‘The Invitation’ Leads Lowest Summer Box Office Weekend With $7 Million Launch

“The Woman King,” the historical action epic starring Viola Davis, took in $1.7 million at the box office from its Thursday night preview screenings, which opened at 3 p.m. on 3,271 screens. The Sony and eOne film will launch at 3,765 locations this weekend.In its opening weekend, the studio projects “The Woman King” to earn $12 million against a $50 million budget.

The Viola Davis femme African warrior epic The Woman King —a flashback to the types of historical epics Columbia Pictures has had a long history of notching Oscars with– is looking at a $12M opening per Sony this weekend, while rivals have it in the $13M-$16M range.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Fresh off its enthusiastic world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, the Viola Davis-led historical epic “The Woman King” will touch down in 3,700 North American movie theaters over the weekend. The domestic box office desperately needs a boost, but will U.S. audiences be as receptive as festival-goers in Canada? Touted as the real-life “Black Panther,” Sony’s “The Woman King” is aiming to collect at least $15 million in its domestic debut. Independent box office observers are optimistic that opening weekend returns could reach $17 million to $20 million. Yet Sony, who co-financed the movie with eOne, is projecting $12 million, in line with 2018’s “Widows,” which also starred Davis. Replicating those ticket sales, even with tempered pandemic-expectations, would be tepid-at-best since “The Woman King” carries a $50 million price tag.

Naman Ramachandran Ayan Mukerji’s Bollywood action fantasy “Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva” was one of the leading films at the global box office over the weekend, grossing $28.2 million, according to its producers, Disney’s Star Studios India and Dharma Productions. The film released in India across 5,019 screens and debuted at No. 1 with a three-day weekend of $18.9 million. The film’s overseas screen count was 3,894. In the U.S., where the film is distributed by Disney, it released in 810 theaters and debuted at No. 2 with $4.4 million. However, the film needs to sustain its momentum to break even, with its budget approximately $51 million.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Barbarian,” a horror movie that may have audiences thinking twice about booking that next Airbnb, scared up a better-than-expected $10 million in its domestic debut. Since the box office has been a wasteland for some weeks now, those ticket sales were enough to lead domestic charts, despite barely reaching double digits. This weekend’s other new nationwide release, “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva,” opened in second place with $4.4 million from 810 North American theaters. Both films are backed by Disney. Though “Barbarian” landed a tepid “C+” CinemaScore, the twisty thriller is benefitting from word-of-mouth, given the film’s zany and flat-out terrifying turns. Variety’s Peter Debruge gave “Barbarian” high praise, calling it a “new horror classic,” one that gets “downright demented as it goes along.” If “Barbarian,” which stars Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long, keeps people talking, the movie is likely to keep filling seats during a creaky September at the box office.

That would give this September weekend the second-lowest total of any weekend in 2022. The only weekend with a lower amount is the weekend of Jan. 28 with $34 million.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: With the exit of New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot in what has been a lucrative post Labor Day weekend pre-pandemic, Disney swooped in and booked its 20th Century Studios horror title Barbarian. That pic, directed and written by Zach Cregger, follows a woman staying at an Airbnb, who discovers that the house she has rented is not what it seems. The movie grossed $3.8M on Friday (including $850K Thursday night previews) and is poised to make around $9M, possibly double digits.

Top Gun: Maverick” has reached a milestone it has been projected to hit for months: $700 million in domestic grosses. The film pulled in $7.9 million in ticket sales between Friday and Monday, bringing its total domestic gross to $701 million.In doing so, the Tom Cruise blockbuster now stands among the top 5 highest grossing films ever in North America before inflation adjustment, joining a list led by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($936 million) and also include “Avengers: Endgame,” ($858 million), “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($804 million), and “Avatar” ($760.5 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Art-house title “Return to Dust” was a surprise weekend winner, topping the mainland China box office in its ninth weekend of release. The astonishing feat occurred on an otherwise depressed weekend in which China’s cinema box office dipped to a three-month low. This reflected the summer season winding to an end and anti-COVID measures once again forcing major Chinese cities into retreat. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed “Return” grossing $5.3 million (RMB36.2 million) between Friday and Sunday. Those three days accounted for nearly half of the $12.7 million (RMB87.4 million) cumulative total it has earned since release on July 8, 2022.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korea’s cinema box office slipped to its lowest level since mid-May as local film “6/45” took the top spot with just $3.06 million over the weekend in its second week of release. Comedy “6/45” was released a week earlier and scored $2.74 million in its opening weekend, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). The latest weekend, then, represents an 11% improvement for the title. It increased its share of the market to 45% during the latest weekend and advanced its cumulative total to $8.36 million. Depressed by a lack of significant new releases, the nationwide box office over the Friday to Sunday period, however, dropped to $6.75 million. This was the lowest scoring weekend since the first half of May.

J. Kim Murphy Hey, North America, today is supposed to be National Cinema Day — didn’t you get the memo? The domestic box office is looking so slow this Labor Day weekend that a re-release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — a superhero film that first hit theaters almost nine months ago — may make a return to the top of the charts. Though the third Tom Holland-led Spidey film debuted in theaters in December 2021, Sony is releasing the “More Fun Stuff Version” in 3,935 theaters over the holiday weekend, hoping to lure devoted fans back to the big screen with its promise of 11 minutes of unseen footage.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: “Estimates aren’t worth a whole lot this morning thanks to the brilliant idea of National Cinema Day” cried one industry source to us this morning about the challenges for studio box office analysts to peg exactly what’s going to be No. 1 over the 4-day holiday weekend. Despite all good intentions by the Cinema Foundation to drive business over a slow weekend, taking a page out of the book from what’s been down in Spain to spike admissions, it’s not creating a windfall of cash for the marketplace, but several movies are projected to show a 150%-200% gain in their Saturday box office over Friday thanks to $3 tickets on National Cinema Day today.

Yes, exhibitors, it is cold out there.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media After Warner Bros. executives signed off on the risky decision to bankroll their $90 million look at the life of Elvis Presley with a little-known actor portraying the hip-swinging rocker, producer Gail Berman reached for her phone. She wanted to immortalize the moment for Austin Butler, the man who reportedly beat out the likes of Ansel Elgort and Miles Teller to land the kind of role that can make a career. “I needed to take a photo of all these people sitting around after they made a decision that was going to mark a major change in Austin’s life,” says Berman. “It was wonderful that they saw from his screen test just how good he was, and that they were ready to support him on this journey.”

Naman Ramachandran Documentary specialist distributor Piece of Magic Entertainment’s “Andre Rieu’s 2022 Maastricht Summer Concert,” a concert film featuring Dutch violinist and conductor Andre Rieu, led a sluggish weekend at the U.K. and Ireland box office. The film collected £799,474 ($932,330) in a weekend when no film crossed the £1 million mark, according to numbers provided by Comscore. It was a three-day bank holiday weekend in the U.K. Ten previous Rieu concerts have grossed more in their opening weekend, but none managed to top the charts, per Comscore. The last event film to top the charts in the territory was “Michael Ball and Alfie Boe: Back Together” in Oct. 2020.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian” was the top film at the mainland China box office for the second successive weekend. Unchallenged by major new releases, the film earned $13.0 (RMB88.3 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That was a drop of 34% compared with its $19.8 million opening session. Some $1.5 million of the weekend total was scored from the film’s outing on Imax screens. After ten days on release “Yang Jian” has a cumulative total of $43.7 million (RMB297 million). Of that, its Imax total is now $4 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Intra-Korean espionage actioner “Hunt” claimed a third weekend as the top film at the South Korea box office, while “Bullet Train” managed only a fourth-place opening. “Hunt,” directed by and starring “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, earned a lowly $2.91 million in its third weekend of release. The figure was a 48% weekend-on-weekend decline and saw the film’s market share decline to 33%, down from 47% the previous weekend. “Hunt” now has a cumulative of $28.7 million, making it the fifth-highest grossing film of the year to date and the third biggest Korean title.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter If three new movies debut in theaters, but nobody goes to see them… That is how Sony’s creepy thriller “The Invitation” managed to top box office charts with a paltry $7 million. Its win comes with some pretty weak bragging rights; it’s the lowest first-place finish since May 2021, when COVID was keeping people at home. Now, it’s not the pandemic that’s preventing audiences from going to theaters, it’s the lack of appealing options. Overall, the domestic box office generated just $54 million over the weekend, the worst collective result in months. And the bad times are expected to continue until at least late September or early October, when “Don’t Worry Darling” (Sept. 23), “Halloween Ends” (Oct. 14) and the comic book adaptation “Black Adam” (Oct. 21) open in theaters. It’s a disappointing finale to an otherwise strong summer at the movies, which fielded plenty of box office hits including “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Elvis.”

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo, and is projected to bring home $6.5 million this weekend, according to Forbes. Based on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” the Sony film has received lackluster reviews, but still holds the number one spot in this summer’s lowest-grossing weekend at the box office.