“Superman” will loom large again at the box office as two major newcomers, a “Smurfs” musical and the latest “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” open in theaters.
After a mighty $125 million domestic start, “Superman” is aiming to collect $55 million to $62 million in its second weekend of release, a standard 50% to 55% drop. So far, the film has earned $155 million domestically and $250 million globally. Solid reviews and positive word-of-mouth should help the comic book adventure stick around during the competitive summer movie season, but “Superman” requires some serious box office staying power to qualify as a true blockbuster.
That’s because there’s more riding on “Superman” than just earning back the film’s mega $225 million production budget. The superhero reboot, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel and Rachel Brosanhan as Lois Lane, has aspirations to reset the DC Universe. The Warner Bros.-owned comic book brand has long struggled to match the commercial success and consistency of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.
James Gunn and Peter Safran were hired in 2022 to right the ship after the last iteration of DC Comics flamed out with “The Flash,” “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and “Shazam: Fury of the Gods.” Now the executives are tasked with getting audiences invested in not only “Superman” but another 10 years worth of planned interconnected stories and spinoffs, continuing in 2026 with “Supergirl” and “Clayface.” Yet just because moviegoers are showing up for Superman, one of the most recognizable heroes on the planet, doesn’t mean there will automatically be interest in the cinematic adventures of comparatively unknown comic book characters. Those potential hurdles didn’t stop Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav from popping the bubbly, declaring after “Superman” had been in theaters for just three days that the “DC vision is clear, the momentum is real.”
“Superman” won’t have direct competition this weekend because “Smurfs” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer” are targeting different audiences. However, “Superman” could face major headwinds the following weekend as Disney’s next Marvel adventure, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” lands on the big screen on July 25.
“I Know What You Did Last Summer” should secure the strongest start among newcomers with projections of $15 million to $17 million. That’s a decent debut since the movie carries a modest $18 million price tag. Nostalgia should help with ticket sales. Though the slasher film is populated by newcomers like Madelyn Cline and Chase Sui Wonders, it’s the reunion of the original stars Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt — who are reprising their roles from the 1998 film of the same name — that’ll be the big draw for ’90s horror fans.
Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (“Do Revenge,” “Someone Great”), the newer “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (which is, indeed, a sequel despite the lack of any indication in its title) follows five teens who inadvertently cause a deadly car accident and cover up their involvement. Like their forbearers a few decades ago, they make a pact to keep the incident a secret rather than face the consequences.
Meanwhile “Smurfs” might curtail the winning streak of PG movies at the box office. The animated family film is targeting a soft $10 million to $12 million in its debut. It cost $58 million to produce. Rihanna leads the voice cast of “Smurfs,” which follows her character, Smurfette, as she leads her tiny, blue-skinned kin after Papa Smurf is mysteriously taken by evil wizards.
The Smurfs, created by the Belgian comic artist called Peyo, are being rebooted for the first time since the franchise moved from Sony to Paramount and Nickelodeon in 2022. The pint-sized creatures were last on the big screen in the live-action/ animated trilogy led by Neil Patrick Harris in 2011’s “The Smurfs,” 2013’s “The Smurfs 2” and 2017’s “Smurfs: The Lost Village.” Paramount already has plans to extend the “Smurfs” universe through more feature films and the Nickelodeon television series.
Elsewhere at the box office, director Ari Aster’s Western satire “Eddington” is aiming for $5 million in its nationwide debut. Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal star in the film, set in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as a sheriff and mayor that sparks a powder keg in their small town. The film, from A24, has generated mixed reviews, with the Associated Press critic Lindsey Bahr writing that although there’s “humor and wit, too, as well as expertly built tension and release,” there is “very little to be learned in this silo of provocations.”
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