Chomp! ‘The Meg’ makes off with $44.5M
NEW YORK – Adding to Hollywood’s sizzling summer, the shark thriller “The Meg” opened well above expectations with an estimated $44.5 million in ticket sales, while Spike Lee had his best debut in a decade.
“The Meg” had been forecast by some analysts for closer to half that total. It also debuted well overseas, taking in
$50.3 million in China and totaling
$96.8 million internationally, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
With an international cast led by Jason Statham and featuring Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson and Winston Chao, “The Meg” cost at least $130 million to make.
Following hits like “The Shallows” and “47 Meters Down,” the shark movie – 43 years after Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” – has been showing surprising bite at the box office.
Traditionally a sleepy time at the box office, August has helped cement a comeback summer for the movie business. Weekend business was up 25 percent from last year, and the summer is up 11.3 percent, according to comScore. For Warner Bros., which on Wednesday will release the highly touted “Crazy Rich Asians,” “The Meg” is the studio’s best opening this year, besting even Spielberg’s own “Ready Player One.”
After two weeks at No. 1, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” slid to second place with $20 million. The thriller starring Tom Cruise has pulled in $162 million in three weeks.
Lee’s critically acclaimed “BlacKkKlansman” opened strongly in fifth place with $10.8 million in 1,512 theaters. The film, which took the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival in May, was timed to the anniversary of the violent clashes last year between white nationalists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Lee’s film, produced by Jordan Peele (“Get Out”), is a true-life tale of AfricanAmerican police detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), who in 1979 infiltrated a Colorado Springs, Colorado, cell of the Ku Klux Klan.
The PG-13-rated “Slender Man” didn’t catch on the way some horror releases have this year, finishing fourth with $11.3 million. The film’s 15 percent “rotten” Rotten Tomatoes rating probably didn’t help. Audiences also gave it a seldom seen D-minus on CinemaScore. But with a $10 million budget, the tale of an internet-famous boogeyman has a quick path to profitability.
Rounding out the top five: Disney’s live-action “Christopher Robin” movie, starring Ewan McGregor in the title role, finished third with $12.4 milion.
The overall box office continues to be a roll, one that could continue next week with the landmark “Crazy Rich Asians.”
“People are loving going to the movies right now, and the diversity of the content is really fueling a lot of enthusiasm,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore.
Final numbers are due Monday.