“The Meg” Takes a Huge Bite Out of the Box Office

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

August 10-12, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

The Meg $44.5 million
Mission: Impossible – Fallout  $20.0 million
Christopher Robin $12.4 million
Slender Man $11.3 million
Black Klansman  $10.7 million

Though it was only expected to take a little nibble – possibly not even enough to grab first place – The Meg devoured its competition, opening with a whopping $44.5 million. That's the biggest opening for a killer shark movie ever, and should end up being the second-biggest, after Jaws. That's also one of the most impressive debuts of the year, topping more high-profile films like Skyscraper, Ready Player One and Rampage.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout slid to No. 2, but with another remarkable hold. It's doing well overseas as well, where Tom Cruise continues to be an even more bankable star than he is here. Christopher Robin dropped to third, and it's still performing on par with Pete's Dragon, but should continue to slide as more and more kids go back to school.

Slender Man had another so-so horror debut after the Unfriended sequel. Despite having some name recognition, it wasn't a monster debut. Still, it's already made back its reported $10 million budget. Playing on far fewer screens, Spike Lee's Black Klansman debuted strongly with $10.7 million. That's the controversial director's third-biggest debut behind the heist thriller Inside Man and the stand-up concert film The Original Kings of Comedy.

Outside the top 5: 

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Madeline's Madeline, a critically acclaimed but admittedly avant-garde film with a star-making debut performance from Helena Howard. It made $20,225 on its lone screen.
  • Dog Days performed like a very bad dog. It opened all the way in 12th place, and has made just $3.6 million since opening Wednesday.
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp officially passed $200 million. It will finish as the 15th biggest MCU movie. Pretty remarkable for a series that started a decade ago with an unreliable star.

Next week:

Crazy Rich Asians will try to make its mark. I've long pegged it as the sleeper hit of the summer. I'm going to estimate $25 million for the weekend, and closer to $40 million in five days. It will take on the second weekend of The Meg, and the latest Mark Wahlberg explosion-fest Mile 22. Alpha won't even be a factor.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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