Box-Office: ‘Good Boys’ Becomes Surprise Hit with $21 Million Opening

A newcomer tops the box-office charts this week in the shape of Universal’s “Good Boys.” The Seth Rogen produced, spiritual younger brother to “Superbad” made a hefty splash with a $21M first three days. Add to that its only $20M production budget and its mostly positive reviews (59% Metacritic) and Universal could be onto another domestic winner following “Hobbs & Shaw’” The Fast and Furious spin-off was actually pushed down to second place by “Good Boys,” taking in $14.1M this weekend, lifting its domestic total to $133.7M, all whilst the film continued to perform well overseas, bringing in $45.7M (including a $15M debut in South Korea) moving its worldwide total to $437M. All in all, this weekend for Universal saw them become the second studio this year, after Disney of course, to make $1B in the States.

Speaking of Disney, consistent performer “The Lion King” continued to break records as it added $11.9M domestic and $33.8M internationally to sit in third place and to become the ninth highest grossing film ever made, with its tally now at $1.435B.

The top five this week was completed firstly with Sony’s midweek release, their sequel to “Angry Birds,” which could only bring in a disappointing $16.2M since its release on Tuesday, well short of the $38M that the first film delivered in almost half the time. And secondly with Lionsgate’s steadily performing “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” as it continued to grind away in its second week, adding $10M domestic (now at $40M overall) and $5.6M abroad, leaving it at $55M worldwide. Impressive from a film with less than half that figure in budget.

Elsewhere, two more newbies battling it out were Gurinder Chadha’s (‘Bend it Like Beckham’) “Blinded by The Light” and UAR and Richard Linklater’s “Where’d You Go Bernadette” Warner Bros’ ode to Bruce Springsteen managed just $4.45M despite overwhelmingly positive critical responses (71% Metacritic), a hugely disappointing two weeks for the studio following last week’s flop “The Kitchen.” Whilst Linklater’s film managed one million less than that. Possibly another bum note for the director following his last offering ‘Last Flag Flying’ which took just $965,000 domestically.

Meanwhile the most notable film in limited release came in the shape of “Mission Mangal” from Fox International, which debuted in just over 250 theatres and managed to snag a decent $1.46M.

Next week will more than likely see a new number one again, this time for Lionsgate and their “Fallen” franchise. With Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman returning for “Angel Has Fallen,” the studio will hope to beat previous instalment (‘London Has Fallen’) and its opening of $21M, and get closer to the $30M opening of the first film in the series, ‘Olympus Has Fallen’.

1. Good Boys – $21M (Debut)
2. Hobbs & Shaw – $14M ($134M Overall)
3. The Lion King – $12M ($496M)
4. The Angry Birds Movie 2 – $10.5M ($16M)
5. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – $10M ($40M)
6. 47 Meters Down: Uncaged – $9M (Debut)
7. Dora and the Lost City of Gold – $8.5M ($34M)
8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – $7.6M ($114M)
9. Blinded by the Light – $4.45M (Debut)
10. The Art of Racing in the Rain – $4.4M ($17M)
11. Where’d You Go, Bernadette – $3.46M (Debut)