A weekend with three new releases helped sustain the momentum from last frame’s stellar debut of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Led by Paramount’s IF, the top 10 in the domestic marketplace came in at an estimated $93M—a 2% increase over last weekend. On a year-to-date basis, the weekend came in 21% last year’s equivalent frame, which saw Fast X open in first place while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 posted a strong hold in its third weekend.

Here are Boxoffice Pro’s highlights from this weekend at the box office:

1. IF
Paramount Pictures | NEW
$35M Domestic Opening Weekend
$55M Global Opening Weekend

Landing in line with our prediction range, Paramount’s family comedy IF took in an estimated $35M for the 3-day weekend from 4,041 screens for a Per Screen Average of $8,661. Thursday previews generated $1.75M, leading to a $10.4M Friday and tracking for a weekend in the low $30M range, before a significant uptick from Saturday ($14M) and expected Sunday business helped drive up the weekend’s tally.

Expect these numbers to fluctuate when actuals come in Monday, but overall it’s a decent performance for an original family property with a live-action/animation hybrid style. According to Deadline the film’s audience was split evenly at 50% general and 50% family, with critical reviews (49% Rotten) being blamed for general audiences not taking this to $40M or beyond. On the plus side, the film garnered an “A” CinemaScore and 87% RT audience score. Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak also gave IF an 84% positive and 64% definite recommend. The film skewed 56% female/44% male with a surprisingly large portion of the audience (49%) in the 18-34 age range, boosting the film’s demographics outside the family crowd in bringing a young adult audience.

Paramount reports that IF over-indexed in the northeast, Midwest, and mountain regions of the United States, with major markets like Salt Lake City and Baltimore ranking as the weekend’s top overperformers. Canada brought in 8.7% of the weekend’s market share, a figure expected to sustain through Monday with the country’s Victoria Day holiday. The southeast in the United States slightly under-indexed for the title, while coming in below the norm in the western states. Among the major DMAs in North America that under-indexed are Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto.

Here’s how the film’s opening weekend demographics looked in North America:

• 41% Caucasian,
• 26% Hispanic and Latino
• 10% Black
• 14% Asian

Premium Large Format screens were responsible for 22% of the take on this title.

IF brought in $20M from 58 territories in the overseas box office this weekend. Having already opened in France and Belgium previously, the total international cume is $24M for a worldwide of $55M. The UK led all new overseas openers this weekend with a $3.2M first-place debut. Mexico saw a #2 finish in its opening with $3.2M, while claiming the top spot in Australia with $2M. Greece and Norway get the film next week, while Japan release is on June 14.

2. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
20th Century Studios | Week 2
$26M Weekend | $101.2M Domestic Total
$237.5M Global Total

After a stellar $58.4M opening weekend, Fox’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes held strong in its second frame with an estimated $26M at 4075 locations (no change) for a PSA of $6,380. It also became the 5th movie to surpass $100M in 2024 after just 10 days of release with $101.2M domestic. As with last week, the sequel directed by Wes Ball continues to outpace Matt Reeves’ previous entry War for the Planet of the Apes…

• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) – $27,832,307 million (-49% drop)
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) – $36,254,310 million (-50% drop)
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) – $26M (-55% drop)
• War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) – $20,884,223 million (-63% drop)

Internationally the film brought in $40.6M and fended off competition from IF to remain the #1 non-local film in all major international markets, including Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, France, Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Mexico. Biggest territory is easily China at $20.4M cume, followed by France ($13.8M), Mexico ($12M), and UK ($10M). International cume is $136.3M, while global cume stands at $237.5M. An estimated $5.5M globally came from IMAX screens this weekend, with the worldwide IMAX cume at $21.8M.

3. The Strangers: Chapter 1
Lionsgate | NEW
$12M Domestic Opening Weekend

Lionsgate’s latest horror offering entered the Top 3 at the highest-end of our prediction range, as The Strangers: Chapter 1 brought in an estimated $12M to take the #3 spot at 2,856 locations. This is the perfect kick-off to a trilogy that has already been shot by director Renny Harlin, with the filmmaker experiencing something of a comeback in a genre he’s known for (Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Deep Blue Sea).

Here’s how the 3-day looked for Chapter 1…

• Friday – $5,100,000 million
• Saturday – $4,050,000 million
• Sunday – $2,850,000 million

The film received a “C” CinemaScore and 13% RT critical/41% audience, with PostTrak exit polls giving it 50% positive. The audience skewed female at 55%, while 69% of the audience was in that age 18-34 horror sweet spot. Here’s how demographics looked:

• 38% Latino and Hispanic
• 34% Caucasian
• 16% Black
• 7% Asian
• 5% NatAm/Other

While The Strangers: Chapter 1 won’t finish its theatrical run as the first breakout horror film of 2024 at the box office, it did just enough to claim the top opening weekend of the year in the genre.

Here’s how it stacks up to this year’s other scary contenders…

• The Strangers: Chapter 1 – $12M Opening
• Night Swim – $11.7M Opening / $32.4M Cume
• Imaginary – $9.9M Opening / $28M Cume
• The First Omen – $8.3M Opening / $19.9M Cume
• Abigail – $10.2M Opening / $25.6M Cume
• Tarot – $6.5M Opening/$15.4 Cume
• Immaculate – $5.3M Opening / $15.6M Cume

The prequel opened better than 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night ($10.4M), but not the original 2008 Strangers ($20.9M). The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected for a late 2024 bow, while Chapter 3 has not been dated yet.

The next major genre challenger doesn’t arrive until Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers on June 7, giving The Strangers: Chapter 1 plenty of leeway to make beaucoup dollars.

Other Notable Performances

Poor reviews (35% on Rotten Tomatoes) plus a drought of theaters (only 2010 available screens) meant Focus Features’ Back to Black was in the red this weekend, debuting at #6 with $2,850,000 million, a PSA of $1,418. The Amy Winehouse biopic may have hit all the wrong notes in North America, but overseas, it has already taken in $36,576,440 million, with a bulk of that ($14.1M) from the late singer’s native UK. This parallels the Oscar winning 2015 documentary Amy, which performed much better internationally ($15.3M) than it did stateside ($8.4M), proving Ms. Winehouse is more of a European musical commodity. CinemaScore was “B+” and RT audience was 85%.

Amazon MGM Studios’ brought some patriotic flair to the weekend with the one-week IMAX-exclusive release of the documentary The Blue Angels, which brought in $1,310,767 million in 227 locations for a $5,774 PSA. This look at the famous Navy fighter jets, which entered the Top 10 at #9, hits Amazon Prime on May 23.

A24’s eccentric horror film I Saw the TV Glow jumped from 21 theaters to 469 where it took in $1,001,878 for the weekend to land at #12. That tallies the North American cume at $1,481,700 million for the Justice Smith starrer, which is clearly benefitting from the slow and steady platforming, having launched two weeks ago on just 4 screens. The mini-major expects “a long theatrical run over the weeks ahead,” and could conceivably enter the Top 10 next weekend.

Neon’s Babes earned the top PSA of the weekend with $14,277 from only 12 screens. A promising start from select urban markets like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, and Austin.

Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates | Weekend 20, 2024

Top 10 Estimates: $93.3M | (-21% vs 2023)
Total Estimates: $98.9M | (-18 % vs 2023)