Box Office: Sequelitis Continues With ‘MIB: International’ And

Wide releases went zero for 3 this weekend with two of these openers persevering with the summer time’s franchise-fatigue development. For higher or worse, with the variety of leisure choices obtainable at residence, the edge for summer time motion pictures has been raised, and it takes greater than a well-known property and some recognizable stars to promote a film. The movie truly must be good, too.

Unfortunately, whereas I nonetheless keep that Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson can be a potent combo (see Thor: Ragnarok), their earlier onscreen chemistry didn’t translate into Men in Black: International, which opened with a meager $28.5 million, even lower than final week’s box-office bomb, Dark Phoenix ($32 million). Reviews for the F. Gary Gray movie weren’t variety (25 % on Rotten Tomatoes), which most likely erected a reasonably sizable barrier to entry, dooming — together with the mediocre advertising — the movie from the outset. The $26 million represents the bottom gross for a Men in Black movie, following three entries from Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones that each one scored over $50 million.

Sony most likely needs it had gone with the Men in Black/21 Jump Street crossover as a substitute, though they a minimum of saved the associated fee down on MiB: International, which price solely $110 million to supply in comparison with the $220 million price of the earlier entry. The excellent news, a minimum of, is that MiB: International was monitoring a lot better abroad, the place it earned $73 million, so profitability shouldn’t be utterly out of the query, even when the movie did flop within the States.