This weekend, Warner Bros will release DC League of Super-Pets, an animated film starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, in an effort to pique the interest of young viewers who have overindulged in Minions: The Rise of Gru. The movie’s Thursday night previews at 3,200 locations brought in $2.2M for the directors Jared Stern and Sam Levine.
Prior industry predictions were high for the movie, predicting $25–$30 million at 4,300 locations, which would comfortably propel DC League of Super-Pets to the top of the weekend box office. That would be a great beginning given that Teen Titans Go! to the Movies, Warner Bros. DC’s latest animated film, completed its domestic run with $29.7 million in summer 2018 following a $10.4 million opening. The spring film The Bad Guys from Universal/DreamWorks Animation serves as DC League of Super-Pets comparison. It debuted to an $8 million Friday and a $23.95 million three-day total after earning $1.15 million in Thursday night previews, but Super-Pets vastly outperformed it.
Teen Titans’ economic success contrasts with DC League of Super-Pets’ because the latter is supported by Johnson and Hart’s combined social media marketing prowess, which has amassed over 624M followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
The $89M production centres on Krypto the Super-Canine, Superman’s dog (played by Johnson), who, along with Ace, voiced by Hart, is entrusted with recusing the Man of Steel. The movie is also debuting in 63 foreign markets, representing 76% of its potential box office. Major markets including South Korea, Japan, Italy, and Australia are staying home this weekend.
The Johnson and Hart family package DC League of Super-Pets has a 71 percent fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, which, despite not being in the 90 percentile area, won’t deter families from seeing it.
Jordan Peele’s R-rated thriller film Nope, which debuted at No. 1 last weekend, is expected to drop to No. 2 this weekend with a take of $17 million to $18 million. That represents the typical decline for a horror film in its second session. Nope earns $62M on its first week. At 3,785 sites, Nope made $3.55M yesterday, down 8% from Wednesday.
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Thor: Love & Thunder, a Disney film, finished its third week with $34.3 million, bringing its cume to $288.5 million. The sequel, which was helmed by Taika Waititi, made $2.5M yesterday at 4,370, a -4 percent decrease from Wednesday.
The third-place finisher was Minions: The Rise of Gru from Illumination Entertainment/Universal, which earned $2.3M yesterday at 3,816 theatres, a -9% decline, for a fourth-week total of $29.3M and a running total of $309.5M.
The film Where the Crawdads Sings from Sony/Tri-Star, which was shown in 3,650 theatres, came in fourth place. It made $1.7 million on Friday, down 5% from Wednesday, for a second-week total of $18 million and a cumulative total of $46 million.
Top Gun: Maverick is unstoppable in its ninth week at Paramount with $16.3 million and a running total of $641.9 million. 3,160 theatres brought in $1.4M yesterday, up 4% from the previous day.
