Box Office Report: Vroom Vroom Vroom

Gran Turismo never seemed like it was going to be a major player of the Summer. Sure, it’s based on a big IP but it’s not a Mario Bros. game, and that late August release date always raises eyebrows. Reviews were middling but strong enough to get Neill Blomkamp’s latest to the top spot at the box office. With $17.3 million from 3,856 theatres, it narrowly beat out Barbie, which is still pulling in good numbers in its sixth week of release. That seems soft for Gran Turismo, and it is in context, but this movie was also remarkably affordable, with a reported budget of only $60 million. It’s already made about $53 million worldwide, so this could pay off for Sony, especially once it makes the jump to VOD. See, not every movie has to cost $200 million, Hollywood (particularly when we all know you’re not even paying people fairly for that work.)

The pink one is oh-so-close to grossing $595 million domestically. We saw some reports this week that it took over The Super Mario Bros. Movie to become the highest-grossing film of 2023 so far! It’s not quite there yet but it’s SO CLOSE! Barbie is at $1.34 billion while Mario is at $1.36 billion. Come on, Greta girlies, you can do it! Its partner, Oppenheimer, is also crushing it, and now sits at number four on that list of highest grossers of 2023. That puts it ahead of Fast X, The Little Mermaid, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Who could have seen that coming? The power of Nolan + those reviews + that marketing campaign = Warner Bros. wishing they hadn’t blown it with the director.

Liam Neeson’s latest punchy punch revenge movie, Retribution, debuted at number eight with over $3.34 million from 1,750 theatres. Right behind it is the baseball biopic The Hill with $2.51 million from 1,570 cinemas. Helen Mirren and her prosthetics earned $1.72 million from 883 locations for Golda, the biopic of the Israeli Prime Minister. The 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park didn’t do too badly either, with $1.7 million in 1,224 theatres. There are few things more satisfying than seeing one of your favourite movies on the biggest screen possible. I highly recommend it.

The raunchy comedy Bottoms hit it out of the park in its opening limited release. From only ten cinemas, it earned $516,254. It has some of the best reviews of the year for a comedy and real online buzz, so can that translate to a commercial hit once it opens wide? And will the puns get dirtier?

This coming week sees the release of Denzel Washington’s latest vengeance thriller, The Equalizer 3.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.