“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” ain’t afraid of no ghost.
Disney’s new “Haunted Mansion” is settling for third place behind the formidable pair of blockbusters. The reimagining earned $9.9 million from 3,740 locations on its opening day, a figure that includes $3.1 million in Thursday previews. The family-friendly funhouse feature was projecting an opening between $25 million and $30 million, a range that some rivals predict the debut will end up falling short of.
With a $150 million production budget behind the project, it’s looking to be another disappointing chapter for Disney’s summer slate. Things kicked off alright with Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which released in May and tallied up $358 million in North America. But after “The Little Mermaid” failed to make a substantial splash overseas, the studio followed with two costly underperformers in “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
No doubt that a swath of family audiences have kept their attention on “Barbie”; “Haunted Mansion” simply doesn’t have the critical buzz to keep up, turning in a low 27% approval rating from top critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences are more friendly with a “B+” grade through research firm Cinema Score, but the Disney remake could certainly use some stronger sentiment than that.
Directed by Justin Simien, who showed teeth with “Dear White People” and the horror satire “Bad Hair,” “Haunted Mansion” draws inspiration from the Disneyland theme park ride of the same name. The attraction spawned a feature starring Eddie Murphy in 2003, which flipped a $90 million production budget for a $180 million global gross. This new entry recruits a substantial cast that includes LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto.
“Barbie” will remain on top in its second weekend, earning a commanding $29 million on Friday. That’s down 59% from its massive $70.5 opening day, which ranks as the largest of the year. The Warner Bros. release actually added 94 more locations for its sophomore outing, now playing in 4,337 venues.
It’s impressive for a film like “Barbie,” which opened north of $150 million, to be projecting a drop of less than 50%. Most blockbusters with that immediate impact face a sharper tumble in their sophomore outings. It all speaks to the superlative one-two punch behind the Greta Gerwig-directed feature: ubiquitous build-up marketing and the perception of quality that delivered.
The hot-pink fantasia will push its domestic total beyond $350 million this weekend, already making it the fourth-highest grossing North American release of the year in just 10 days. It’ll likely pass “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($377 million) and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($358 million) within the next week, only leaving “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($574 million) ahead of it on 2023 charts.
Universal’s “Oppenheimer” is maintaining second place, projecting a $46 million haul from 3,647 theaters. That’d notch an impressive 44% drop from its opening and would be enough to rank as the fifth-biggest sophomore outing ever for an R-rated release.
The Christopher Nolan feature would probably have landed an even stronger hold if it wasn’t playing strongly throughout the week. On Thursday, “Oppenheimer” became the first R-rated feature to sell more than $10 million in tickets for seven days in a row. A big factor in that is the film’s play in Imax. Audiences believe that a Nolan feature demands a huge screen and that’s left consumers to set aside time during the week to land a ticket for one of those premium large formats.
“Oppenheimer” should push its domestic haul to $173 million through Sunday, enough to slot it as the eighth-highest grossing North American release of the year after 10 days of release. It’s already the biggest non-IP production of the year too.
More to come…
