A Quiet Place opens to $53 million on its first day; Kevin Costner loses with Horizon

“Inside Out 2” (Disney) will gross $57.4 million in its third week, while “A Quiet Place: Day One” (Paramount) will estimate $53 million. The last time two films grossed more than $50 million in the same weekend was last July, when “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were released. Before that? 2017.

This is rare, because distributors like to space out the releases of films with this potential. Although not a direct competitor, Paramount likely chose to release its prequel two weeks after Pixar. No one expected Vice-Versa 2 to be this strong at this point ($469 million in the US after just 17 days).

This is the summer it's supposed to be. Three movies have opened to more than $50 million in four weeks, and “Despicable Me 4” (Universal) out Wednesday is expected to do four in five weeks. That's more reason for optimism about the future than we've had in a long time.

This is a reason to rejoice, but not to rejoice. Last year, between the end of May and the beginning of June, five films reached or exceeded this level of revenue over five weeks. The latest was “The Flash,” which was considered a disappointment with $55 million.

However, many of these releases cost much less than this ill-fated DC title. (“Inside Out 2” is an exception.) “Day One” cost $67 million, “Bad Boys” $100 million. That makes a big difference when studios demonstrate a real profit for their efforts.

Even though “Despicable Me 4” competes with the film, “Cross-Body 2” is on track to gross $600 million or more in the United States. It even has a chance of overtaking “Barbie” ($636 million), the best film released in the United States last year.

The result for “Day One” was also surprising. It beat expectations (projections were closer to $40 million) and debunked the post-Furiosa (Warner Bros.) analysis that the prequels were a problem. “Day One” had the franchise’s best opening weekend. It also benefited from higher ticket prices and summer placement, in addition to overcoming the lackluster performance of horror films this year.

“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” (Sony) in its fourth week is #4, with over $10 million, and at $165 million almost equal to previous entry “Bad Boys for Life” at the same time . Again, much better than expected.

The bonus does not extend to Kevin Costner's “Horizon: An American Saga” — Chapter 1″ (WB). Its dances with western tropes only grossed $11 million, with a B- rating on Cinemascore suggesting word of mouth won't improve things. With Costner's significant investment and Chapter 2 coming out in August (the films would have cost $100 million in total before marketing), this one will leave its mark. This is another case where the hype of the Cannes premiere (including the ridiculous timing of the ovations) didn't have much effect, like “Furiosa” and “Indiana Jones” before it.

The Indian market has been very dynamic. “Kalki 2898 AD” (Prathyangira), an epic Telugu-language film that grossed $72 million and was released on Thursday, ranked fifth over the weekend with just under $11 million from 1,234 theaters . That’s an average of $8,890 per theater. “Jatt & Juliet 3” (White Hill), a Punjabi-language romantic comedy sequel, ranked ninth with $1.5 million in just 143 theaters and a per-theater gross of over $10,500. By comparison, “Horizon” was shown in 4,100 theaters for an average of $2,683.

The traditional specialty market would kill for such results. Instead, several twists and turns this week have shown modest to poor results for some films with real prospects. The best of the bunch is Catherine Breillat’s acclaimed “Last Summer,” which outperformed the others with a $30,000 debut at three theaters in New York and Los Angeles. Also impressive is the current release of “Thelma” (Magnolia), which has earned $1.3 million at 1,082 theaters. It now stands at $5.1 million.

The second weekend of Jeff Nichols' “The Bikeriders” (Focus), after a credible opening of nearly $10 million, fell 66 percent. It's more about the film than its distributor.

And after Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kindness” made $75,000 per theater in five theaters, Searchlight quickly expanded to 490 theaters. However, it made $1.5 million this weekend for just over $3,000 per theater — better than Costner, but still. After Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” and “The Poor Creatures” each made over $30 million, this movie will have a hard time reaching $10 million. (That movie cost $15 million and has good prospects overseas.)

Sony's Crunchyroll saw another disappointing anime result with “Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi.” It grossed just over $1 million from 857 theaters. It was much better than “Daddio” (Sony Classics Pictures) starring Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson, which managed to earn a lowly $440,500 from 628 theaters, averaging $701 each. “Janet Planet” (A24), which made a promising debut on the platform last week, cost a low $187,000 in 315 theaters.

The weekend totaled about $153 million, up from $128 million last year. Year to date, the box office is down 19 percent.

The Top 10

1. Upside down 2 (Disney) Week 3; Last weekend #1

$57,400,000 (-43%) in 4,440 theaters (no change); PTA (average per theater): $12,928; cumulative: $469,306,000

2. A quiet place: first day (Paramount) NEW – Cinemascore: B+; Metacritic: 68; EST. Budget: $67 million

$53,000,000 in 3,707 theaters; PTA: $14,293; Cumulative: $53,000,000

3. Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 (Warner Bros.) NEW – Cinemascore: B-; Metacritic: 46; EST. Budget: $50 million

$11,000,000 in 4,100 theaters; PTA: $3,299; cumulative: $11,000,000

4. Bad Boys: Ride or Die (Sony) Week 4; Last Weekend #2

$10,335,000 (-45%) in 3,312 (-469) theaters; PTA: $3,120; Cumulative: $165,250,000

5. Kalki 2898 AD (Prathyangira) NEW – East. budget: $72 million

$5,409,000 in 1,234 theaters; PTA: $5,156; cumulative: $10,970,000

6. Bikers (Focus) Week 2; Last weekend #3

$3,300,000 (-66%) in 2,622 (+50) theaters; PTA: $1,226; Cumulative: $16,200,000

7. The Garfield Movie (Sony) Week 6; Last Weekend #5

$2,000,000 (-47%) in 1,762 (-1,251) theaters; PTA: $1,135; Cumulative: $89,640,000

8. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Disney) Week 8; Last Weekend #4

$1,700,000 (-55%) in 1,650 (-760) theaters; PTA: $1,030; Cumulative: $168,077,000

9. Jatt and Juliet 3 (White Hill) NEW

$1,504,000 in 143 theaters; PTA: $10,518; Cumulative: $1,504,000

10. Types of Kindness (Searchlight) Week 2; Last Weekend #13

$1,500,000 (+298%) in 490 (+485) theaters; PTA: $3,061; Cumulative: $2,013,000

Other specialty/independent titles

Movies (limited, limited expansions) are listed by release week, starting with those released that week; after the first three weeks, only films grossing more than $5,000 are listed. Metacritic scores and first recorded film festivals when available.

Blue Lock The Movie — Nagi Episode (Sony)

$1,050,000 in 857 theaters; PTA: $1,225; Cumulative: $1,050,000

Dad (Sony Pictures Classics) NEW – Metacritic: 62; Festivals included: Telluride, Toronto 2023, Tribeca 2024

$440,295 in 628 theaters; PTA: $700

Last summer (Janus/Sideshow) NEW – Metacritic: 76; Festivals included: Cannes, Toronto, New York 2023

$30,300 in 3 theaters; PTA: $10,100

June zero (Cohen) NEW – Metacritic: 62; Festivals include: Karlovy Vary 2022

$8,142 in 1 theaters; PTA: $8,142

The Vourdalak (Oscilloscope) NEW – Metacritic: Festivals include:

$8,115 in 1 theater; PTA: $8,115

The little dark room (Rialto) REISSUE

$6,500 in 1 movie theater; PTA: $6,500

Thélma (Magnolia) Week 2

$1,320,000 in 1,300 (+10) theaters; PTA: $1,082; cumulative: $5,107,000

Planet Janet (A24) Week 2

$187,488 in 315 (+313) theaters; PTA: $595; Cumulative: $264,994

Ghost Light (IFC) Week 3

$48,128 in 129 (-373) theaters; cumulative: $504,241

Tuesday (A24) Week 4

$8,334 in 25 (-313) theaters; Cumulative: $693,350

Dreams of robots (Neon) Week 5

$50,000 in 56 (-28) theaters; cumulative: $555,243

Girls (Neon) Week 7

$35,900 in 30 (-20) theaters; cumulative: $3,738,000

I saw the TV glow (A24) Week 9; also on PVOD

$26,872 in 35 (-75) theaters; Cumulative: $4,950,000