Play it again, Hollywood
“Equalizer,” “Mamma Mia” and more sequels rule.
LOS ANGELES – In the battle of two very different sequels at the box office this weekend, Denzel Washington’s action movie “The Equalizer 2” has narrowly won out over ABBA jukebox musical “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.”
Studios on Sunday estimate that the R-rated film about a retired CIA officer turned vigilante grossed $35.8 million from North American theaters for the weekend. It’s the actor’s first sequel and the biggest opening of director Antoine Fuqua’s career. The first “Equalizer” opened similarly in 2014 and went on to earn more than $190 million worldwide.
Second place went to “Mamma Mia 2,” which took in $34.4 million The film brought back much of the original cast, including Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried and Pierce Brosnan, and added Cher, Andy Garcia and Lily James to the mix. Critics overall gave the sequel better marks than the first, which went on to gross more than $600 million worldwide 10 years ago.
“We consider this a terrific opening,” says Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “And knowing the audience for these types of films, we are going to have a very healthy run at the domestic and worldwide box office. This is a very fun, very uplifting movie that people need right now.”
It’s also a rare showdown of two stardriven films that succeeded in targeting two very different audiences.
“It’s amazing how well-matched these contenders are,” says comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “Both studios really did a great job of marketing each of these movies to their target audience. It’s classic counterprogramming.”
Sequels powered the top six spots at the domestic box office this weekend and eight out of the top 10 overall. “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” came in third with $23.2 million in its second weekend, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” took fourth place with $16.1 mil- lion in its third weekend, “Incredibles 2” came in fifth with $11.5 million and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” came in sixth with $11 million.
The weekend’s other big new opener, “Unfriended: Dark Web,” also a sequel, scared up $3.5 million for a ninth-place start. The only originals in the top 10 were “Skyscraper” and “Sorry to Bother You.”
“People are enjoying these films,” Dergarabedian says. “It doesn’t matter if there’s a number after the title.”
Original films and documentaries made their own modest impact on the charts, including “Blindspotting,” a buddy comedy with some serious themes about race and class starring Tony-winner Daveed Diggs. It opened in 14 theaters and made an estimated $332,500.
“Movies like ‘Sorry to Bother You’ and ‘Blindspotting’ are showing that in the summer people don’t live by blockbusters alone,” Dergarabedian says.
Final figures are expected Monday.