‘The Mummy’ Is Cursed As ‘Wonder Woman’ Wins Weekend [Box Office]

If last week “Wonder Woman” showed how box office receipts could be boosted by strong reviews, this week “The Mummy” highlighted what happens when critics carve up a movie.

Universal‘s Dark Universe franchise is off to a seriously rocky start as the Tom Cruise -starring vehicle got out of the gate with $32.2 million. According to trade reports, the studio needed the film to open to at least $40 million domestic to be considered a success, in addition to doing gangbusters overseas. On the latter front, executives will have a silver lining to hang onto. The monster movie pulled in $141 million abroad, which adds up to a $174 million global debut, which is Cruise’s biggest worldwide opening ever. However, it still means the movie is carrying a wildly unbalanced 18.5%/81.5% box office split between domestic and international, which is hardly the kind of breakdown you want for an ongoing series of movies. It’ll be interesting to see how Universal moves on, but the good news is that their next entry in Dark Universe, “The Bride Of Frankenstein,” isn’t slated for release until February 14, 2019 so perhaps the stink of “The Mummy” will have worn off by then.

Universal’s loss is Warner Bros‘ gain as “Wonder Woman” headed into week two by taking the top spot again. The superhero film pulled in $57.1 million and held spectacularly with a tiny 44% drop in audience since it launched. According to Box Office Mojo, that hold is the fifth smallest second-week drop for a wide release ever. Patty Jenkins‘ film had a better second weekend than both “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice” and “Suicide Squad,” and had a far better audience hold. There is no doubt that “Wonder Woman” is going to exceed expectations when the dollars and cents are counted at the end of the summer, the only question now is just how high it will go. The film is currently sitting at $435 million worldwide after two weeks, which is undoubtedly terrific. At home, it’s already the fifth highest grossing film of the year.

READ MORE: The Best Films Of 2017 So Far

A24 hit 2,500 screens with the horror “It Comes At Night,” which scooped up a modest $6 million. The downside is that the film earned a dreadful D CinemaScore, but the upside is that the indie studio has been here before. “The Witch” debuted with $8.8 million last winter and a C- CinemaScore, but went on to earn $25.1 million. That likely won’t happen here, given the much tougher summer movie season, but “It Comes At Night” is a low-cost effort and should still likely come out okay in the end.

$3.7 million might not seem like a lot, but for Bleecker Street, that number helped make Kate Mara‘s dog movie “Megan Leavey” their biggest opening ever. The true story drama scored an impressive A CinemaScore — the best of any film opening this weekend — which could mean the movie showing some decent word of mouth in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, Fox Searchlight‘s “My Cousin Rachel” fell outside the top ten with $954,000 from 523 screens.

In holdover releases, “Alien: Covenant” continues to plummet and after four weeks of release, it’s stalled at $178 million worldwide. To not be considered a wholesale disappointment, the movie’s last hope is China and Russia where it hasn’t opened yet. After six weeks of release, “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” still remains in the domestic top five. At $828.2 million globally, the Marvel picture is currently the fifth highest grossing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it appears it’s going to fall short of the $1 billion mark many expected it to cross. As of right now, it’s the third highest-grossing film of 2017 worldwide.

At the arthouse: “Beatriz At Dinner” was a surprisingly strong performer, earning a $30,032 per screen average from five screens for $150,160.

1. “Wonder Woman” — $57.1 million ($205 mil.)
2. “The Mummy” — $32.2 million
3. “Captain Underpants” — $12.3 million ($44.5 mil.)
4. “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” — $10.7 million ($135.8 mil.)
5. “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” — $6.2 million ($366.3 mil.)
6. “It Comes At Night” — $6 million
7. “Baywatch” — $4.6 million ($51 mil.)
8. “Megan Leavey” — $3.7 million
9. “Alien: Covenant” — $1.8 million ($71.2 mil.)
10. “Everything, Everything” — $1.6 million ($31.7 mil.)