Warner's sci-fi epic "Dune" released by Warner and produced by Legendary Pictures opened in the North American market this Friday, and the first day of release was large-scale in 4125 theaters, attracting $17.5 million on the opening day (including $5.1 million on Thursday advance), and won the North American single-day box office champion without suspense, and the performance basically met market expectations. "Dune" easily set warner bros. the best first-day box office of the year, and also set the best first-day box office performance of director Dennis Villeneuve's career. The film received an audience rating of "A-" in CinemaScore theaters, and the director's previous film Blade Runner 2049 was better than the science fiction films "Creed" (B), "Arrival" (B) and "Interstellar" (B+) in recent years. Although Dune's weekend trend may be affected by the simultaneous release of HBO Max, its three-day opening performance is still expected to hit $40 million, surpassing the $31.63 million in the first weekend of "Godzilla vs. King Kong" in March, rewriting Warner's best opening performance of the year.
Last week, the North American market welcomed two large-scale new films, among which the horror sequel "Moonlight Panic: Killing" produced by Universal Pictures performed well, and there was no suspense to win the weekend championship. Produced by horror film professional Blumhouse Pictures, the new work started in 3,705 theaters in its first weekend and attracted $49.4 million in three days of release, significantly outperforming the industry's expectation of $30 million to $40 million. During the epidemic, only five films in the North American market have achieved more than $50 million in opening performance, namely "Venom 2", "Black Widow", "Shangqi", "Fast and Furious 9" and "007: No Time to Die", of which the same mix-and-match distribution strategy as "Killing" is the only Disney comic book blockbuster "Black Widow", which means that "Killing" set the second highest opening score of this year's "mix-and-match distribution" model works. All of Warner Bros.'s works this year have adopted a mix-and-match distribution model, but only "Godzilla vs. King Kong" and "Slam Dunk in the Air 2" have grossed more than $30 million in their first week, and its R-rated comic book "X Task Force" has only collected about $28 million, while "Killing" easily broke the best opening result of the R-rated work maintained by the film during the epidemic period.
Killing is the sequel to the 2018 horror film Moonlight New Panic and the twelfth installment of the Moonlight Panic series, directed by David Gordon Green and starring Judy Greer, Jamie Lee Curtis, and others. Due to the impact of the epidemic and the synchronization of streaming media, the film's opening performance is 35% backwards from its predecessor three years ago ($76.2 million in the first week), but it still rewrites the record for the best horror film in the epidemic period held by "A Quiet Place 2" ($47.55 million). Despite the notable word-of-mouth reviews — Rotten Tomatoes with a 40 percent freshness rating and CinemaScore theater audience ratings of just B — The Killing grossed more than twice as much as it cost to produce in its first week. Although the film may continue the "fan orientation" trend of the previous works in the series, "Killing" will still become one of the few works that will return to the box office after the epidemic.
The new secret agent action series "007: No Time to Die" released by MGM remained screened in 4407 theaters the following weekend, and received another $23.8 million at the box office in three days, giving up the weekend championship. The sequel, which starred Daniel Craig for the last time in "James Bond," plunged 57 percent year-over-year on-year on-opening weekend, a higher drop than the previous "Ghost Party" (-52 percent) and less stable than the European market. 10 days after its release, "No Time to Die" has accumulated $99 million in North America, and it easily broke through the $100 million mark on Monday. The performance of "No Time to Die" in the North American market is slightly lower than expected, partly due to the relatively high proportion of the elderly group (45 years +) in its main audience, and the willingness of this part of the fans to return to the theater is relatively less active than that of young audiences. Initial estimates suggest that the final North American box office of "No Time to Die" will be around $150 million. As of now, "No Time to Die" has surpassed "Godzilla vs. King Kong" at the global box office, becoming the second highest-grossing Hollywood film of the year.
Sony's comic book action thriller sequel "Venom 2" was cut to 4,013 theaters in North America over the weekend, and another $16.5 million was taken in three days over the weekend, ranking third at the weekend box office. Directed by "Motion Capture Master" Andy Serkis and starring Tom Hardy, the new work is down 48% from last week, and although the new film "Moonlight Panic" has robbed many young audiences, the decline is still narrowed. Seventeen days after its release, Venom 2 has grossed more than $168 million in North America, surpassing A Quiet Place 2 to rise to the fourth place in the North American annual box office list. According to the current trend, the film will continue to surpass the "Fast and Furious 9" and "Black Widow" and other films, and finally it is still expected to hit $200 million. As of now, the global cumulative box office of "Venom 2" has also exceeded 300 million US dollars.
The animated sequel "Adams Family 2", co-produced by United American and MGM, was cut to 3607 theaters this week, and it took another $7.06 million at the weekend, ranking fourth at the weekend box office. The gothic animation based on the comic of the same name by Charles Adams is down 30 percent from last week, and the trend is extremely solid for "mix-and-match" works. As of Sunday, the film's cumulative North American box office has reached about $42.14 million, and its final result is expected to reach more than $50 million.
Disney's historical drama film "The Last Duel", released by 20th Century Pictures, failed badly in the opening performance, landing in 3,065 theaters on Friday and only collecting $4.76 million in the three days of painting (including $350,000 on Thursday advance), which was not as good as the animation "Adams Family 2" in the third week of release, ranking fifth at the weekend box office. The film's Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating is as high as 86%, CinemaScore theater audience ratings as B+, good word of mouth but not enough to reverse the fate, the opening score is less than a tenth of another new film "Moonlight Panic", but also far below the market expectations of tens of millions of dollars. Starring veteran director Ridley Scott and starring Judy Comer, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and others, "The Last Duel" cost more than $100 million to produce and is expected to become one of the most loss-making works since Fox was acquired.
Disney's two old films are still on the charts, and marvel universe's first Asian-American hero movie, Shangqi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, was reduced to 2,300 theaters over the weekend, and it sucked up $3.32 million in three days over the weekend, falling back to sixth place in the weekend list. Starring Liu Simu and Liang Chaowei, the origin film is only down 23% from the previous weekend, and the trend remains steady, with the cumulative box office in North America reaching $218 million, making it the best film in the epidemic period. As of last Sunday, its cumulative global box office had reached $416 million.
The sci-fi action movie "Runaway Player" was cut to 915 theaters last weekend, and after three days of revenue of $650,000, the weekend box office fell below one million for the first time. Starring "Deadpool" Ryan Reynolds and Judy Comer, it fell 47 percent from the previous weekend and has now grossed $121 million at the box office. As of Sunday, the film's cumulative global box office had exceeded $330 million, of which the Chinese mainland market contributed nearly $95 million.