The May box office slump continued its downward slide unabated this weekend with a -67% decline behind last year’s figures over the equivalent weekend, a result of no new major releases emerging to challenge last week’s underperforming debuts of WB’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Sony’s The Garfield Movie. The weekend came down to a rematch of last frame’s top two titles, with Garfield coming out on top over the latest round.
Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opened over the same weekend in 2023, skewing the year-over-year figures to such a dramatic contrast. Alarmist headlines over the death of cinema will likely make their usual rounds across the internet over the coming days—with influential figures like director Denis Villeneuve voicing his own disappointment that his Dune: Part Two is still the #1 movie of the year globally ($711M) three months after launching. Still, June could have plenty of good news on the horizon with the fourth Bad Boys entry, Inside Out 2, or even the Quiet Place prequel.
1. The Garfield Movie
Sony Pictures | Week 2
$14M Domestic Weekend | $51.572M Domestic Cume
$152.2M Global Cume
There’s a new top cat this weekend as Sony/Columbia and Alcon’s animated The Garfield Movie used its claws to climb to #1 after debuting in second place last frame. This gives new meaning to the famous “Hang in there, Baby” poster. Studio estimates peg the movie at $14M in 4,108 locations, a -42% drop from last weekend. Here’s how the 3-day played out…
- Friday – $3.76M
- Saturday – $5.795M
- Sunday – $4.445M
For comparison, 2004’s Garfield: The Movie dropped -48% to take $11.3M its second frame, while Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006) dropped -29% for $5.2M second weekend, both in June. The Garfield Movie was likely aided by families who travelled during the Memorial Day frame but wanted to catch the cat in theaters.
Internationally the movie was #1 as well, taking in $27M on 11,500+ screens in 60 overseas markets (only down -3%), with France and Japan still left to open. Alcon opened the movie in China, the biggest market with $8.2M, already surpassing the lifetime gross of both Puss In Boots: The Last Wish and Migration in that territory. Poland brought in $2.4M while Australia scored $2M. The international total comes to $100.6M with a global cume of $152.2M.
Overall this is a win for Sony, who did not overspend on the picture and rode the nostalgia wave to give family audiences what they wanted in a fun summer movie. Add this onto Universal’s budget sequel Kung Fu Panda 4 ($543M WW) plus Paramount’s IF only dropping -33% in week 3 (ahead of Free Guy‘s point-in-time take) to climb to #2 and you can see 2024 beginning to be a yer defined by animated features. Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 are both expected to continue the animation domination trend going into the summer months.
3. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Warner Bros. Pictures | Week 2
$10.75M Domestic Weekend | $49.6M Domestic Cume
$114.4M Global Cume
Warner Bros. is reporting that director George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa has taken in $10.75M in its second frame in 3,864 locations (+60 screens from last week), a -59% drop. Not only was that low enough for the action film to cede the #1 spot to Garfield, it also allowed Paramount’s IF to climb to #2 with $10.8M ($80M domestic/$138M WW). Falling on the low end of our weekend forecast, this is an all-around disappointing showing for the well-reviewed Furiosa, whose predecessor Fury Road only dropped 46% for a $24.6M take on its second weekend in May 2015.
Here’s the 3-day breakdown:
- Friday – $3.05M
- Saturday – $4.4M
- Sunday – $3.3M
Overseas, the film took in $21M in 77 markets on 16,409 screens (considerably more than Garfield), dropping -38% in holdover markets. Biggest was Korea with $3M on 1,344 screens. So far the film is at $114.4M globally. IMAX generated $3M domestically on 400 screens and $5m overall in the second weekend across the IMAX global network. The IMAX worldwide gross for Furiosa is $18m through Sunday. The film will open in China next weekend.
Other Notable Performances
Sony and Crunchyroll’s release of the anime HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle made a projected $3.5M for the weekend to nab the #7 spot in 1,119 locations. The tally is $1.915M on Friday, $950K on Saturday, and an estimated $635K on Sunday. The film has taken in $74,830,015 million internationally since its February release in Japan.
IFC Films’ unrated slasher flick In a Violent Nature managed to pull $2,119,000 million for 8th place in 1,426 theaters. Stellar reviews (87% on Rotten Tomatoes) clearly helped make this the second low budget horror win for IFC this year after Late Night With the Devil surprised with nearly $10M domestic.
Bleecker Street’s dramedy Ezra brought in $1,183,581 in its opening weekend to take the #9 spot on 1320 screens for a weekend PSA of $896. The film’s star-studded cast includes Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Vera Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson, Tony Goldwyn, and Robert De Niro. RT is at 69% critical and 100% audience ratings.
Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates | Weekend 22 – 2024
Total Domestic Estimates: $67.4M | (-67% vs 2023)
| Title | Weekend Estimate | % Change | Locations | Location Change | PSA | Domestic Total | Week | Distributor |
| The Garfield Movie | $14,000,000 | -42% | 4,108 | 73 | $3,408 | $51,572,000 | 2 | Sony Pictures |
| IF | $10,800,000 | -33% | 3,783 | -285 | $2,855 | $80,429,000 | 3 | Paramount Pi… |
| Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga | $10,750,000 | -59% | 3,864 | 60 | $2,782 | $49,668,000 | 2 | Warner Bros. |
| Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | $8,800,000 | -34% | 3,450 | -100 | $2,551 | $139,996,059 | 4 | 20th Century… |
| The Fall Guy | $4,200,000 | -30% | 2,826 | -129 | $1,486 | $80,285,000 | 5 | Universal |
| The Strangers: Chapter 1 | $3,600,000 | -35% | 2,527 | -329 | $1,425 | $28,365,840 | 3 | Lionsgate |
| Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle | $3,500,000 | 1,119 | $3,128 | $3,500,000 | 1 | Crunchyroll | ||
| In a Violent Nature | $2,119,000 | 1,426 | $1,486 | $2,119,000 | 1 | IFC Films | ||
| Ezra | $1,183,581 | 1,320 | $897 | $1,183,581 | 1 | Bleecker Street | ||
| Sight | $1,084,918 | -61% | 2,118 | 18 | $512 | $5,888,028 | 2 | Angel Studios |
| Babes | $910,000 | -14% | 1,118 | 523 | $814 | $2,760,493 | 3 | Neon |
| Tarot | $400,000 | -47% | 503 | -361 | $795 | $17,889,000 | 5 | Sony Pictures |
| I Saw the TV Glow | $358,828 | -30% | 292 | -166 | $1,229 | $3,575,964 | 5 | A24 |
| Back to Black | $250,000 | -77% | 672 | -1,341 | $372 | $6,003,000 | 3 | Focus Features |
| Civil War | $173,364 | -43% | 235 | -216 | $738 | $68,432,794 | 8 | A24 |
| Unsung Hero | $126,000 | -58% | 288 | -242 | $438 | $20,190,357 | 6 | Lionsgate |
| Kung Fu Panda 4 | $110,000 | -54% | 215 | -270 | $512 | $193,535,000 | 13 | Universal |
| Wildcat | $64,895 | -18% | 47 | -47 | $1,381 | $500,113 | 5 | Oscilloscope… |
| Evil Does Not Exist | $47,200 | -50% | 85 | -53 | $555 | $634,892 | 5 | Janus Films |
| Robot Dreams | $32,536 | 2 | $16,268 | $32,536 | 1 | Neon | ||
| Flipside | $12,879 | 1 | $12,879 | $12,879 | 1 | Oscilloscope… | ||
| Handling the Undead | $8,031 | 1 | $8,031 | $8,031 | 1 | Neon |
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