‘Skyscraper’ Topples This Weekend, ‘Hotel Transylvania 3’ Reserves The No. 1 Spot
The latest Dwayne Johnson flick is off to a rocky start this weekend. Skyscraper, the latest action thriller from Johnson and Universal, was no match for Dracula and company.
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, is the third installment in the animated franchise. The film sees Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, and Andy Samberg returning to their respective roles. According to Variety, the film debuted at No. 1 this weekend with $44 million domestically and $46 million overseas. The third installment is now the second highest grossing film in the franchise.
Josh Greenstein, Sony’s president of worldwide distribution, commented on the film’s success by attributing it to the amount of children currently on summer vacation. This is the first film in the franchise to open up in the summer; its predecessors previously opened in September.
“We’re thrilled,” says Greenstein. “We took the No. 1 slot this weekend with a tremendous amount of competition.”
Hotel Transylvania 3 opened in over 4,000 locations domestically and 42 markets internationally. The franchise has brought in over $100 million total for the franchise.
Skyscraper was projected to win big this weekend, however, the film debuted at the No. 3 spot, behind Hotel and Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. The film opened with $25 million domestically and opened in roughly 3,000 locations. The film is the lowest debuting movie for Johnson in recent years. It’s also the first film of Johnson’s that hasn’t been a sequel or franchise. The studio was hoping for the overseas market to help compensate for the film’s pricey $125 million budget. However, things aren’t looking too good overseas for the film.
Variety reports that the film is currently trailing behind in the overseas market, but still doing better than its domestic market. The film debuted overseas with a solid $40 million after opening in 57 territories. Universal Studios is relying on the film’s success overseas, specifically China, where the film is set.
Universal’s head of domestic distribution Jim Orr commented on the recent numbers for Skyscraper.
“The domestic results are part of a broader global play,” he said. “I think we’re going to have a great run. It’s not all about opening weekend.”
Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp continues to earn big this weekend and soared past the first film with an impressive $24.9 million for its second week.
Disney’s Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom round the top five at the box office this weekend. Incredibles 2 is now the ninth-highest grossing domestic release of all time with with $535.8 million. Fallen Kingdom has recently passed the $1 billion mark worldwide.
Another film worth mentioning for the box office this weekend is the Mister Rogers documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? which earned $1.8 million in its sixth weekend. The Morgan Neville directed film has grossed $15.8 million, making it the highest grossing documentary of the year, as well as the 16th-highest earning doc of all time.
