IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Sofia Coppola’s R-rated Civil War-set film “The Beguiled” scored in its expansion from four to 674 theaters in its second weekend. It earned $3.3 million to take eighth place and bested franchise fare including “The Mummy” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” which were both playing in over 1,670 theaters.

The well-reviewed romantic comedy “The Big Sick” also did good business in its expansion to 71 locations, earning $1.7 million. The Rrated film expands wide on July 14.

“The best box office stories are further down the chart. They are all benefiting from feeling like the kind of content people are responding to on the small screen,” noted Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for comScore. “Perhaps this is the summer where Hollywood finally starts emulating the small screen model of creating compelling original content in order to generate goodwill with audiences who have more options than ever before.”

Rounding out the top five were holdovers “Transformers: The Last Knight” in third with $17 million, followed by “Wonder Woman” with $15.6 million and “Cars 3” with $9.5 million.

Not so successful was suburban gambling comedy “The House” which landed in sixth place with only $9 million — one of the lowest of Ferrell’s career and the latest in a string of R-rated comedies to tank at the box office following “Rough Night” and “Baywatch.”

“The R-rated comedy used to be the antidote to the typical summer blockbuster and now those films are having a tough time,” said Dergarabedian noting success stories like “The Hangover,” “Bridesmaids” and “Neighbors.” “Now people feel like they’ve seen that movie before when they watch the trailer. They’ve lost interest.”

ILLUMINATION AND UNIVERSAL PICTURES VIA AP The Minions in a scene from “Despicable Me 3.” The Minions are still a box office force and original stories are scoring big, but not the R-rated comedy — even with Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler behind it.