Last week saw major turnovers and surprises in box office performance, with anticipated new releases battling for the top spot and already released films climbing the ranks to make history, reports Box Office Mojo.
A second attempt at adapting the fantasy media series of the same name for the big screen, released by Amazon MGM Studios, Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe saw a poor box office performance for its opening weekend, grossing $54.3 million worldwide from combined earnings of $25 million internationally and $29.3 million domestically, from a $170-200 million budget.
Based on the adventures of sword-wielding superhero He-Man, Masters of the Universe stars Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Charlotte Riley, Kristen Wiig, Morena Baccarin, and Idris Elba. It charts the former Prince of Eternia reclaiming his identity and homeland from evil forces led by Skeletor.
Meanwhile, it was the revised horror spoof Scary Movie 6 that topped the box office this weekend with a $105.5 million gross worldwide ($55 million domestically and $50.5 million internationally). The film parodies several recent horrors, such as Scream, Longlegs, Ma, Weapons, Sinners, and Get Out, and stars Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Regina Hall, and Anna Faris in reprised comedy roles.
Last week also saw major milestones smashed at the box office, taking place in horror and biopics, which are proving to be major goldmine genres in contemporary filmmaking.
First of all, Kane Parsons’ debut release, Backrooms, has made history with a worldwide box office gross of $212.6 million on a $10 million budget, with $135.1 million domestically and $77.6 million internationally. These numbers place the Surrealist horror film based on the internet phenomenon of the same name as A24’s highest-grossing release, beating the previous record holder, Marty Supreme, by director Josh Safdie and starring Timothée Chalamet, which grossed a worldwide total of $191 million ($96 million domestically and $95 million internationally).
Backrooms stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve as a patient and therapist who find themselves lured into a liminal space which distortingly copies their reality.
Antoine Fuqua is also seeing success with his musical biopic, Michael, the smash-hit film charting the childhood and solo career of Michael Jackson, one of music’s most legendary and significant artists. Having accumulated $888 million worldwide so far, as combined from a domestic earning of $354 million and $534 million in international earnings, Michael has also broken a record for its studio by becoming the highest-grossing release for Lionsgate since 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which grossed $865 million ($424.7 million domestically and $440.3 million internationally).
In addition to this, this current box office gross pushes the biopic closer to meeting Bryan Singer’s 2018 film, Bohemian Rhapsody, for the title holder of the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time. Singer’s film charting the life and career of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury grossed a worldwide total of $910.8 million, as combined from a domestic gross of $216.7 million and an international one of $694.1 million, $22.8 million ahead of Fuqua’s film.
Michael stars Jaafar Jackson, Juliano Valdi, Nia Long, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, Mike Myers, Miles Teller, and Colman Domingo.
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