Studios said Sunday that John Krasinski’s movie about imaginary friends, “IF,” took the top spot at the box office this weekend. Also, its $35 million North American opening was a little less than some people thought it would do.
Does that make you sad? A bad sign for the movie theater business? Or is there still one more story to be written on “IF”? It’s not just in your head: This is the first week of the summer box office season in 2024, and so far nothing has been a huge hit. Every new movie is under more and more pressure to do well, but “IF” hit a nerve.
Krasinski wrote, directed, and co-starred in “IF,” which also stars Ryan Reynolds, Cailey Fleming, and a huge cast of A-list voices, such as Steve Carell, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Louis Gossett Jr., Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Maya Rudolph.
The movie, which reportedly cost $110 million to make, was shown for the first time in 4,041 theaters across North America by Paramount PARA, +0.50%. It made about $20 million in 56 international markets, for a total of $55 million in its first week.
“A lot of families came out, and they loved the movie,” said Chris Aronson, who is in charge of Paramount’s domestic market.
There are also a lot of different, sometimes contradictory stories going around about its performance. At PG, “IF” was the first big family-friendly movie to come out in theaters in weeks. Family pictures are usually not a sprint like superhero or horror movies. They tend to be long and slow. When “Elemental” from Pixar opened in the United States in June of last year and only made $29.5 million, most people thought it was a disaster. But it kept making money all summer and ended up making Disney DIS, +0.10% almost $500 million worldwide.
The movie “IF” got average reviews from critics (it has a “rotten” 49% rating on Rotten Tomatoes right now), but this weekend, audiences gave it a strong A CinemaScore. The studio thinks it was a good start and is hopeful that it will last now that school-age kids are back in session for the summer.
Aronson said, “I think it’s a good sign for going to the movies in general as we move into the summer movie season.” “This coming week is the first week that kids are not in school, and I can’t think of a better movie to drop than this one. It’s brand new, fresh, original, and so heartwarming.”
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is still a good movie. It made more than $100 million in the US and $237 million around the world in just 10 days. It lost 55% and came in second place with $26 million in its second weekend.
But there hasn’t been a big movie moment like “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Barbie,” or “Oppenheimer” from last year in a long time. This weekend last year, “Fast X” made more than $60 million at the box office.
“This summer is not like any other.” “Not having a Marvel movie to start was a bit of a surprise,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore. “The box office has been stable, but it’s 20% less than it was last year.”
There were other new movies out this weekend besides “IF.” Lionsgate’s scary movie “The Strangers—Chapter 1” did better than expected with a $12 million opening weekend from 2,856 theaters. It was a clever marketing campaign that went viral by sending “strangers” to big events like the Trump trial and Coachella.
“Back to Black,” a biopic about Amy Winehouse, opened in North America to about $2.9 million from 2,010 screens.
“The Blue Angels,” a documentary made just for IMAX, also made $1.3 million this weekend from 227 screens. It will be shown on big-screen premium theaters until May 22. On May 23, it will be available on Amazon’s AMZN, 0.91% Prime Video.
Hollywood’s summer season starts the first weekend of May, but it’s still early. Next weekend, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “The Garfield Movie” could get things going.
Dergarabedian said that people can watch movies they missed or hearing about for the first time over Memorial Day weekend. That could be a good sign for a movie like “IF,” which did well over the weekend thanks to word of mouth. Still, there’s no way around the fact that 2024 won’t be a bigger year for movies than 2023.
“This is a very different summer in almost every way, from the movies coming out to the way the box office is going,” Dergarbedian said. “But these movies should all have a good Memorial Weekend.”
Comscore estimates how many tickets will be sold at theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday to Sunday. On Monday, the final domestic numbers will be made public.
- “IF,” $35 million.
- “Planet of the Apes,” $26 million.
- “Chapter 1 of The Strangers,” $12,000,000.
- “The Bad Guy,” $8,500,000.
Fifth, “Challengers” made $2.9 million.
- “Back to Black” made $2.9 million.
- Two million for “Tarot.”
- Watch “Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire,” $1,750,000.
$9,300,000 for “The Blue Angels.”
- “Unsung Hero,” $9,100,000.
