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The box office boost is thanks to a trio of new
movies, the kid friendly "The Boss Baby: Family Business," the
gruesome thriller "The Forever Purge," and the satirical comedy
"Zola," each appealing to vastly different moviegoing audiences.
Also propping up domestic grosses is a series of holdovers,
namely "F9: The Fast Saga" and "A Quiet Place Part II."
Despite three new nationwide releases, "F9" again triumphed over
the competition and notched first place on box office charts.
The ninth entry in Universal's "Fast and Furious" saga added $24
million over the weekend, a 66% decline from its inaugural
outing. "F9" should end Monday's holiday with $32.7 million,
which would boost its domestic tally to $125.8 million.
In a rare feat, Universal Pictures held the top three spots on
North American charts. In second place, the studio's animated
adventure "The Boss Baby 2" collected $17.36 in its first three
days in theaters and is expected to finish the extended four-day
weekend with $23.07 million in ticket sales. The follow-up film,
featuring a voice cast of Alec Baldwin, James Marsden and Amy
Sedaris, cost $82 million to produce.
Though "The Boss Baby: Family Business" marks a solid start for
pandemic times, it's a drastic decline from the first film. The
2017 movie "The Boss Baby" debuted to $50 million and ended its
box office run with $175 million in the U.S. and $527 million
globally. Unlike the original, "The Boss Baby 2" isn't only
available in theaters. It's also playing on Peacock, the newly
launched NBCUniversal online platform, in a bid to boost
subscribers and compete against Disney Plus, HBO Max and Netflix
in the streaming wars.
At the No. 3 spot, "The Forever Purge," the latest installment
in Universal and Blumhouse's dystopian horror franchise, pulled
in $12.75 million over the weekend and looks to post $15.86
million in revenues by Monday. While in line with industry
expectations, those figures mark the lowest debut for the
long-running and commercially successful R-rated series. "Purge"
films typically open to $20 million to $30 million. Overseas,
"The Forever Purge" generated $3.6 million from 22 international
markets, bringing its global total to $16.3 million. Still, with
a price tag of $18 million, "The Forever Purge" shouldn't have
much trouble turning a profit in theaters.
At the indie box office, A24's acclaimed dark comedy "Zola"
kicked off with a strong $2.4 million from 1,468 theaters. The
movie, directed by Janicza Bravo and inspired by an epic Twitter
thread about a road trip to Florida that takes a wild turn,
opened on Wednesday and played to sold-out crowds at arthouse
venues in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin. Taylour
Paige and Riley Keough star in the movie, which premiered at
Sundance Film Festival in 2020. Sensing "Zola" would be an
appealing draw on the big screen, A24, the studio behind indie
favorites such as "Lady Bird," "Uncut Gems" and "Minari," opted
to delay the film's theatrical release rather than debut it on
video-on-demand platforms. A24, in note to press on Sunday,
reported that specialized theaters saw some of their best
grosses of the year.
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