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Monday Mixer: 'Wonder Woman' continues its domination

Posted Monday, June 12, 2017 at 11:43 AM Central

by John Couture

If you follow the NHL like I do, today is usually the worst day of the year. The hockey season is officially over and the long summer months officially begin. The next season doesn't officially start until October, which seems like so far away from now.

I have come to learn this morning that it's even more painful when your team loses in the Stanley Cup Final. Sure, this run was a bit unexpected and premature, but it doesn't make it hurt any less.

I grew up a Red Wings fan, but mostly lived in Detroit when they were better known as the "Dead Things." So, this is my first, true Cup run that I got to enjoy day in and day out. When Detroit finally broke through in the late 1990s, I was already in Indianapolis and it's different to be in the city when it's going on, much different.

I guess it's like that for any sports fan and while I certainly wouldn't compare my suffering to that of a Cubs fan, it still doesn't make today any easier to swallow. But, there's always next year and besides, we've got plenty to talk about with the summer box office.

Shall we get to it, then?

Box Office 411

This weekend was the battle of expanded movie universes and it looks like DC finally scored a victory. Long treated as the red-headed stepchild to Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU), the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) scored more than one win this weekend.

DCEU films have garnered a bit of reputation as being "one and done" when it comes to box office receipts. They tend to have great opening weekends, but fall off precipitously before ending with middling to sad box office totals. Wonder Woman reversed that trend in a big way with a massive second box office weekend to the tune of $57.2 million.

In fact, the 44% dip in its second weekend is best in the DCEU by far, which has averaged a 65% drop for its films in their second weekend. Also, the drop off is one of the best second-weekend performances ever tuned in by a comic book film. Back to the MCU, Wonder Woman's second weekend drop off was better than every single Marvel film released to date. Ironically, Wonder Woman had the cheapest budge of any DCEU film to date, so the profits will be even greater for this film.

Given its trend-breaking performance, we are truly in uncharted territory when it comes to Wonder Woman. Given this new information, I'm actually going to up my prediction from $375 million to $400 million for it once the film finishes up at the box office.

Wonder Woman's second victory this weekend is over Universal's debut in its Dark Universe (DU) series of films, The Mummy. This big-budget remake starring Tom Cruise was set to kick off Universal's expanded universe of classic monster films but only made $32 million in its first frame.

Universal was expecting closer to $50 million or more for its opening weekend, so is the DU over before it truly began? I doubt it. The Mummy will finish up with $120 million or so, but Universal has been known to stick with franchises until they catch on with audiences, see the Fast and the Furious set of films.

Elsewhere, the box office performed as expected with a slight disappointment in It Comes at Night's returns. A24 has had a good run at the box office lately, but they fell a bit short of internal expectations with the film's $6 million debut. The film should make $20 million or so, but I'm sure the studio was hoping that the final take would be around double that amount.

Coming this weekend, the animated films begin their domination when Cars 3 opens in theaters. I wonder how high it will go.

Quick Hitters

  • While we spend a lot of time on movies around here (and rightfully so), the video game industry is one that we always keep an eye on. And who knows, maybe more game content will be coming on this site soon. Who knows? Anyhow this week is the big industry event E3 and here are two of the biggest things to come out of it thus far.

    First up, is the world premiere of the Assassin's Creed Origins trailer.

  • Finally, the second bit concerns the new Xbox console long code-named Scorpio. The official trailer for Xbox One X (yes, that's real and really confusing, no?) is below. It looks pretty cool.