The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Well-reviewed ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘Girls Trip’ smash expectatio­ns

‘Girls Trip’ breaks R-rated comedy curse this summer.

- By Lindsey Bahr

LOS ANGELES — It’s victory for “Dunkirk” and “Girls Trip” at the box office this weekend. Both original and well-reviewed films smashed expectatio­ns and enticed diverse audiences to the theaters, even though cumula- tively summer remains down from last year.

Christophe­r Nolan’s World War II epic brought in anestimate­d $50.5 million to easily top the charts, according to Warner Bros., while the raucous comedy “Girls Trip” broke the R-rated comedy slump of 2017 with $30.4 million to take second place.

“Dunkirk” was far from an inevitable summer success. But stellar reviews, awards buzz and hype around the film’s large-scale production helped drive people to the theater and large-format screens.

“We’re beyond thrilled with this exceptiona­l achievemen­t for ‘Dunkirk,’ “said Jeff Goldstein, who heads distributi­on for Warner Bros .“The critical reception world wide has been consistent­ly effusive. It really propelled this movie that wasn’t an obvious win.”

Audiences were 60 percent male and76 percent over the age of 25 for the PG-13 rated film, while IMAX audiences represente­d 23 percent of the market share ( or $11.7 million of the total grosses from only 402 screens).

“It became a must-see event,” said Paul Dergarabed­ian, a senior media analyst for comScore.

Drawing quite a different audience was the buddy comedy“Girls Trip ,” starring Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah as a group of girlfriend­s who head to New Orleans for a weekend of fun. The Universal film drew in an audience that was 79 percent female and 50 percent under the age of 30. Fifty-nine percent of attendees were estimated to be African-American.

Notably, audiences gave the filma stellar A+ CinemaScor­e, suggesting the film will have long-term playabilit­y.

“‘Girls Trip’ was a perfectly counter-programmed box office surprise,” Dergarabed­ian said. “It broke the R-rated comedy curse that has afflicted this summer with ‘Baywatch,’ ‘Snatched,’ ‘Rough Night’ and ‘ The House.’”

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