Newcomers even manage to have a good weekend

Thinking back to last summer it was a dismal affair for studios. While many were raving about the fortunes of “Wonder Woman” the rest of the slate was a consistent output of underperforming retreads. It led to one of the worst summer sessions in over a decade. But things are completely different this year.

With a glut of blockbusters, and money to be made across the board, we just had two different titles hit $148 million on consecutive weeks, and various studios are enjoying their major hit. Only eleven times in history has the box office total hit $400 million for the week; that has happened four times now this year. It has been flush enough that a title earning over $200 million can be regarded as a failure (Han, I’m looking at you.). Even the lesser movies have had their modicum of success, as two new releases this week have shown. Here are the films hoovering the cash this week.

1.  JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM – $60.3 Million

It took a not so shocking dive of -60% but it still is dominating. After ten days it has already pulled in $265 million, added to its foreign take of over $665 million. By next week Universal’s sequel should have pulled in $1 billion globally.

2.  INCREDIBLES 2 – $45.54m

Looking at a very respectable drop of only -43% in week three, it has continued to draw audiences. At $439 million it now stands as Pixar’s second highest earning movie ever and should pass “Finding Dory” very soon for the top crown.

3.  SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO – $19.01m

This sequel has been seeing its prospects inching upward throughout the weekend. Originally projected to pull in under $15 million it has shown decent strength throughout the weekend. It will be interesting to watch the prospects on this one as it opened well above the original’s wide release opening ($12 million) but the audience grade is lower, which makes the longer term prospects dicey.

4.  UNCLE DREW – $15.5m

Showing the opposite trend in a debut this basketball comedy, based on the popular Kyrie Irving web series, has been diminishing as the weekend wore on. Projected near $20 million it debuted decently on Thursday night but then started to lag the following days. However it did receive an “A” CinemaScore from audiences, which will help it through the holiday week.

5.  OCEANS 8 – $8.03m

The ladies are continuing along with strength, cruising well past the century mark now at $115 million.

6.  TAG – $5.63m

The raucous adolescent adult-comedy has quietly made $40 million. This isn’t actually turning too many heads, but it is a sign at how flush the summer frame has been that it managed to reach that level in a busy marketplace.

7.  DEADPOOL 2 – $3.45m

This title is still moving along, shedding only a few hundred screens each week while nearly in theaters for 2 months.

8.  SANJU – $2.55m

This is a bio-pic from India about the troubled life of an actor from an entertainment family. It was the widest Bollywood release ever here in the States. The screen average of over $7,000 would place it third best for the weekend.

9.  SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY – $2.293m

Limping along this disappointing outing is looking to be a big money loser for Disney. Worlwide it sits at $370 million. The estimated losses for the studio could be in the $100 million range.

10.  WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? – $2.290m

The surprising documentary about Mr. Rodgers added 300 screens and has become more successful than originally anticipated.