Using the words “Zendaya” and “draw” in the same sentence this weekend will put us in pun territory, but that shouldn’t discount what she helped achieve. Tennis movies are not exactly a hotbed of box office activity. Depending on who you follow on Film Twitter, hotbeds themselves are not exactly en vogue. Luca Guadagnino’s previous film with Zendaya’s Dune co-star Timothée Chalamet was hardly eaten up by filmgoers. And yet Challengers is the No. 1 film in the country.
King of the Crop: Challengers Takes the Crown
How many movies can you recall where tennis was a primary plot point? Wimbledon with Kirsten Dunst comes to mind. Battle of the Sexes with Emma Stone and Steve Carell for certain. King Richard, which is remembered more for a slap than any serve. Another thing they all have in common is that none of them grossed $20 million in theaters. King Richard was a pandemic-era movie also on streaming, but still. This past weekend, Challengers already outgrossed one of them, will outgross another by the end of Monday, and will take down the final, er, challenger possibly before next weekend. A $15 million start (plus another $10 million internationally) for the propulsive relationship drama with Zendaya at the center is a uniquely tailored win, given not only the subject matter but also that it is the star’s first true leading role.
One has to wonder how this project carries a production cost of $55 million, though. Whether or not there was an upcharge in CGI balls flying around, that is a number that surpasses the costs of Civil War and The Beekeeper this year. It’s more than double the cost of Battle of the Sexes and even more than the $50 million of King Richard, which featured one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.
Whatever the case, critics are certainly on board with Challengers as one of the best-reviewed films of the year so far. It’s going to be hard to recoup that budget, even with great word of mouth and one of the best openings since the restructuring of MGM under the UA Releasing and Amazon deals, behind only Creed III, the two animated Addams Family movies, and The Beekeeper. It is hardly Heaven’s Gate, but this looks like just a momentary victory for the kind of unique outlier of a movie that theaters could use more of.
The Top 10 and Beyond: Unsung Hero Finds Its Audience, Civil War Drops to Third
Earlier this year, Lionsgate got some disappointing returns on Ordinary Angels with Hilary Swank and Alan Ritchson. Maybe it needed more Christian tunes, because their release this week of Unsung Hero hit second place minus any recognizable stars (except perhaps Lucas Black and Candace Cameron Bure in supporting roles). The former only opened to $6.1 million, while Unsung Hero finished its first weekend with $7.7 million and got its atypical “A+” from the Cinemascore crowd. This isn’t I Can Only Imagine money, but the budget on this project was a mere $6 million, so it is now counting the days until it can start dividing its profit around. Ordinary Angels cost $13 million and finished its run with just over $19 million.
Remaining in the top three for the fifth straight week is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Falling just 25% down to $7.2 million, Warner Bros.’ Monsterverse film now has a domestic haul of $181.6 million. Broadening beyond March releases, we can actually see a potential path for Adam Wingard’s film to hit $200 million. Looking at 31-day grosses over time, The Mummy Returns had $181.1 million after a $7.7 million fifth weekend, and Batman Begins had $178.8 million with only a $6 million fifth turn. Those films ended with $202 million and $205 million, respectively, albeit boosted by summer weekdays. The path is there, and the film still has another weekend before the other Apes take over theaters. Meanwhile, it has made $519 million worldwide.
After two weeks at No. 1, Alex Garland’s Civil War fell back to fourth place with $7 million. At $56.1 million, it is now the second highest-grossing film in A24’s history. The numbers closely align with the Idris Elba domestic stalker thriller Obsessed, which had $56.2 million after a $6.5 million third weekend. So Civil War is still likely headed for somewhere in the $70 million range. Falling 49% down to fifth place is the vampnapping horror-comedy Abigail, which made $5.2 million for a 10-day total of $18.7 million. Those are similar numbers to another film with Idris Elba The Reaping, which had $18.5 million after a $4.5 million second weekend. It finished its run with just over $25 million.
That is still better than Guy Ritchie’s $60 million production of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which fell to $3.8 million for a total of $15.4 million to date; internationally it has grossed just $467,331. There is no other way to say this, but if it does not pick up any traction overseas, it will be the biggest loser of 2024 to date, even worse than Sony’s Madame Web or The Book of Clarence. Another Sony loser is Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which made another $3.2 million to bring its total over $107 million domestic and $188 million worldwide. Both totals are shaping up to be lows for the franchise.
On the flipside, the most profitable film of the year against its budget, Kung Fu Panda 4, earned another $3.5 million to bring its domestic total to $184.9 million. It has also now joined its predecessors by surpassing $500 million worldwide. The highest-grossing (and second most-profitable) is Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, which, with $1.9 million here and a little change overseas, has crossed $700 million, the first film since Oppenheimer to achieve that milestone.
Also opening this week and just sneaking into the top 10 was the martial arts revenge film Boy Kills World with Bill Skarsgård. Roadside opened the film in 1,993 theaters and it made $1.7 million. That is the specialty studio’s best opening since their Oscar-winning Judy began with $2.9 million in just 461 theaters for a per-theater average of $6,326. Boy Kills World’s PTA was just $953. By comparison, a pair of films celebrated anniversaries with re-releases this weekend. For its 45th anniversary, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic Alien made $1.56 million in 1,750 theaters, and fan-favorite crowd-pleaser The Mummy with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz made $1.04 million in 1,236 theaters for its 25th.
Falling out of the Top 10 this week was Dev Patel’s Monkey Man, which lost 1,103 screens and made just $1.15 million in its fourth weekend for a total of $23.9 million. Crunchyroll’s SPY x FAMILY CODE: White dropped to $1.1 million for a total of $7 million. Finally, The First Omen lost 1,430 of its theaters and grossed just $700,000 as it looks to finish its run with about $20 million.
On the Vine: The Fall Guy Leaps Into Action to Kick Off the Summer
Summer is here this weekend (in theaters, at least), and it opens with one of the few non-sequels of the season with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in the big screen version of TV’s The Fall Guy. You may have heard of it. Universal has certainly not skimped on getting the word out, including a successful showing at SXSW in March, which they were able to do after moving the film from that month to the prestigious summer kickoff slot. They launched the film in other parts of the globe this past weekend and it grossed $8.7 million. Tracking has been as low as $35 million for its opening; can it get into the 40s or 50s with a No. 1 debut this week? Sony is also going to test the horror waters again with the PG-13 Tarot. Plus keep an eye on A24’s launch of Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow in limited release before expanding later in May.
Full List of Box Office Results: April 26-28, 2024
88%
Challengers
(2024)
- $15 million ($15 million total)
64%
Unsung Hero
(2023)
- $7.7 million ($7.7 million total)
54%
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
(2024)
- $7.2 million ($181.6 million total)
81%
Civil War
(2024)
- $7 million ($56.2 million total)
83%
Abigail
(2024)
- $5.2 million ($18.7 million total)
71%
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
(2024)
- $3.8 million ($15.4 million total)
72%
Kung Fu Panda 4
(2024)
- $3.5 million ($184.9 million total)
43%
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
(2024)
- $3.2 million ($107.3 million total)
92%
Dune: Part Two
(2024)
- $1.9 million ($279.7 million total)
61%
Boy Kills World
(2023)
- $1.7 million ($1.7 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.
[box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©A24
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