After two weekends sitting behind “The Devil Wears Prada 2” on the box office charts, Lionsgate/Universal’s “Michael” is back in the No. 1 slot in its fourth weekend in theaters as it continues to hold strong in its quest to become the first $1 billion biopic in history.
Antoine Fuqua and Jaafar Jackson’s ode to the King of Pop made $7 million on its fourth Friday in theaters and is estimated to earn between $25-28 million this weekend by Lionsgate, with industry estimates predicting around $27 million for a weekend-to-weekend drop of just 28%. This will push the film past $280 million domestic and keeps it on pace to pass the $330 million domestic/$975 million global total of “Oppenheimer” for the all-time biopic record.
“Devil Wears Prada 2” took a much steeper 52% drop in its third weekend with Mother’s Day now in the rear-view mirror, but the film is still a success for Disney and 20th Century as its industry estimated $20 million weekend total will bring its domestic cume to $177 million, keeping it on course to pass $200 million domestic and $600 million worldwide.
In third is the sole newcomer in the top 5: Focus Features’ “Obsession,” the ruthless debut horror film from director Curry Barker about a young man who wishes for his friend to fall in love with him against her will. After a $6.8 million opening day from 2,815 locations, the film is looking at a $14.5 million opening weekend, the strongest opening for Focus since the $18 million start for “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” last September.
“Obsession” got rave reception from critics and festival attendees its TIFF midnight section premiere last year, and its wide release has been no different. Both its audience and critics Rotten Tomatoes scores stand at 95%, and it has received an A- on CinemaScore, joining a rare club of horror films to hit that mark including “Get Out” and “Weapons.”
That could allow the film to turn this strong start into an excellent Memorial Day weekend hold and endure even against strong competition from A24’s “Backrooms” at the end of the month.
The bad news for the weekend is that Warner Bros./New Line’s “Mortal Kombat II” is falling off fast, dropping a sharp 67% from its opening weekend for an industry estimated $12.7 million. With a $61.5 million domestic total, the film will likely fall short of $100 million and finish with a North American total similar to the $84 million of fellow Warner release “Wuthering Heights.”
Amazon MGM’s “The Sheep Detectives” completes the top 5 with an estimated $10 million second weekend, bringing its domestic total to $30 million. It’s a decent 37% drop from the film’s opening weekend, showing that its strong word-of-mouth is helping it hold. But the film will still need a strong showing next weekend against Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” just to recoup its production costs.
