Italian
Twisters is taking the box office by storm
The movie, a standalone sequel to the 1996 disaster epic Twister, has collected a massive $80.5 million from 4,151 North American theaters in its debut. Heading into the weekend, the follow-up film was projected to generate $50 million to $55 million. It’s the third biggest opening weekend of the year behind Inside Out 2 ($154 million) and Dune: Part Two ($82 million) and ahead of Godzilla x Kong ($80 million). Directed by Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, Twisters stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos as storm chasers who find themselves in the fight of their lives as multiple tornadoes converge over central Oklahoma.
A perfect storm of factors
Analysts believe several factors contributed to the surge in initial ticket sales, the most important being that audiences simply dug the film. It holds an “A-” on CinemaScore. Nostalgia for the original blockbuster, starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as the rising bankability of its stars Powell (of Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You fame) and Edgar-Jones (a favorite from Hulu’s romantic drama Normal People), helped to drive interest.
“It’s perfect summer entertainment,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “This is essentially the same havoc we saw the first time, but it’s 28 years later, and the spectacle, the special effects, and the set pieces are bigger and better.”
Twisters cost $155 million to produce, not including the many millions in marketing. Universal Pictures backed the movie and released it domestically while Warner Bros. has international rights.
A summer of hits
Though Twisters easily rocketed to No. 1 on domestic charts, comparisons to the same weekend in 2023 were tough. That’s because this time last year, Barbenheimer fever was sweeping the nation. Yet after a slow start to summer, the box office is finally gaining momentum thanks to several overperforming tentpoles like Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, and A Quiet Place: Day One. Over the past month or so, the year-to-date deficit has shrunk from 21% to 17%, according to Comscore.
“A summer season that started off inauspiciously with a series of less than stellar box office performances has been turbocharged with a cavalcade of hits,” says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst. “[It has] fueled a resurgence in June and July and sparked an impressive turnaround for studios and movie theatres alike.”
Despicable Me 4 and other box office contenders
In second place, Universal and Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 added $23 million from 4,112 venues in its third weekend of release. So far, the animated sequel has generated $259 million domestically. The franchise, which includes the popular Minions movies, recently became the first animated series to top $5 billion at the global box office.
Disney’s Pixar sequel Inside Out 2 landed at No. 3 with $12.7 million from 3,625 locations in its sixth weekend in theaters. The follow-up film is just short of clearing the $600 million mark in North America with ticket sales at $596 million. Globally, it’s the second-highest-grossing animated film in history with $1.443 billion and will soon surpass Frozen 2 ($1.45 billion) to claim the top spot. Inside Out 2 is also about to overtake Barbie ($1.446 billion) as the 14th biggest movie of all time.
Neon’s breakout horror hit Longlegs took fourth place in North America, adding a solid $11.7 million from 2,850 theaters in its sophomore outing. Revenues declined just 48% from its opening weekend, which is impressive for the horror genre. Longlegs has grossed $44.6 million to date.
Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One rounded out the top five with $6.1 million from 2,913 venues. After four weeks on the big screen, the nearly silent sci-fi thriller has earned $127.6 million. By comparison, the two prior installments in the franchise, 2018’s A Quiet Place and 2021’s A Quiet Place Part II tapped out domestically with $188 million and $160 million, respectively.
A box office disaster
Elsewhere, Fly Me to the Moon, a $100 million-budgeted romantic comedy from Sony and Apple, failed to rebound after its concerningly Earth-bound $11 million debut. Ticket sales plummeted 68% from last weekend with $3 million from 3,356 theaters. The film, starring Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson as a NASA director and marketing expert who have a meet-cute against the backdrop of the Apollo 11 mission, has generated a paltry $16 million to date. It’s one of the biggest box office disasters of the year.
More to come…
As the summer continues, the box office landscape remains dynamic and unpredictable. With several high-profile releases on the horizon, it will be fascinating to see how the numbers shift and which films capture the audience’s imagination next. The resurgence of the box office is a testament to the enduring appeal of cinema, and the stories that unfold on the big screen continue to captivate and inspire.
