The Mummy, Universal's ambitious revival of the famous monster film, failed to scare up much of a turnout among weekend moviegoers, opening at No. 2 in North America to the Warner Bros. hit Wonder Woman.
Starring Tom Cruise, The Mummy registered sales of about $32 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, researcher ComScore Inc. said. Wonder Woman brought in $58.5 million, leading for a second week. Two other films opened in wide release: It Comes at Night, a horror film, landed in sixth place, while Megan Leavey, a bio-pic about a young woman Marine, made its debut in eighth position.
The Mummy became the latest summer movie to disappoint U.S. fans, despite having Cruise in the lead. For domestic theaters, the season's sales are shaping up to be among the worst in a generation, analysts said, held back by a slate that has produced only a couple of hits so far.
Negative reviews were a big factor for The Mummy. Cruise plays Nick Morton, a U.S. soldier turned plunderer who inadvertently brings a dangerous ancient princess back to life. Just 17 percent of critics were positive, according to aggregator RottenTomatoes.com, one of the actor's worst showings among reviewers.
But the movie pushes Universal to $3 billion at the worldwide box office so far this year, the fastest it has reached the milestone, the studio said Sunday. The latest releases from two other series, Fate of the Furious and Fifty Shades Darker, helped drive that record.
With a global haul of $174 million, The Mummy is Cruise's highest opening weekend globally and internationally, surpassing the 2005 feature War of the Worlds, the studio said. The Mummy opened at No. 1 in 46 countries, including China, where it earned an estimated $52.2 million, Universal said.
It was Cruise's biggest opening weekend in China, which is on track to overtake the United States as the largest movie market in the world. Though studios receive half the ticket sales from China as they do in the U.S., executives at Universal pegged The Mummy as a success. They said the film won't slow plans for a roll-out of a Dark Universe of monster-theme movies based on historical characters from its film library, including The Invisible Man.
"As far as we're concerned, we have a hit movie," said Duncan Clark, Universal's president of international distribution.
It Comes at Night, from distributor A24, opened at No. 6 with sales of about $6 million. The film features Joel Edgerton as a man trying to protect his family from evil stalking their home. It rated highly with critics, with an 85 percent score at RottenTomatoes.
Megan Leavey, from Bleecker Street Media, opened at No. 8 with sales of about $4 million. Kate Mara stars in the true story of a young Marine corporal and her combat dog who save lives during her deployment in Iraq.
Weekend sales for Wonder Woman brought that film's domestic tally to $206.3 million, making it one of the top films of the year for Warner Bros.
The next movie from the new realm that Universal is trying to build is The Bride of Frankenstein, directed by Bill Condon, fresh from the success of directing Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
"We are off to a great start, but it's down to each individual film to shine and do what it needs to do," Clark said. "We certainly feel very confident about what we have got internationally and are very much looking forward to Bill Condon's next part in this series."
At No. 3 in the box-office tally, the family-friendly animated comedy Captain Underpants skivvied up to $12.2 million in its second weekend, for a 10-day total of $44.4 million. The David Soren-directed feature has a strong cast of voice talent, including comedians Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll and Jordan Peele.
In its third weekend, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales continued to skulk around the top five, taking in $10.7 million domestically for a worldwide total of $600.2 million. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 continued to be a force in its sixth week in release, taking in $6.3 million for a global total of $833.2 million.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by ComScore:
Wonder Woman, Warner Bros., $58,520,672, 4,165 locations, $14,051 average, $206,343,175, two weeks
The Mummy, Universal, $31,668,375, 4,035 locations, $7,848 average, $31,668,375, one week.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, 20th Century Fox, $12,180,704, 3,529 locations, $3,452 average, $44,443,216, two weeks
Pirates Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Disney, $10,704,103, 3,679 locations, $2,910 average, $135,830,397, three weeks
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Disney, $6,312,367, 2,911 locations, $2,168 average, $366,431,539, six weeks
It Comes at Night, A24, $5,988,370, 2,533 locations, $2,364 average, $5,988,370, one week.
Baywatch, Paramount, $4,648,207, 2,832 locations, $1,641 average, $51,113,342, three weeks
Megan Leavey, Bleecker Street, $3,810,867, 1,956 locations, $1,948 average, $3,810,867, one week.
Alien: Covenant, 20th Century Fox, $1,796,579, 1,814 locations, $990 average, $71,208,791, four weeks
Everything, Everything, Warner Bros., $1,627,295, 1,546 locations, $1,053 average, $31,739,247, four weeks
My Cousin Rachel, Fox Searchlight, $968,506, 523 locations, $1,852 average, $968,506, one week.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, 20th Century Fox, $656,843, 897 locations, $732 average, $19,379,101, four weeks
The Boss Baby, 20th Century Fox, $512,445, 432 locations, $1,186 average, $171,823,971, 11 weeks
Snatched, 20th Century Fox, $491,644, 651 locations, $755 average, $45,017,475, five weeks
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Warner Bros., $455,744, 422 locations, $1,080 average, $38,216,307, five weeks
The Fate of the Furious, Universal, $442,770, 389 locations, $1,138 average, $224,507,635, nine weeks
Paris Can Wait, Sony Pictures Classics, $436,424, 176 locations, $2,480 average, $2,271,700, five weeks
Beauty and the Beast, Disney, $377,898, 316 locations, $1,196 average, $502,868,344, 13 weeks
3 Idiotas, Lionsgate, $240,930, 349 locations, $690 average, $1,051,560, two weeks
Churchill, Cohen Media Group, $200,641, 187 locations, $1,073 average, $798,500, two weeks.
MovieStyle on 06/16/2017