This summer is treating movie fans to plenty of high-budget offerings at the theater, which has made it pretty interesting to watch who’s winning the box office battle. This week featured a quartet of new releases — particularly DC’s The Flash and Pixar’s Elemental — and while those two films did unseat the previous week’s top two, both earned far less than their studios were hoping for. The former's first three days in theaters were anything but speedy, as it earned just $55.1 million. Meanwhile, the animated tale of fire and water followed with $29.5 million.
If you think that sounds low for a Pixar premiere, you are spot-on, and we’ll get into some comparisons down below. The Juneteenth and Father’s Day weekend wasn’t a complete bust, however, as Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City got off to a record-breaking start with its release in just six theaters. Check out the full Top 10 chart below, then we’ll break it all down.
The Flash And Elemental Fall Far Below Opening Weekend Projections
Some of the more optimistic projections had Andy Muschietti’s superhero flick flirting with nine figures, but realistically it seems Warner Bros. was hoping The Flash would make around $70 million, which would have one-upped DC’s release of Black Adam in October 2022. The Dwayne Johnson-led project earned $67 million in its first three days, but given its budget of close to $200 million, that box office win had to be taken with a grain of salt.
Pass that salt to The Flash, because this movie, starring Ezra Miller in two different roles, cost over $200 million to make before marketing (per Deadline) and brought in just $55.1 million domestically (per The Numbers). Even with the Juneteenth holiday giving it a four-day weekend release, it’s not projected to reach the $70 million bar. This continues a rough go for films adapted from DC Comics. In March, Shazam! Fury of the Gods debuted in North America with a dismal $30.5 million.
There are still two upcoming DC movies this year, with Blue Beetle hitting theaters in August and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom arriving in December, so it will be interesting to see if they have better success.
The reviews probably didn’t do the movie any favors. While CinemaBlend’s Nick Venable had high praise for The Flash, it received a tepid B on CinemaScore and was rated 67 percent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (though its audience score was considerably better, at 86%).
Meanwhile, this weekend’s other big release, Elemental, had been projected to bring in around $40 million domestically, but stalled out at just $29.5 million Friday to Sunday — the worst opening-weekend earnings for a wide-release Pixar movie since Toy Story in 1995, which earned $29.1 million (not adjusted for inflation). Comparing Elemental’s premiere to Pixar’s last big theatrical release, Lightyear hit the big screen a year ago with what was considered a modest win at $51 million for its domestic first-weekend earnings. Chris Evans' movie was the company’s first to be released in theaters since the pre-pandemic Onward, which made $39.1 million on its opening weekend in March 2020.
Elemental, like The Flash, is said to have cost $200 million to make, so you can bet executives are hoping this movie has long legs with its out-of-school audience this summer. Word-of-mouth advertising might help in that respect, as it was graded an A on CinemaScore and a 91% Fresh audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics’ rating there is slightly lower, at 76%, but our own Dirk Libbey gave it 4 stars in his review for CinemaBlend, calling it “Pixar’s most romantic film.”
Asteroid City Breaks Records With Limited Release In Just Six Theaters
Wes Anderson’s sci-fi romantic dramedy premiered in just six theaters in New York and Los Angeles and still eked onto the overall Top 10 list, bringing in $790,000 this weekend. Do the math, and that means the movie earned $131,667 per theater. That’s the best per-theater performance since December 2016, when La La Land opened to $176,220 per theater, and the best for a film that opened in just six theaters (topping American Hustle’s $123,509), per Deadline.
Wes Anderson also beat his own record when it comes to per-theater earnings for a Focus Features production, beating out his 2012 coming-of-age drama, Moonrise Kingdom (which earned $130,700 from four theaters).
Asteroid City was another film that received a glowing review from CinemaBlend, with Eric Eisenberg calling it a “Looney Tunes-Esque Delight.” This movie — boasting a masterful ensemble that includes Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Edward Norton and many more — is set for wide release next week, and this seems to be one to keep our eye on.
Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts Takes A Big Dive In Week 2
Despite winning its opening weekend, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts took a huge hit in its second week, dropping to No. 4 with its $20 million haul. That means Anthony Ramos’ latest project fell a whopping 67% weekend-over-weekend. Rise of the Beasts topped Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse last week, but Shameik Moore’s superhero movie swung back up, falling 50% between its second and third weekends.
Things slow down a little next weekend, with the only wide release being Asteroid City (as previously mentioned). So I’m interested to see which films audiences show up to spend their money on. The lull won’t last, however, with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny headed our way before the month’s over, and July later serving up long-anticipated titles like Barbie and Oppenheimer. Check out our schedule of 2023 new movie releases to see everything that’s coming up, and be sure to visit CinemaBlend next Sunday for more box office analysis.
