‘Fantastic Four’ $40M Second, ‘Naked Gun’ $17M New High For Comedies

SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU after Friday and Saturday updates: Refresh for more..There’s a bit of a calm spell at the box office before the Freakier Friday–Weapons double bill happening next weekend; that’s the frame everyone is excited about with a potentially over-indexing female millennial title and an enigmatic original horror movie with Kubrick-ian tones. Overall first weekend of August is $126M per Comscore, which is -27% from a year ago.

Still, there was a nice variety on the marquee to keep audiences interested, not just superhero movies, but a family animated movie, the potential comeback of big screen comedy and an indie hipster horror film.

For now, the first weekend of August has The Fantastic Four: First Steps at $11.7M million on Friday and for a $40M second sesh, and $198.4M running cume. That’s a 66% decline in the vicinity of Captain America: Brave New World (-68%), but harder than Thunderbolts* (-56%) which indicates the front-loaded rush to Marvel’s first family. The pic is booked at 4,125 theaters. Craters is a big word as sixty percentile drops are par for the course with superhero films — but we can’t deny that this is sharper than Superman‘s very good -53% second weekend hold. What’s clear is that there’s a ceiling here for certain superhero movies. In addition, let’s fact it, Marvel made a very good movie in Fantastic Four evident in that it’s the franchise’s highest grossing of all-time.

Imax at $5.2M repped 13% of the pic’s second weekend, the large format exhibitor counting a running total of $26.3M.

DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys 2, playing at 3,852 sites, is doing slightly better than the 2022 original with a $9.2M first day (which includes previews) and an estimated three-day total of $22.2M.

Interesting to note that it’s the first sequel to a DreamWorks Animation post-Covid born property (Trolls was launched in 2016). While the gross is right where it should be and alright for a net $80M production movie, we’ve seen better results for sequels from DWA (Trolls Band Together opened to $30M, but that had songs and Justin Timberlake). An A CinemaScore, just like the first film. Kids under 12 gave it a 90% positive score with overall audiences grading the sequel with a 67% definite recommend. Even play throughout the nation with best results in South, South Central, Midwest and Mountain regions. AMC Burbank is the best in show with close to $17K so far.

In regard to diverse demos, turnout was 41% Caucasian, 22% Latino and Hispanic, 18% Black and 12% Asian American. Male-to-female turnout was 50/50. Audience make-up was 36% general audience, 29% parents, and 35% kids under 12.

A very commendable job here by Paramount for taking the post Covid big screen comedy (not a hybrid, ala Deadpool & Wolverine which is comedy plus superheros) in The Naked Gun to a respectable highwater mark of $17M ($2M ahead of where stracking was spotting it) at 3,344.

Why commendable? This is a piece of comedy IP which largely means something to people over the age of 45, and Paramount casted the movie with older stars. Liam Neeson is a guy who has been satirizing his crusty action star ways in SNL skits and ESPN bits. Paramount emulated what Jerry and David Zucker and Jim Abrahams did with Leslie Nielsen in Airplane! and Naked Gun!, read turning a straight-laced leading man into a deadpan comedy star. You could argue that Paramount should have gone with a younger cast (i.e. Pete Davidson, Dylan O’Brien), however, for them to overindex here a bit with great critical and audiences exits, and capturing the young crowd, va bene, va bene.

Paramount really believed in this movie. Seriously, some studios would have bailed, pulled back their marketing, or just harped on one demo and underperformed tracking. Paramount screening this early with a tastemaker screening with comedy personalities on the Melrose lot, plastered outdoor, and had clever marketing stunts (urinal cakes in the men’s room at San Diego Comic-Con, LOL). The trailer dropped on social in time with its reveal at CinemaCon and racked up 135M views in seven days. The second trailer did 148M views in its first week.

It’s the second highest opening for a Naked Gun film after 1991’s Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear which debuted to $20.8M (unadjusted for inflation). Excellent exits with an A- CinemaScore–the same audience grade as the 1988 original, as well as 4 1/2 stars and a 67% definite recommend on PostTrak for a movie which is largely satirizing Liam Neeson himself. Reviews were also strong, which is rare for a comedy. In a very good sign, the young ones are in on the joke with the 25-34 set being the largest demo to buy tickets at 27%. 18-34 was 47%, which is the sweet spot. The 25-34 and 35-44 set gave the comedy its best definite recommend scores respectively of 73% and 74%. Male leaning overall at 62%. The over 45 audience, who know this IP quite well, repped 31% of the crowd.

The opening reps Liam Neeson’s biggest opening as leading star (not voice-over, cameo, narrator, supporting, etc.) since 2014’s Taken 3 ($39.2M opening). Currently, the pic’s weekend is $2M higher than the opening of the Jennifer Lawrence R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings from 2023 — that was Sony’s attempt to revive the big-screen comedy.

Diversity demos are 70% Caucasian, 15% Latino and Hispanic, 6% Asian American and 5% Black. Best areas of play are the West with the Midwest and Mountain regions overperforming. AMC Burbank in LA is currently the pic’s top grossing multiplex at just over $67,5K through Saturday night.

Warner Bros/DC Studios’ fourth weekend of James Gunn’s Superman is seeing an estimated $13.9M, -44%, for a running cume by Sunday of $316.2M. Friday was around $4M. Through the end of today, the movie is pacing 5% behind the running total of Matt Reeves’ 2022 The Batman, which ended its stateside run at $369.3M.

Fifth is Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth at 3,240 locations with a Friday of $2.46M and a fifth weekend of $8.7M, -34%, and a running total by Sunday EOD of $317.6M. That’ll be 10% behind the running total of the previous chapter Jurassic World: Dominion, which finaled at $376.8M.

Neon’s Together is sixth with $2.2M on Friday, $6.8M over three days and $10.8M over five days. On the high end, that’s very close to Midsommar‘s Wednesday-Sunday take of $10.9M. An OK 49% definite recommend with 77% under 35. Largely male at 52%. Diversity demos are 46% Caucasian, 25% Latino and Hispanic, 12% Asian American, and 11% Black. Best definite recommends came from men over 25 (38% of the crowd) at 54% as well as the 45-54 demo who gave it a 63%. Close to half the audience came with a date, spouse, partner — which makes sense as the movie is about a couple who grow way too close. Best markets were West and South Central. AMC Burbank is collecting the most money so far with just over $37K since Wednesday.

Comscore says Summer to date stands at $3 billion, +5% ahead of last year’s first weekend in May to first weekend in August. The year to date box office for Jan. 1-Aug. 3 stands at $5.4 billion, +10% from the same frame in 2024.

Sunday AM numbers — reflected in bold

FRIDAY AM: The first weekend of August begins with DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s The Bad Guys 2 stealing $2.25 million from showtimes that began at 2 p.m. Thursday, which is higher than the first Bad Guys‘ $1.15M Thursday in 2022, which turned into a near-$8M first day and $23.9M in a recovering post-Covid box office. The outlook on Bad Guys 2 in regards to tracking was $20M.

Production cost on Bad Guys 2 is $80M net, $10M higher than the first movie, which repped a rebound for the Covid box office, that pic ultimately minting $97.4M domestic and $252.4M worldwide. The sequel’s Rotten Tomatoes critics score is 85% fresh, which is 3 points under the 88% certified fresh of the first film.

Paramount, on the precipice of its merger with Skydance, is trying to bring the big-screen comedy back to life with its reboot of 1980s classic The Naked Gun, that Liam Neeson-Pamela Anderson movie doing $1.6M last night from shows that started at 7 p.m. Comedy comps are hard, but The Naked Gun isn’t that far from Sony’s R-rated Jennifer Lawrence movie No Hard Feelings, which did $2.15M on its Thursday (4 p.m. start-time) previews in 2023 and turned into a $6.3M Friday and $15M 3-day at 3,344 sites. That’s what hoped for here on this redo directed by Akiva Schaffer and produced by Seth MacFarlane. Net production cost is $42M.

The Naked Gun had a good night in PostTrak exits with 4½ stars and a 73% definite recommend. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film won over critics, a near-impossible feat when it comes to comedy, at 90% certified fresh with an 87% audience score.

Neon’s wide release of the Dave Franco-Alison Brie romantic horror movie Together grossed $1.35M in its second day at the box office for a running cume of $4M. The forecast is $8M-$10M over five days for the movie, which Neon snapped up for $16M out of Sundance. The last five-day genre movie that comes to mind is A24’s Midsommar, and Together, which has higher Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience scores (91% critics/79% audience to Midsommar‘s 83% critics/63% audience) is currently $300K behind that 2019 Ari Aster film. As we told you Thursday, Together gets a C+ CinemaScore, same grade as Midsommar.

It’s all about the second weekend of Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which ends the week with $158.3M after an estimated $7.4M Thursday, -14% from Wednesday. The second-frame outlook is $45M-$47M for the net $200M-budgeted movie, which is around a 61% decline. The Matt Shakman-directed reboot keeps all the premium screens.

Gowtam Tinnanuri’s Kingdom opened Thursday, making $1.1M at 360 locations. The pic follows an undercover cop who is plunged into Sri Lanka on a covert mission to dismantle a powerful syndicate. He learns the mastermind is his estranged brother, forcing him to confront family loyalty, and the moral cost of duty.

Here’s the top 5:

1.) The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Dis) 4,125 theaters, Thu $7.4M (-14% from Wed), Week $158.3M/Wk 1

2.) Superman (WB) 3,930 theaters, Thu $2.66M (-10%), Wk $37.7M (-57%), Total $302.3M/Wk 3

3.) Jurassic World Rebirth (Uni) 3,550 theaters, Thu $1.54M (-7%), Wk $20.3M (-43%), Total $308.9M/Wk 4
Let the record show that 2025 now has four movies that grossed north of $300M at the domestic B.O., also inclusive of Superman, Lilo & Stitch and A Minecraft Movie.

4.) F1 (Apple/WB) 2,615 theaters, Thu $750K (-13%), Wk $9.8M (-36%), Total $169.1M/Wk 5

5.) Smurfs (Par) 3,504 theaters, Thu $715K (-28%), Week $9.3M (-15%), Total $26.7M/Wk 2