Universal Pictures and a gaggle of foul-mouthed 12-year-olds proved last weekend that, even in the Netflix epoch, comedies can still pack a box-office punch.
Universal's Good Boys, the R-rated comedy about sixth-graders trying to make it to their first "kissing party," lured enough adults to theaters to knock Hobbs & Shaw from its perch atop the box office and lead a busy weekend marked by several new releases.
"This is a franchise-level opening," David A. Gross, a movie consultant, wrote in a Saturday report that noted the movie's modest budget and strong scores from audiences and critics.
R-rated comedies have become rarer in recent years and seldom open in No. 1 because of age restrictions. Universal, part of Comcast Corp., spent a modest $20 million making Good Boys and won't face a high hurdle for profitability.
Universal's distribution chief Jim Orr was impressed by the showing.
"Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg flawlessly depict an awkward phase that everyone can relate to with not only outrageous laughs but quite a bit of heart as well," Orr said. "Further, when you have Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the creative minds behind some of the most iconic comedies of the last decade, there's no doubt people will be talking about this one for a long time."
Universal has distributed the biggest original comedy openings of the last three years with this film, including last year's Blockers ($20.5 million) and Night School ($27.2 million) and 2017's surprise hit Girls Trip ($31.2 million). The latter two films were the highest-grossing domestic comedies of their respective years. "Universal has a rich history of successful comedies," Orr said. "To be able to add Good Boys to our canon is amazing."
Even rival studios breathed a sigh of relief. Moviegoers in North America have given a cold shoulder to one comedy after another in recent months: Stuber, Late Night, Long Shot, Booksmart, Poms, The Hustle, Shaft. The carnage has prompted speculation that streaming services have made it easy for audiences looking for laughs to skip theaters.
The bar does seem to be higher. Good Boys was more than a well-crafted film backed by a very aggressive marketing campaign; it got noticed because it pushed taste boundaries. An R-rated movie about sixth-graders? One of the only other original comedies that has found an audience this year, Yesterday, released by Universal in June, used an over-the-top premise and Beatles music to up the ante.
The weekend's other new films struggled. The Angry Birds Movie 2 opened with $10.5 million and The Bruce Springsteen-inspired Blinded by the Light took in $4.5 million.
Bruce Springsteen's songbook did not help Blinded by the Light (Warner Bros.), which went down in flames over the weekend. Despite mostly strong reviews, the movie took in about $4.5 million, for a ninth-place start. It probably struck ticket-buyers as too similar to Yesterday, box-office analysts said.
Warner Bros. paid about $15 million to acquire rights to the film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Two other new movies also fizzled. Where'd You Go, Bernadette (United Artists) collected $3.5 million, while 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (Entertainment Studios) took in roughly $9 million, about 20% less than its series predecessor managed during its first weekend in 2017.
Faring somewhat better was The Angry Birds Movie 2 (Columbia), which sold $10.5 million in tickets, for a domestic total of $16.2 million since arriving Aug. 13. The first Angry Birds collected $45.7 million over its first six days in 2016. Columbia noted that the sequel received starkly better reviews than the initial movie and that another major animated film does not arrive until late September.
Columbia had another good weekend with Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood, which collected $53.7 million in its initial rollout overseas. Ticket sales were particularly strong in Britain and Australia. Once Upon a Time took in $7.6 million in North America from Friday to Sunday, for a four-week domestic total of $114.3 million.
MovieStyle on 08/23/2019