This weekend, it’s the holdovers which will do the heavy lifting at the May box office before Disney/Lucasfilm’s Mandalorian and Grogu arrives over Memorial Day weekend, hoping to make a difference. 20th Century Studios’ Devil Wears Prada 2 and Lionsgate’s Michael are respectively looking at third and fourth weekends that are north of $20M while New Line’s Mortal Kombat 2 is looking to decline around -60% to about $15M.
Middays this week have shown Devil 2 and Michael in close fights: Both grossed $4.7M on Tuesday, and Michael was No. 1 on Wednesday with $3.3M over Devil 2’s $3.2M. Working to Michael‘s advantage, he’ll regain a significant amount of PLF and Imax screens this weekend. Meanwhile, Michael passed $604M on Tuesday, with $353.8M abroad and more than $250M domestic (the cume is now $253.5M). The domestic cume for Devil 2 stands at $154.7M.
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Note: Mortal Kombat II came in at $38.5M in its North American opening last weekend, which is very close to where we spotted it on early Sunday AM.
All three are expected to be above three new wide entries: Focus Features/Blumhouse’s TIFF Midnight pick-up Obsession from YouTube filmmaker Curry Barker ($8M-$9M), Black Bear’s Guy Ritchie-directed action movie In the Grey ($4M-$6M) and Amazon MGM Studios’ Is God Is at 1,510 locations with $3M.
Michael Johnston in ‘Obsession’
Focus Features
Barker’s big-screen debut Obsession is booked at 2,542 locations, which includes 435 PLF screens. The pic follows a young man who comes across a trinket that enables him to wish that the girl of his dreams fall in love with him. Chaos ensues. Critics are over the moon for the horror film at 95% certified fresh. There’s already a published Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96%. Currently, Obsession‘s first choice is best with men and women over 25. Let’s hope this overperforms as the town has gone wild for Barker, not just with his second movie starring Aaron Paul landing at Focus Features but also in the filmmaker landing the writer-director gig at A24 for a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. Previews start at 2 p.m. Thursday for the R-rated film.
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From left: Henry Cavill, Eiza Gonzalez and Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘In the Grey’
Black Bear/Everett Collection
In the Grey stars Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Eiza González as a covert team of elite operatives who live in the global shadows, as comfortable wielding power and influence as they are with automatic weapons and high explosives. When a ruthless despot steals a billion-dollar fortune, the team is sent to steal it back on what would be for anyone else a suicide mission. No Rotten Tomatoes ratings yet for this R-rated pic, which is booked at 2,000 theaters. The Ritchie movie originally was in the hands of Lionsgate, though funded by Black Bear and foreign sales. The pic sat on the shelf for two years, with Black Bear opting to take the film back since it was launching its own domestic distribution arm. Currently the movie is best with men over 25 and slightly better with that demo than Ritchie’s The Covenant ($6.3M opening in 2023) and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare ($8.9M, 2024). Previews start at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Mallori Johnson, left, and Kara Young in ‘Is God Is’
Everett/Amazon
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Is God Is reps the feature directorial debut of Aleshea Harris, who adapted from her award-winning stage play of the same name. The pic follows two sisters (Kara Young and Mallori Johnson) who embark on an epic quest for revenge, confronting a charged family history that will push them to extraordinary lengths. Is God Is also stars Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, Mykelti Williamson, Josiah Cross, with Vivica A. Fox and Sterling K. Brown, and was produced by Tessa Thompson, Kishori Rajan, Riva Marker, Janicza Bravo and Harris. Forty-six reviews on Rotten Tomatoes stand at an awesome 98%.