Sony/Screen Gems/Blumhouse’s “Insidious: The Red Door” is beating both “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and its own box office projections to take the No. 1 spot at the box office, earning $15 million from 3,188 theaters on its opening day as industry estimates now have it earning $31 million this weekend.
Earlier this week, independent projections had the fifth “Insidious” film earning a $22-24 million opening. Instead, “The Red Door” — a film that marks the directorial debut of series star Patrick Wilson and concludes the story of his character, Josh Lambert — is set to pass the $29.5 million opening of “Insidious: The Last Key” in 2018 to set a new high for the horror franchise. It is just above the $30.4 million opening of fellow Blumhouse production “M3GAN” earlier this year.
Like the rest of Hollywood, the famously thrifty Blumhouse has not been able to avoid the toll of inflation on production costs as the “The Red Door” holds a reported $16 million budget, higher than the $10 million spent on “The Last Key.”
But in a summer of tentpoles with $250 million-plus price tags, “Insidious 5” is the season’s lowest-budgeted No. 1 film, and its strong opening will nonetheless make it a profitable title, even if next week’s release of “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning” and this film’s mixed reception with a C+ on CinemaScore and a 38% critics and 71% audience Rotten Tomatoes result make its box office performance more front-loaded than “M3GAN.”
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is in second with an estimated $26 million in its second weekend. That marks a 56% drop from the Lucasfilm production’s $60 million opening weekend, a slightly better hold than the 60% average that post-shutdown tentpoles have demonstrated over the past two years.
As noted in our WrapPRO analysis earlier this week, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is one of a series of big-budget films across multiple studios that is providing significant turnout for movie theaters but are underperforming relative to their COVID-inflated budgets. “Dial of Destiny” is projected to earn a 10-day domestic total of $121.5 million, but is unlikely to turn a theatrical profit against its near $300 million budget before marketing.
Outside the top five is Lionsgate’s “Joy Ride,” an R-rated comedy that marks the directorial debut of “Crazy Rich Asians” writer Adele Lim. Despite strong reviews from its SXSW premiere with a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, the film is opening outside the top five to $2.6 million from 2,820 theaters on its opening day and an estimated $5-6 million opening weekend.
Earlier this week, “Joy Ride” had been estimated for a $7-9 million opening weekend, but is instead opening similar to the $5.4 million launch of Universal’s 2022 Asian American comedy “Easter Sunday.” That film went on to gross $13 million domestically, as “Joy Ride” is hoping to find some positive word of mouth to leg out against tough wide release competition ahead like Warner Bros.’ “Barbie.”
Meanwhile, Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom” is continuing its strong indie run with conservative audiences after its July 4 opening, with industry estimates predicting a $15 million weekend total from 2,850 theaters to take the No. 3 spot on the charts. The film is projected for a $37 million total after six days in theaters.
