Barbenheimer is back on top and Dracula’s boat fails to make landfall at the weekend box office
Barbie and Oppenheimer keep winning, but Last Voyage Of The Demeter has a weak opening
Aux News Barbenheimer
The meme took off a little late to have much of an impact on the box office, but there’s still some bad news today for everyone on social media who thought the idea of Dracula being on a boat was so funny (as opposed to being bone-chilling, as Bram Stoker intended): Nobody actually went out to see Last Voyage Of The Demeter. Apparently the idea of paying real money to see what happens when you put a Dracula on a boat just wasn’t as appealing to people as posting a picture of Matt Damon from Oppenheimer saying “you’re telling me there’s a chance there’s a Dracula on this boat?”
Anyway, after last week’s brief foray into a phenomenon that we’re calling “Barbeg” (where people dress up in pink sailor outfits for a double-feature of Barbie and Meg 2), the U.S. box office has settled back into a familiar shape with Barbie on top (adding $33 million to its domestic total, now at $526 million) and Oppenheimer in second ($18 million this week and $264 million total). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem actually made up a spot, climbing from fourth to third with $15 million and $72 million after two weeks. Then we have Meg 2, falling to fourth with $12 million and $54 million after two weeks, and finally The Last Voyage Of The Demeter opening with just $6.5 million—enough for fifth place, but not enough to chill any bones.
The back half of the top 10 is mostly things that have been there before: Haunted Mansion (which has only $52 million after three weeks), Talk To Me, Sound Of Freedom, Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One (which has made less than the QAnon movie in the U.S.), and Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.
The full top 10 is below, courtesy of Box Office Mojo. Perhaps next week will be better for everyone hoping to see more out of Boat Dracula.
- Barbie
- Oppenheimer
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
- Meg 2: The Trench
- The Last Voyage Of The Demeter
- Haunted Mansion
- Talk To Me
- Sound Of Freedom
- Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One
- Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny
44 Comments
Boy am I getting some real last hurrah vibes from the box office lately. I suspect its gonna be pretty slow for a while after Barbenheimer finally comes to an end.
Nah, Hollywood is nothing if not efficient at copying success. Next year will see a flood of MAGA-friendly movies ending with an impassioned plea to buy more tickets now or the evil commie pedos will win.
And they will no doubt live rent free inside your head.
Sadly, this is probably true. We’ll see a couple of series on streaming too.
Might I interest you in a Polly Pocket movie directed by America’s sweetheart Lena Dunham?
Only if paired with a Jonas Sulk film so we can have Pocketsulk.
Hopefully if it succeeds we can have a Robert Rodriguez directed Mighty Max movie.
Yeah, it’s going to be a while before another movie has a $50m opening weekend. Next weekend Blue Beetle opens, but I have a feeling that it will be lucky to bring in $30m based on presales. Since the studios moved so many release dates, it gets really thin after that.
What are these “many releases” that got moved, aside from Kraven (which wasn’t looking at a big opening – hence its move by almost a full year)?
What’s even in the can? It sounds like a lot of the 2024 summer movies had to halt filming due to the strike.
I think a lot of stuff for next summer has finished principle photography. If there isn’t an agreement soon for the writers and actors, it’s going to get bad since they’ll need reshoots in the next few months. They can still edit and do VFX, but a movie will most likely be bad without reshoots. Hell, most films are bad even with reshoots, but they probably be worse without them.
The vampire movie should have held back its release although I’d bet it did pretty well in my town because there’s so little to do that people will see anything showing.
Or the trailers weren’t sexy enough. Vampires + sex = box office gold.
i think the name was the problem. seemed too highbrow.
I have to imagine that the movie Gran Turismo is going to be a pretty big movie, though almost exclusively overseas. It is a big story there, probably not as big here. Like the Ford v. Ferrari movie
I think Last Voyage of the Demeter would’ve done better if it featured Frankenstein instead of Dracula. Just imagine 90 hilarious minutes of Frankenstein constantly falling down because the ship is wet and always moving and he’s not that great at walking.
That’s really a great idea. The part of the novel where Victor and the monster are together on the ship is profoundly important to the novel. And I prefer Frankenstein movies where the monster actually looks like a human rather than a Hallween costume. I’d take slipping, but the drama could be amazing.
Damn. I want to watch Last Voyage of the Demeter but just was busy and will be busy with other stuff. Hoping it holds on long enough to still be in theaters for a couple more weeks…
I liked it a lot. It has a really old school feel and I really liked the way the movie doesn’t worry about who’s spared and who isn’t (not a spoiler). The effects are also really well done.
I really liked Demeter but it could have used an edit. The first few minutes and the last few are just connective tissue you don’t really need.
Good performances and the production design is top-notch, but the film is terribly boring, with no scares whatsoever. There’s a really good 90-minute movie lurking within this two-hour slog.
I hope Demeter will clean up on the home entertainment front.
Yeach, it would really suck if it didn’t.
This was probably the last weekend that Elemental and Indiana Jones are going to be in the theaters. I figure they will be available to rent and buy digitally in the next two to three weeks.
Can’t imagine Mission Impossible is too far behind the way it’s tanked.
It really is surprising regarding MI7, it is a very good movie, with excellent reviews both from critics and the public, and it had a decent box office outside the USA but was a failure in America. No idea why.
With all those covid delays in production, it must have lost a fortune overall. It’s not even at $600 mill worldwide yet, I’ll bet it’s still in the red.
Barbie and Oppenheimer opened the week after Mission. They even moved Mission screenings up, which helped the initial days. But Barbie and Oppenheimer just sucked up everything once they opened. It just didn’t stand a chance. As a fan of the movies, I hope Part II gets a more favorable release spot.
but honestly it didn’t even open particularly strongly. obviously it was playing chicken with barnenheimer (and lost) but i think there are other things at play here. a lot of my friends who saw it really hated it, too. as good as the reviews are i don’t think it’s connecting like the other ones.maybe the ‘part one’ of it all turned a few people off? i thought it was gonna be a massive hit but the extremely similar fast x whooped it’s ass. they even had a comparable domestic haul and fast x was labeled a disappointment.
Yeah I remember reading that the opening number was lower than expected. I figured it would be a slow burn, similar to Fallout, but it has fallen off a lot faster. It seems to have high critic and audience scores on Metacritic and RT, but maybe it’s not getting repeat visits.
i think being the third cliffhanger this summer might have hurt it too. it really is funny how similar to fast x it is.or maybe it’s as simple as ‘here’s another mission impossible movie’ wasn’t enough of a hook.
Elemental is coming to digital this week, I think.
You’re right. It comes out tomorrow.
Movies don’t completely disappear from cinemas when they become available on PVOD.
i’m really glad i saw indy. i went in with rock bottom expectations and came out pleasantly surprised.
Yeah it was perfectly cromulent.
I’m glad Mutant Mayhem has earned its budget back. If it has legs, slow & steady will win the box office. It’s a really fun movie!https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2023/08/04/is-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-mutant-mayhem-shellsational/
It hasn’t earned back its budget.
Its budget is reportedly $70 million, & so far it earned $72 million domestically.
That’s not how it works. It’s not all going back to the studio – not by a longshot. So it’s still a loooong way off from covering its budget.
i think, if anything, it’s laying the groundwork for the next one to be truly massive. great movie! excellent starting point and the series and sequel are already greenlit.
Haunted Mansion and Demeter seemed like odd summertime launches. Can’t help thinking both of these movies would have done better with fall releases.
Yeah, they both seem like good Halloween movies, and instead they’re being stuck in theaters in August. Of course, the studios will blame “a lack of promotion” from stars…
It’s really great to see people in theaters again. I hope that these places do some fast and hard brainstorming to try and weather the upcoming draught. Maybe lots of $5.00 screenings of thematic fare like musical sing-alongs and horror double features. Definitely try to get patrons to dress up as characters from films and show up in groups. Perhaps multi-film marathons for one low price. You could certainly try some holiday themed stuff and make it as goofy and light hearted as possible. If nothing else we’ve seen the pent-up demand for people watching movies on a big screen together. Get creative people.As for “The Last Voyage-” it should have been held until October but also should never have cost 45 million. I really wish Blumhouse would get into period horror. This could have been made for under 10 million easily by a creative director and probably would have looked a lot better. They could have shot this at night on an old ship set or even a real historic vessel with painted backdrops, fog and rain. The tighter the sets the more claustrophobic and effective and for God’s sake no leftover Gary Oldman Bat suit. Just hire a good actor who can do creepy well.
No one wanted to go Morbin’, Morbin’ European bays?