Carl Roberts 
Hobbs and Shaw flex their muscles to stay #1 at the box office
Despite the ongoing beef between Dwayne Johnson and Tyrese Gibson (Sigh), the Fast And Furious spin-off ‘Hobbs And Shaw‘ managed to speed off from its box office rivals and hold onto the coveted top spot by hauling ass away with another $25.4million. Although the brakes were applied to the films earning power, dropping off by 58% since its debut last weekend, the film still has managed to take $108.5million domestic and $332.6million worldwide against a $200million budget. Considering the film has still to open in China, traditionally one of the Fast And Furious franchises’ best markets, the film is in line for a significant boost to its takings yet.
The highest new entry of the week came home in the second position. Produced and co-written by Spanish horror maestro, Guillermo Del Toro, ‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark‘ managed to jump scare its audience and frighten them into parting with $20.8million of their hard-earned cash. The film, an adaptation of the Alvin Schwartz’s child scaring horror books cost $28million to produce but has yet to open in foreign markets. Buzz surrounding the film is good with critics awarding the film an 80% average. The only thing standing in the chances of the film overseas is its restrictive rating. In the U.S, the film has a family-friendly PG-13 rating but in other markets, the rating of the film has been restricted to adults only, diminishing its earning power somewhat.
‘The Lion King‘ kept roaring as he ended in the third position, clawing another $20million on the way. After four weeks of release, the film now proudly sits on $473.1million domestically and $1.33billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Disney live-action remake of them all so far.
Swinging on a vine and grabbing hold of the fourth-place came new entry ‘Dora And The Lost City Of Gold‘ with a $17million opening. The live-action version of the classic kids’ TV show ‘Dora The Explorer‘ cost a reported $49million to produce. Added to its total was a further $2.5million from overseas markets bringing its total to $19.5million. Critics seemed to have fun with the film though, granting it an 81% average.
Quentin Tarantino’s latest epic ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ rounded out the top five this weekend with another $11.6million taken, bringing the film up to $108million on a $90million budget after the film started to open overseas.
Opening in the sixth position was ‘The Art Of Racing In The Rain‘ which drove away with $8.1million in moviegoers cash. Based on the novel by Garth Stein, the Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried and the voice of Kevin Costner feature cost a reported $20million to produce. The film managed to pick up a further $1.1million internationally for a $9.2million weekend. Critics were not exactly driven wild by the film, only granting it a 46% average.
Although costing $37million to produce and despite starring Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss and Tiffany Haddish, the crime drama ‘The Kitchen‘ opened badly in the seventh position with takings of $5.5million. The big-screen adaptation of the DC/Vertigo comic miniseries left critics completely indifferent, gaining it a lowly 20% average and giving McCarthy her lowest opening for a wide release.
You can’t keep a good superhero down even though ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home‘ lost some of his grip and slid down to an eighth-placed finish. The Web-slinger managed to web his way to another $5.3million, giving him a $370.9million domestic total and a $1.09billion worldwide total so far.
The toys remained in town a little while longer as ‘Toy Story 4‘ finished the weekend at the ninth position with another $4.4million. The film now has a nice total of $419.5million domestic and $989million worldwide.
Closing out the top ten, ‘The Farewell‘ hung onto its chart place with a $2.2million weekend, bringing the $3million budgeted film a running total of $10.3million so far.
Leaving us this weekend, ‘Yesterday‘ lost its ticket to ride, ‘Crawl‘ crept away, ‘Annabelle Comes Home‘ finally packed her bags and went home and ‘Aladdin‘ found his magic carpet threadbare as he flew out of the top ten.
Next weekend sees the late summer movies coming out to play. Opening at the box office will be ‘The Angry Birds Movie 2‘ (Really?), Cate Blanchett drama ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette‘, British comedy-drama ‘Blinded By The Light‘, the R Rated comedy ‘Good Boys‘ and shark sequel ‘47 Meters Down: Uncaged‘ starring the daughters of actors Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Foxx.
What will top the box office next weekend? Will Hobbs And Shaw hold on for the third week? Will The Angry Birds anger everyone and fly into the top spot? Will Good Boys play their tricks and land a chart-topping opening debut? Or will 47 Meters Down: Uncaged swim out of nowhere and take a bite out of the box office and sink its teeth into the number one position?
All will be revealed here again next week so until then, Happy Movie Going!
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Carl Roberts is a Senior Staff Writer and Books and Literature Correspondent for Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Indiana Jones and Horror movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!
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