Despicable Me 4 Reigns, But Longlegs Exceeds Expectations with Killer Opening

Yes, when it comes to this weekend’s box office shenanigans, we all want to talk about Longlegs blowing past all expectations. However, let’s do things in chronological order. First, we must talk about the reigning champ of the North American box office, Despicable Me 4. Grossing another $44.6 million this frame, the latest Illumination title dipped an impressively slim 40% from its opening weekend. It’s now grossed a robust $211.2 million domestically. Only the third movie of 2024 to crack $200+ million domestically, Despicable Me 4’s second weekend was slightly ahead of Despicable Me 2’s $43.8 million second frame. That bodes incredibly well for the long-term prospects of Despicable Me 4, which will have no problem exceeding $300 and possibly even $350 million domestically.

OK, now let’s talk about Longlegs, arguably the surprise smash hit of 2024 so far.

Before this weekend, projections for Longlegs were in the $7-9 million range. A few bullish rascals on the interwebs suggested maybe it could reach $10 million. A24’s peak horror movie opening was $13.6 million for Hereditary, so that felt like the ceiling for indie scary fare. Longlegs blew all those expectations out of the water with a staggering $22.6 million bow. The second-best horror launch of 2024 (only behind A Quiet Place: Day One), Longlegs is an especially impressive feat for distributor Neon.

Previously, the label’s biggest domestic opening weekend was Immaculate’s $5.3 million debut. Longlegs left that figure in the dust and, after just three days, is already Neon’s third-biggest movie ever domestically. It should have no problem surpassing I, Tonya, and Parasite to score the title of Neon’s biggest title ever in North America. This feature is also already Maika Monroe’s third-biggest movie ever, while Longlegs has proven especially fruitful for Nicolas Cage. In one weekend, Longlegs surpassed the domestic totals of his 2020s feature Renfield and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Among live-action movies he’s appeared in, Longlegs is already his biggest non-Ghost Rider movie since The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in July 2010. Staggeringly, this is also narrowly the ninth-biggest live-action opening weekend ever for a Nicolas Cage movie.

What went oh so right here? For starters, Neon really kicked its marketing department into the next gear here. Longlegs was preceded by a six-month-long marketing campaign full of evocative teaser trailers and striking posters. These were very ambiguous marketing materials that didn’t offer much concrete plot details. However, they compelled onlookers to remember this original horror title. Meanwhile, Longlegs offered something new in the horror movie marketplace as a police procedural crossed with something creepier. That’s an incredibly different concoction than the typical Blumhouse movie, 99% of which seem to exist in the same suburban neighborhood.

Most of all, though, Longlegs may signify a shift in moviegoer tastes in the 2020s. Something this bleak making so much cash is yet another sign that people are gravitating towards darker movies. This doesn’t mean bubbly features like Anyone But You can’t thrive financially. However, Oppenheimer, Civil War, I Saw the TV Glow, and other grim meditations on modern society have flourished financially. Even the big blockbuster Dune: Part Two ended on a bummer note encapsulating the risks of placing all your eggs on a messiah figure. Heck, last fall, Killers of the Flower Moon grossed only $16.5 million less than The Marvels while last summer’s breakout hit Sound of Freedom was all about exploited children. The zeitgeist is shifting towards darker films and Longlegs might’ve ridden that wave to unexpected box office heights. Also, hey, never count out a well-marketed horror movie.

Inside Out 2 continued its impressive domestic run with another $20.7 million this frame, a 32% dip from last weekend. Inside Out 2 is only the 11th film to have a $20+ million fifth weekend after immediately opening in wide release. With $572.59 million to date, this massive hit should soon surpass Incredible 2’s $608 million domestic haul. Once it does that, this Kelsey Mann directorial effort becomes the biggest animated movie ever in North America.

Also opening in thousands of theaters this weekend was Fly Me to the Moon, the latest Apple Original Films release receiving a major theatrical run before a streaming premiere. Grossing $10 million, Fly Me to the Moon grossed nowhere near enough to cover its $100 million budget (though it is a streaming movie, theatrical revenue, and profitability aren’t as important as it is for a normal Disney movie). It opened $6 million beneath Ticket to Paradise, was roughly on par with My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3’s debut, and was up 68% from Anyone But You’s North American launch.

Even in the romantic comedy’s heyday, these titles rarely opened to massive sums. To get into $25+ million debuts, you’d have to either be an Adam Sandler comedy or exceptions like Sweet Home Alabama or Hitch. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days opened to $23.7 million, for instance, and Notting Hill bowed to $21.8 million. In July 2011, Crazy Stupid Love opened to $19.1 million and went on to leg out to $84 million. These movies made money over time, not in three days. Unfortunately, Fly Me to the Moon’s poor opening and relatively frontloaded nature over this weekend doesn’t signal Crazy Stupid Love legs. What’s especially disappointing is that lead actors Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum have had much bigger modern box office debuts. Even they couldn’t lift this one up to loftier box office heights.

Pro-tip to Hollywood: make more romantic comedies. We shouldn’t all be holding our breath that the fate of the entire genre rests on the one new theatrical entry in this space we get every six months. Keep these titles in the $25 million or less price range and just put one or two out every month. Get people back in the rhythm of regularly seeing these on the big screen again. If their anomalies and not fixtures of theatrical spaces, how will people consider them worthy of a theatrical run? Anyone But You, Ticket to Paradise, and Crazy Rich Asians all proved over the last six years this genre can still make oodles of money theatrically.

You have to put them in theaters and make them appeal to the younger audience that drives theatrical moviegoing. A pastiche of early 2000s features like Down with Love that were themselves tributes to 60s Rock Hudson/Doris Day rom-coms, Fly Me to the Moon was never going to grab that key demographic. Don’t let that failure stop the existence of this genre on the big screen.

Grossing another $11.8 million this frame, A Quiet Place: Day One dropped 43% from last weekend. Having now grossed $116.2 million after 17 days of release, Day One looks poised for a final domestic finish just north of $140 million. Bad Boys: Ride or Die, meanwhile, fell only 34% this weekend to gross another $4.4 million for a $184.8 million domestic total. This smash hit is aiming for a final North American gross of just under or over $195 million.

Coming in at seventh place was Indian 2, which grossed a robust $1.97 million. This feature stands a good shot at surpassing the $3.8 million domestic haul of Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two. That would make it one of the biggest Tamil language films ever domestically. Facing tough competition from Longlegs, MaXXXine plummeted 69% this weekend. Adding only $2 million this frame, MaXXXine has grossed just $11.7 million after ten days of release. It’s been a rough week for Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1. First, the second chapter of this saga got postponed from its original August 16 release date. As a horrible cherry on top for Kevin Costner, Horizon only made another $2.4 million this frame. A 56% fall from last weekend, Horizon has grossed just $27 million domestically after 17 days.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot failed to rebound from its dismal opening weekend. This faith-based feature grossed just $1.34 million this frame. That’s a 56% drop from its opening weekend and gives this motion picture a deeply disappointing $9.7 million 11-day domestic total. The Lion King roared back to theaters this weekend with significantly less pull than its 3D re-issue in September 2011. That event grossed a little over $30 million over opening weekend. This time, The Lion King pulled in only $1.07 million. Considering the minimal marketing and only 1,330 theater count for this reissue, Disney probably doesn’t care that much about this disappointing debut.

Focus Features inexplicably launched the foreign-language drama Touch in 316 theaters this weekend (presumably to get it to PVOD retailers more quickly). At least it fared a bit better than other recent Focus Features titles given such bizarre release strategies. Touch grossed $470,000 from 316 theaters for a $1,487 per-theater average. Maybe this one clears $1 million domestically, though these Focus titles tend to fall off quickly after opening weekend. Thelma eased another 48% this weekend to add $415,000 to its impressive domestic gross which now stands at $7.7 million. Kinds of Kindness plummeted 63% in its second weekend of wide release (it’s playing in 730 locations) to gross only $324,000 this weekend for a $4.68 million domestic total. Clearly, this movie’s appeal was only limited to the arthouse crowd. That’s a contrast to the last two Yorgos Lanthimos movies which crossed over into mainstream sensations. Kill didn’t recover from its disastrous opening last frame. Falling 67%, this action film took in just $138,440 for a domestic total of $1.04 million.

The acclaimed motion picture Sing Sing started its domestic theatrical run on a strong note, grossing $137,119 at four theaters for a per-theater average of $34,280. Sing Sing had the second-biggest limited-release opening weekend per theater average of 2024, only behind Kinds of Kindness. A24 is, thankfully, giving this one a slower rollout compared to its awkward abrupt expansion of Janet Planet. Sing Sing won’t enter wide release until August 2nd. Hopefully, that approach means this won’t be the only weekend we’re talking positively about Sing Sing’s box office accomplishments.

Meanwhile, National Anthem opened in four locations and grossed $42,000 for a per-theater average of $10,500. Unsurprisingly, the new IFC Films release Dandelion cratered after opening to $65,538 at 446 theaters. That gives it an atrocious per-theater average of $147. I don’t know who at IFC Films needs to hear this, but tiny indies like Dandelion and Ghostlight are not genre movies like 2024 IFC hits Late Night with the Devil and In a Violent Nature.

These features need slower roll-outs to reach people. They shouldn’t be hurled into hundreds of theaters immediately with no build-up or marketing. Thanks to IFC not giving most of its releases physical media releases, titles like Dandelion and Ghostlight are now doomed to fade into obscurity thanks to these botched theatrical releases. The only winner in this streak of dismal IFC release strategies is fellow clueless indie label Sony Pictures Classics. “Thank goodness IFC has drawn attention away from my botched release plans!” some Sony Classics executive is sighing today. Oh, and Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger opened to $7,083 from a single theater.

No word yet on how much Kalki 2898 made over this weekend, its third frame in North America. However, it reportedly grossed around $163,000 on its third North American Friday. Given that it made $16.5 million as of last Sunday, it’s almost certain that Kalki 2898 has surpassed $17 million domestically.

The top 10 movies this weekend grossed $120 million. That sum is down 10% from this same frame last year when Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One opened atop the box office. Keeping even somewhat close to that 2023 weekend haul despite the absence of new tentpole blockbusters is a solid haul. Chalk that up to newcomers like Longlegs plus resilient holdovers Inside Out 2 and Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Doesn’t hurt either to have arthouse titles like Thelma and Sing Sing drawing in people to see smaller titles theatrically. Variety makes the theatrical marketplace flourish, as the last few weekends have nicely demonstrated. Studios just need to provide more theatrical movies (and resources need to be given to the independent cinemas people apparently want) and we’ll have more weekends like this where three movies each grossed $20+ million.

Source: Variety