Shocking! ‘Garfield’, ‘If’, and ‘Furiosa’ Can’t Save Dismal Weekend at the Box Office!

The weekend was relatively calm within the North American film industry, with Sony’s “The Garfield Movie,” Paramount’s “If,” and Warner Bros’ “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” maintaining their strong presence. In a surprising twist from their debut weekend on Memorial Day, the animated film about the well-known orange feline surpassed the post-apocalyptic story in their second week.

“The Garfield Movie” led the pack, earning an impressive $14 million in ticket sales, while “If” narrowly beat “Furiosa” to secure second place, based on Sunday’s estimates from market research company Comscore.

Experiencing a mere 42% drop in its second week in North America, “Garfield” also claimed first place in the global box office, with an additional $27 million from overseas, bringing its total global earnings to $152.2 million. The animated film, featuring the voice of Chris Pratt, essentially faces no competition until “Inside Out 2” is released on June 14.

The fantasy film “If,” directed by John Krasinski and starring Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming, garnered $10.8 million in its third week, bringing its domestic total to over $80.4 million.

On the other hand, “Furiosa” experienced a 59% drop from its opening weekend, earning $10.75 million from 3,864 locations across the U.S. and Canada. This takes its domestic earnings to $49.7 million and its overall global earnings to $114.4 million, compared to its production budget of $168 million.

Disney/20th Century Studios’ “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” took fourth place in its fourth weekend with $8.8 million, bringing its domestic total to $140 million and its worldwide total to $337.1 million.

The action-comedy “The Fall Guy,” featuring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, and available for purchase at home, completed the top five, earning $4.2 million and raising its domestic total to $80.3 million. Globally, the Universal release has earned $157.9 million.

Several new releases opened on over 1,000 screens this weekend: Sony/Crunchyroll’s anime “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle”; IFC’s horror film “In a Violent Nature”; Roadside Attractions’ comedy “Summer Camp” starring Diane Keaton, Alfre Woodard, and Kathy Bates; and Bleecker Street’s father-son drama “Ezra.”

“Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” based on the Japanese high school volleyball series, raked in an estimated $3.5 million from 1,119 locations. The horror film “In a Violent Nature” debuted with $2.1 million from 1,426 locations, a significant release for IFC Films and Shudder. “Ezra,” featuring a stand-up comedian (Bobby Cannavale) and his autistic son, earned $1.2 million from 1,320 screens.

Disney also launched the well-received “Young Woman and the Sea,” featuring Daisy Ridley as the first woman to swim the English Channel, but did not disclose its ticket sales. Similarly, Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” is currently showing in select theaters around the country before it debuts on streaming next week, but Netflix has not released its box office numbers.

The 2024 box office is underperforming compared to both last year (down 23.9%) and pre-pandemic standards (down 42.2% from 2019 and 46.4% from 2018), according to data from Comscore. At this time last year, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” opened to $120.7 million while “The Little Mermaid” was still earning over $41.4 million in its second weekend. No film has yet to open to more than $100 million domestically this year.

While “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” had not yet debuted at this time last year, there were several successful hits such as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.36 billion global total), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($845.5 million), and “Fast X” ($704.7 million).

The highest-grossing film of this year continues to be “Dune: Part Two,” released by Warner Bros. in early March and earning over $711 million worldwide. Its domestic revenue of $282.1 million accounts for 10.5% of the total box office for 2024.

“Dune” director Denis Villeneuve expressed his disappointment at remaining at number one while accepting an award at the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto.

As reported by Yahoo, Villeneuve said, “I hope soon that there will be other successes at the box office. I hope sooner or later that this summer box office will be much better.”