With James Gunn’s Superman and Universal’s dinosaurs roaming Earth, counter-programming — read Paramount Animation’s reboot of Smurfs with Rihanna as Smurfette, and Sony’s reboot of late-’90s franchise I Know What You Did Last Summer — will have a hard time overperforming.
That said, as we’ve said all summer, let’s not knock any depth at the box office. It’s still money for exhibition in some shape or form.
James Gunn’s Superman looks to dip around 52% for roughly $60M in its second weekend. Monday and Tuesday were strong with $12.9M and $17.1M, respectively, and a running five-day total of $155M. Among Tuesdays for a superhero movie in July, Superman is sixth behind 2019’s Far From Home ($39.2M opening day), 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man ($35M), last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine ($25.3M), 2008’s The Dark Knight ($20.8M) and 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises ($17.7M). Superman keeps all the PLFs and Imax screens this weekend.
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‘Smurfs’
SMURFS, (aka THE SMURFS MOVIE), from left: Ken (voice: Nick Offerman), Smurfette (voice: Rihanna), No Name (voice: James Corden), Brainy Smurf (voice: Xolo Mariduena), 2Paramount Pictures/Everett Collection
This brings us to Paramount Animation’s Smurfs. The studio through Nickelodeon scooped up rights to the Smurfs in June 2020 from the blue guys’ licensors IMPS and LAFIG Belgium. Sony previously had feature rights and made three animated movies — two of ’em being live-action hybrid — grossing $1.1 billion between 2011 and 2017. The new deal with Nickelodeon called for a TV serie, with ViacomCBS Consumer Products handling consumer products licensing for the Smurfs in U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Singapore, and Malaysia.
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Sony’s movies posted depreciating returns at the domestic box office, and this will do no better with a single digits-to-$12M opening at 3,300 theaters. No Thursday night previews. Women under 25 are the it crowd in unaided and first choice, and the movie unfortunately is trailing 2023’s Trolls Band Together ($30M opening) and last summer’s The Garfield Movie ($24M opening). Smurfs started off great at the box office in 2011, in the pre-streaming era, and also because there hadn’t been a Smurfs movie before. The pic opened to $35.6M and made $142.6M domestic and $563.8M global. Smurfs 2 opened to $17.5M domestic in 2013, and legged out to $71M stateside and $347.5M global. By 2017, the franchise had run its course, with Smurfs: The Lost Village debuting to $13.2M U.S./Canada en route to $45M domestic and $197.1M worldwide.
Smurfs will bank on overseas again with the pics performing best in the mature European markers including Germany, France and the UK, while Latin America (notably Brazil and Mexico) typically lean into family fare. The full overseas opening, which will include Australia’s early debut from last weekend, is looking like $30M ($40M-$42M worldwide if the movie hits its high-end domestic forecast). Smurfs was made for a net $58M before global P&A.
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Smurfs starts overseas rollout today in France and elsewhere and will carry on with such majors as Germany, Brazil, Mexico, the UK and China through Friday for a total 56 markets in the opening suite. Notably not going this session are Japan — owing to the launch of the anticipated Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Infinity Castle — and Korea and Italy, which go in August.
New Smurfette Rihanna was on the blue carpet in Brussels, where the global premiere was held in late June (the IP originated in Belgium), while gala and friends and family screenings have been held in such locales as London, Paris and Los Angeles. In Hong Kong, the Smurf & Talents Shine with You charity carnival was held from July 11-13 on the Great Lawn of West Kowloon Cultural District Art Park.
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Jennifer Love Hewitt in ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’
Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection
Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems’ redo of I Know What You Did Last Summer comes in a summer with a lot of horror-movie corpses. Despite nostalgia being a plus at the box office, it might not be for this one with an opening between $13M-$17M at 3,100 off a budget of $18M. The 1997 movie, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and the late Anne Heche, opened to $15.8M and legged out to $72.5M domestic, $125.5M worldwide. The 1998 sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer debuted to $16.5M and ended its run at $40M. The movies made $165M combined. The third movie, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer starring Brooke Nevin, went direct to home video in 2006. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is directing from a script by Sam Lansky and Robinson off a draft by Leah McKendrick. Neal Moritz is producing. Previews start at 2 p.m. in 2,700 locations.
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Prinze and Hewitt are back with newcomers Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon and Gabbriette Bechtel. Unaided and first choice with women under 25 are the strongest, but scores are not that far from M3GAN 2.0, which underperformed to $10.2M.
Critics have little patience for Smurfs and I Know What You Did Last Summer, with current respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 24% Rotten and 47% Rotten.
Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in ‘Eddington‘
A24
Lastly, there’s A24’s Ari Aster-directed sociopolitical western comedy Eddington, which is looking at low single digits under $5M at 2,111 theaters after a Cannes World premiere where reviews registered at 66% fresh (read Deadline’s review here). Pedro Pascal plays a mayor and Joaquin Phoenix a sheriff who are at each other’s necks in this pic, which takes place during the pandemic, complete with divisive politics. Austin Butler and Emma Stone are along for the ride. The movie cost a reported $25M before P&A thanks to New Mexico state tax credits and no VFX. Aster’s previous feature Beau Is Afraid, also for A24, in its wide break did $1.48M at 2,125 (in Weekend 3, but $2.66M at 965 theaters in Weekend 2). Guys are the draw, and Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme is the prayed-for comp, that pic doing $6.2M in its second weekend break at 1,678 sites.
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