The prehistoric monster Megalodon not only pulled Atango's Mission Impossible 6: Total Disintegration to the top of the North American weekend box office, but also opened at $44.5 million, twice as high as predicted, to the surprise of the industry.
"The meg," produced by Warner Bros. and China Gravity Pictures, began simultaneously releasing in China, North America and other places on Friday. It has 4,118 theaters in North America, ranking second in the history of the North American box office in August, after 2016's Suicide Squad (4,255). Even so, due to the lackluster reputation ("Rotten Tomatoes" praise rate of 49%), the Hollywood industry earlier believed that the film's box office prospects were not optimistic, predicting that the opening box office would only be $20 million to $24 million, apparently underestimating the enthusiasm of North American audiences for shark genre films.
Megalodon Shark Dolby Cinema poster (left), a tribute to Jaws (right)
Since Spielberg's Jaws came out in the summer of 1975, shark movies have been a perfect match for the summer show. In fact, this is the third consecutive year that a shark movie has entered the summer slot. But 2016's "The Shallows" and 2017's "47 Meters Down" are both low-budget films with investments of just $25 million and $5.5 million, respectively. While the last two grossed $119 million and $44.3 million, respectively, they clearly did not qualify for the $150 million (Warner later called net cost) Megalodon. Shark movies are not uncommon, but real big productions are rare, which may be the main reason for the industry's inaccurate predictions.
Before that, shark movies that grossed the highest grossing films in North America date back to 1999's Deep Blue Sea, which grossed $19.1 million. Megalodon has set a new record, but there is one more challenging record. That was the world's highest grossing shark movie of $470 million set by Jaws. After all, when it comes to shark movies, Spielberg's old works are the first people will think of, and only by transcending it at the box office can they leave some talk in the future, otherwise they will be like those low-budget movies, which will soon disappear in film history. Referring to the $140 million worldwide box office of Megalodon in its first week, there is still an opportunity without considering inflation.
In addition, there are two points worth mentioning about the film: one is that in the films produced by Warner Bros. this year, "Megalodon" has created a new best opening result, surpassing Spielberg's "Ready Player One" ($41.8 million) and "Eight Rakshasa Girl" ($41.6 million); the other is that the film co-produced by Warner Bros. and China's Chinese Culture Group's Gravity Film and Television has also set a box office success. Although Megalodon's opening record in North America is slightly inferior to the Great Wall's $45.54 million (both films invested $150 million), it is still expected to hit the latter's $330 million global box office. Even though it ranked behind "A Good Show" and "Love Apartment" in the first week of Chinese mainland, the opening score of about $50 million is still higher than in North America, and considering that the next Hollywood blockbuster "Mission Impossible 6" will not be released until the end of August, "Megalodon" still has enough time to "grab tickets".
Under the impact of "Megalodon", "Mission Impossible 6" failed to achieve "triple crowns" and ranked second with $20 million. Disney's "Winnie the Pooh live-action" movie "Christopher Robin" came in third with $12.43 million.
Fourth and fifth places were occupied by two new films that came out on Friday. The low-budget horror film "Slender Man," which invested just $10 million, won $11.3 million. The film tells the story of a group of young people who are fascinated by the "slender ghost" who get together to try to prove that he does not actually exist, but one of them dies...
The horror story with "Slender Ghost" as the protagonist was originally published by Victor Surge on the horror culture website Something Awful, and then spread online and offline. The "slender ghost", also known as the "faceless man", refers to a tall, thin man in a black suit with no facial expression, who usually stalks, kidnaps, and hurts others, especially children. Affected by this, in 2014, a 12-year-old girl tried to assassinate a classmate, which deepened the spread of "slender ghosts" in popular culture. However, the roughness of this screen obviously lived up to the expectations of the majority of viewers who regarded this as a childhood nightmare, and it is no wonder that only the audience scored after the D rating.
"Blackkklansman," which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, won $10.79 million, ranking fifth, the highest-grossing film in director Spike Lee's recent work. Set in the 1970s, the film tells the story of a black police officer and a white police officer who join forces to fight the local Ku Klux Klan. The 97% Rotten Tomatoes positive rating and A-ratings made it one of the top 10 best-rated films at the box office.
Last weekend, the biggest box office hit was also a new film: the dog movie "Dog Days", which was released in 2,357 theaters, only to open for $3.6 million, ranking 12th at the box office. Compared with the 60% "Rotten Tomatoes" praise rate, this opening result is obviously too dismal. After all, just this May, "Show Dog," which had only 17 percent of Rotten Tomatoes' praise ratings, also grossed $6.02 million at the box office. It seems that although the dog is really cute, this kind of movie you sing and I appear, it is inevitable to make the audience have aesthetic fatigue.
North American weekend box office charts from August 10 to August 12
1. Megalodon Shark $44.5 million
2. Mission Impossible 6: Total Disintegration $20 million
3. Christopher Robin $12.43 million
4. "Slender Ghost" $11.32 million
5. "Black Gangster" $10.79 million
6. "My Spy Ex-Boyfriend" $6.6 million
7. "Mamma Mia 2" $5.82 million
8. "Redress 2" $5.5 million
9. Elf Hostel 3: Crazy Vacation $5.11 million
10. Ant-Man 2: Wasp Woman Appears $ 4.04 million