The domestic box office was quiet this weekend as theaters await a critical Memorial Day weekend that will set the tone for the first summer blockbuster season since the pandemic. With no new films in the top 5, Lionsgate’s “Spiral” will take No. 1 again with $4.5 million from 2,991 theaters, giving it a 10-day total of $15.8 million.
MGM/UA’s “Wrath of Man” is in second with $2.9 million and an $18.8 million total after three weekends. Warner Bros.’ “Those Who Wish Me Dead” continues to struggle with $1.8 million in its second weekend and a 10-day total of just $5.5 million.
March holdovers “Raya and the Last Dragon” and “Godzilla vs. Kong” complete the top 5 with $1.6 million and $1.4 million respectively. “Raya” has a domestic theatrical total of $48 million after 12 weeks in theaters and on PVOD, while “Godzilla vs. Kong” stands at $97 million after eight weekends in theaters, including 30 days on HBO Max.
The sole new entry in the top 10 this weekend was Bleecker Street and Topic Studios’s “Dream Horse,” which grossed $844,279 on 1254 screens this weekend to take the No. 9 spot on the charts. The dramedy, which stars Toni Collette as a small-town bartender in England that encourages the town to pitch in and help bring a underdog horse to the steeplechase racing world, has a 90% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Overall, box office weekend totals dropped to $20 million; but next weekend, the box office will get its biggest post-pandemic boost yet with the release of Disney’s “Cruella” and Paramount’s “A Quiet Place — Part II.” With theaters still a ways away from 100% capacity nationwide and “Cruella” also being made available as a Disney+ premium title, it is unclear how strong the opening weekends of these two blockbusters will stack up compared to those of past Memorial Day weekends.
However, Fandango reports that presales on its ticketing site for “Quiet Place” are double that of the pace set by the film back in March 2020, before COVID-19 force the horror sequel’s delay. The original “Quiet Place” was a huge original hit for Paramount in 2018, opening to $50 million and grossing $340 million worldwide against a $17 million production budget.