'Old' Wins Quiet Box Office Weekend With $16.5 Million Opening
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Universal's "Old" has taken No. 1 on a quiet box office weekend, becoming the seventh film from director M. Night Shyamalan to take the top spot at the box office with a $16.5 million opening from 3,355 locations.
The bad news is that a mix of tepid reception and the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant has made "Old" the lowest opening in Shyamalan's career, falling beneath the $18 million earned by "Lady in the Water" in 2006. The film received a C+ on CinemaScore and a 52% Rotten Tomatoes score, though even with the weak reception the $18 million film is likely to turn a profit. Overseas, the film added $6.5 million from 23 markets for a global launch total of $23 million.
Paramount's "G.I. Joe" spinoff "Snake Eyes" is in second with a $13.3 million opening from 3,521 locations. It's a big drop from the $51 million 4-day opening of "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" in 2013 and sets the $88 million blockbuster up to flop at the box office. Paramount co-produced the film with Skydance and Hasbro with MGM co-financing. Like "Old," reception was similarly tepid with a B- on CinemaScore going with a 42% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Marvel Studios' "Black Widow" is in third with $11.6 million in its third weekend. After taking a steep second weekend drop that led the National Association of Theater Owners to lash out at Disney's hybrid release strategy for the film, "Black Widow" had a more respectable third weekend drop of just 55%. The global box office total now stands at $314.9 million, with a release in China still to come.
Likely to fuel NATO's complaints about hybrid release models is the second weekend of Warner Bros.' "Space Jam: A New Legacy." After opening No. 1 to $31 million, the Looney Tunes film fell 69% to $9.5 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic 10-day total to $51.3 million. Like all Warner Bros. films, "Space Jam 2" is available on HBO Max at no extra charge; though while Disney hasn't made any long term commitments to theatrical exclusivity with its films, Warner Bros. has made deals with theaters committing to exclusivity after 2021.
More to come...