught.
Next week sees the release of action comedy ‘Stuber’ starring ex-WWE wrestler and Drax the destroyer himself, Dave Bautista as a cop commandeering unwilling Kumail Nanjiani’s vehicle. And a film myself and our beloved Editor-in-Chief Phil have been looking forward to seeing all summer with Director Alexandre Aja’s horror movie ‘Crawl‘. Produced by the legend that is Sam Raimi, the film tells of a battle between humans and killer Alligators during a serious rainstorm and flood. The trailer has shown some great promise and I can only hope the film is a kick-ass, scary adventure ride that myself and Phil can enjoy. We both love the original ‘Lake Placid‘ and if this is even half as good as that film, we are all in for a great treat. Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned monster flick?
So, over to you again, readers. Will killer alligators take a huge bite out of Spider-Man and take the top spot? Will ‘Stuber‘ drive itself into the pole position? or will Spidey use all his powers to stick at the top of the chart? All will be revealed next week so until then, happy movie going!
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Carl Roberts is one of The Future of the Force’s Senior Staff Writers and Books and Literature Correspondents. He loves Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Indiana Jones and Horror movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!
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Carl Roberts is the News Editor of The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force frequently!
