It was a quiet weekend at North American movie theaters, dominated again by Sony’s “The Garfield Movie,” Warner Bros.’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” and a slew of holdovers. Flipping the script from their Memorial Day weekend openings, the animated orange cat crept ahead of the wasteland warrior in their second outing.
According to studio estimates on Sunday, “The Garfield Movie” earned a chart-topping $14 million in ticket sales while “Furiosa” settled into third place in a close race with “IF.” Both “IF” and “Furiosa” are estimated to have earned $10.8 million, with “IF” getting the slight edge.
“Garfield” fell only 42% in its second weekend in North America. It also topped the global box office adding $27 million from international territories, bringing its running worldwide to $152.2 million. The animated pic featuring the voice of Chris Pratt will essentially have the market to itself until “Inside Out 2” arrives on June 14.
“Furiosa” fell 59% from its first weekend, adding just under $10.8 million from 3,864 locations in the U.S. and Canada. That puts its domestic total at $49.7 million and its global sum at $114.4 million against a $168 million production budget.
Second place went to Paramount’s “IF,” with $10.8 million in its third weekend. John Krasinski’s imaginary friends fantasy, starring Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming, has now made more than $80.4 million domestically and $138 million worldwide. Disney/20th Century Studios’ “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” landed in fourth place in its fourth weekend with $8.8 million. It has now made $140 million domestically and $337.1 million globally.
And the Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt action-comedy “The Fall Guy,” which is currently available to purchase at home, rounded out the top five with $4.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $80.3 million. Globally, the Universal release has made $157.9 million.
According to Comscore data, the 2024 box office is struggling compared to last year (down 23.9%) and prepandemic standards (down 42.2% from 2019 and 46.4% from 2018). This weekend last year, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” opened to $120.7 million, while “The Little Mermaid” was still pulling in more than $41.4 million in its second weekend. This year, no film has opened to over $100 million domestically.
While “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” had yet to storm theaters at this point last year, there had been several substantial hits, including “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.36 billion global total), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($845.5 million) and “Fast X” ($704.7 million).
“It should come as no surprise given the nature of this year’s trajectory that we are running this far behind,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “I understand why people are concerned about where this year is going, but it’s never too late to get things running again.
“It’s a momentum business. The attention right now is focused on what will be the big movie to get the summer moving in the right direction.”
That big summer movie could arrive in the form of “Inside Out 2,” which, according to early projections, could open to more than $85 million and propel other juggernauts like “Despicable Me 4” (July 3) and “Deadpool & Wolverine” (July 26).
Dergarabedian also noted that absent a big superhero movie, family-oriented films have been resonating recently. They might not open to the biggest numbers, but as “IF” and “The Garfield Movie” have proven, they have staying power.
The top-grossing movie of this year remains “Dune: Part Two,” which Warner Bros. released in early March and has made over $711 million globally. Its domestic take of $282.1 million represents 10.5% of the overall box office for 2024.
“Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said over the weekend that he was “disappointed to still be No. 1” while collecting an award at the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto.
“I hope soon that there will be other successes at the box office,” Villeneuve said, as reported by Yahoo. “I hope sooner or later that this summer box office will be much better.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore.
1. “The Garfield Movie,” $14 million
2. “IF,” $10.8 million
3. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” $10.8 million
4. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $8.8 million
5. “The Fall Guy,” $4.2 million
6. “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” $3.6 million
7. “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” $3.5 million
8. “In a Violent Nature,” $2.1 million
9. “Ezra,” $1.2 million
10. “Sight,” $1.1 million