“Dunkirk” Holds Off “The Emoji Movie”

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

July 28-30, 2017

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Dunkirk $28.1 million
The Emoji Movie  $25.6 million
Girls Trip $20.0 million
Atomic Blonde $18.5 million
Spider-Man: Homecoming  $13.5 million

In a miracle at the box office, Dunkirk kept its No. 1 spot, falling only 44 percent. An estimated $28.1 million kept one of the best-reviewed movies of the year from succumbing to one of the worst. Christopher Nolan's latest has crossed $100 million at a faster pace than Interstellar, and won't face too much competition in August.

Despite universally abysmal reviews, The Emoji Movie managed a surprising $25.6 million. With its low price tag of just $50 million, don't be surprised if Sony announces a sequel soon, even if that might violate the Geneva Convention.

But the real story of the weekend is the wonder women of Girls Trip and Atomic Blonde. The former slid only 35 percent, bringing its total to $65 million. It will soon pass director Malcolm D. Lee's own The Best Man Holiday to become one of the biggest African-American comedies of all time. (At least one not featuring Madea.) Atomic Blonde opened strongly too, with $18.5 million. That's even better than the first John Wick, and gets my hopes up for a sequel. Spider-Man: Homecoming rounded out the top 5. It should top $300 million in the next two weeks.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. Al Gore's follow-up to his Oscar-winning documentary got mixed reviews, but made a strong debut. It averaged $32,500 on its four screens.
  • Detroit got a jump start on its wide opening next week, debuting in 20 theaters. It earned more than $365,000. That's almost more than A Ghost Story, which was playing on 308 more screens.
  • The Big Sick is now by far the year's biggest indie success story. The romantic comedy has now made more than $30 million.

Next week:

Detroit opens everywhere, but it's still playing on less than 3,000 screens, which might keep it from hitting No. 1. Its biggest competition is The Dark Tower, which has been in the works for a long time but doesn't have a whole lot of buzz. So I'm predicting $30 million for The Dark Tower, with Detroit close behind at $26 million. Meanwhile, the Halle Berry thriller Kidnap should earn a surprising $15 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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