Box office: ‘The Flash,’ ‘Elemental’ disappoint with sub-par openings, Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’ blows up in New York, LA

A certain distinguished author once began his novel with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” but he probably wasn’t referring to this weekend’s box office, as much as that saying applies. Read on for the weekend box office report.

This weekend was one of the newer national holidays, celebrating Juneteenth, the official end of slavery in America, which also meant that most government agencies were closed on Monday. Unfortunately, many schools (not all) across the country were already out for the summer, so that wasn’t gonna have as much effect on family films as it normally might.

First up, Ezra Miller starred in Warner Bros’ latest superhero action flick, “The Flash,” as the title character, a long-running (ha ha) DC superhero who was introduced in Zack Snyder‘s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” In fact, not only did Ben Affleck‘s Batman appear in the new movie but it also brought back Michael Keaton‘s Batman, who hadn’t appeared on the big screen since 1992’s “Batman Returns.”

The movie only brought in $9.7 million in early previews, which got lumped into its Friday take of $24.5 million, with the movie grossing an estimated $55.7 million over the three-day weekend. Warners is reporting an estimated $64.2 million over the four-day weekend, which is less than what Dwayne Johnson‘s “Black Adam” made in its three-day opening last October. “The Flash” also received a “B” CinemaScore, which is absolutely horrendous, and somewhat surprising considering the generally mixed-positive reviews.

“The Flash” grossed another $74 million overseas in 48 territories over the three-day weekend for a global opening of $129.7 million through Sunday with some of the bigger markets being China with $13.8 million, Mexico with $9.4 million and then the UK with $5.3 million.

Disney released Pixar Animation’s latest, “Elemental,” into 4,035 theaters as its second fully-theatrical release since the COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, Disney’s family audiences have gotten used to watching their movies on Disney+, so it bombed quite badly with an estimated $29.5 million over the three-day weekend and $33.34 million including Monday. That is very bad, worse than 2020’s “Onward,” which got hobbled by the pandemic, and “Elemental” director Peter Sohn‘s previous film, “The Good Dinosaur,” both which opened with $39 million.

“Elemental” received a great “A” rating on CinemaScore, which makes one think it will do better due to word-of-mouth as schools let out across the country over the next few weeks. It also grossed another $15 million overseas in 17 markets with $5.2 million in China and $3.2 million in South Korea, for a global opening (through Sunday) of $44.5 million.

Sony’s animated sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” took third place with $27.3 million (down 51%) with $37 million over the four-day weekend. It has grossed $284.6 million through Monday, well on its way to crossing the $300 million mark this coming week. It is also doing very well overseas with another $27.6 million grossed internationally for a global total through Sunday of $489.3 million.

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” dropped from first place all the way down to fourth, losing 67% of its opening weekend box office for an estimated $20 million over the three-day weekend and an estimated $23 million, including Monday. It has grossed $100.6 million domestically so far, but it doesn’t look good for it to get to $200 million at this point.

Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” dropped to fifth place (from third) with $11.6 million (down 50%) and $13.3 million over the four-day weekend. It has grossed a little over $255 million through Monday, putting it in third place for the summer.

The ensemble horror-comedy “The Blackening,” directed by Tim Story (“Barbershop,” “Ride Along”) was released by Lionsgate into 1,775 theaters on Friday and after making a paltry $900,000 in previews, it ended up with an estimated $6 million for the three-day weekend and $7 million including the Juneteenth holiday. The movie received astounding reviews with 86% on Rotten Tomatoes (a rarity for both horror AND comedy), but it received a mediocre “B+” CinemaScore, so we’ll have to see if it has anything resembling legs.

Focus Features opened Wes Anderson’s latest, “Asteroid City” into just six theaters in New York and L.A. on Friday. Featuring another jaw-dropping cast, including Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, and more frequent collaborators like Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, and Edward Norton, the movie received decent reviews since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival. It ended up making $840,000 over the three-day weekend, for an astounding per-theater average of $140,000, the best average since the pandemic began and on par with Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” in 2012. It’s estimated to make $970,000 over the four-day weekend, and that’s a great start for a movie that will expand to 1,500 theaters on Friday.

Celine Song‘s personal drama “Past Lives” continued to expand, this weekend into 86 select theaters where it ended up in 11th place with $760,871 (three-day), a per screne average of $8,951. It too should be expanding further on Friday.

(One movie that has NOT reported box office just yet is the Hindi fantasy film, “Adipurush,” which was released into roughly 600 theaters, which should allow it to get into the Top 10.)

Most players in Gold Derby’s box office prediction game got “The Flash” correct as the number-one movie but far fewer (35) had it making less than $75 million for the weekend. The other shake-up for this weekend’s game is the fact that a large majority had “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” dropping to fourth place, while only eight players had it correctly in fifth place.

Congrats to “HazardousKirby” and “hotsizzle10” for going 6 for 6 in the June 9 game, although the former came out slightly ahead in terms of points.

This coming weekend, Jennifer Lawrence returns in the raunchy R-rated comedy “No Hard Feelings,” while “Asteroid City” expands nationwide. Check back on Wednesday for the weekend box office preview for our thoughts on both.

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