It didn’t look like John Krasinski’s “IF” was going to hit $30M. Friday’s receipts were average ($9M) but word of mouth travelled (“A” CinemaScore) and the film landed a great Saturday ($14M) to finally land at a $35M opening weekend.
This is fine as it goes, but the film, budgeted at $110M, was projected a few weeks ago for a $45-50M opening. It could have some legs in the coming weeks, but “Garfield” awaits to take its throne as the go-to family film on Friday.
Other countries weren’t as good for “IF,” which took in just $20M overseas, in 58 territories. Again, if it weren't for that high budget then this would reasonably be called a success.
Renny Harlin’s “Strangers: Chapter One,” which has a tidy $7M budget, did very well. A $12M weekend could spell good business for the other two chapters which are supposed to come out later in the year.
Meanwhile, the Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” bombed. It only made $2.7M. That’s insanely low. It was released a month ago in the UK, doing good business over there, and that explains its $39M worldwide total. The film is said to have had a $30M budget.
I should mention that, although it won’t break even, “Challengers” has legs. It nabbed another $2.6 million over the weekend, and its worldwide cume is now said to be close to $80 million.
Next week sees the release of “Furiosa.” It should be interesting to see if the good reviews translate into it overperformance.