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‘Angry Birds 2’ Flies Into Soft Box Office as Summer Winds Down

Naughty kid flick “Good Boys” and “47 Meters Down” come to theaters this weekend

Jeremy Fuster | August 13, 2019 @ 4:01 PM
The Angry Birds Movie 2

Sony Pictures

Sony’s “The Angry Birds Movie 2” is hitting theaters nationwide today ahead of a late summer slate that includes Universal’s R-rated kid comedy “Good Boys” and a sequel to the shark-infested “47 Meters Down.”

Originally set for a Wednesday release, Sony moved “Angry Birds 2” to a Tuesday opening last week in an effort to bring in families in the last week before the majority of schools are back in session. Through six days, independent projections predict an opening of $22-25 million, while Sony is projecting a 6-day opening in the mid-teens from 3,800 screens.

Either result would be a big step down from the $38 million 3-day opening earned by the first “Angry Birds Movie” in May 2016, going on to make $107 million domestic and $357 million worldwide against a $73 million budget. The sequel has an only slightly smaller budget at $65 million and will face tough competition from family audiences with “The Lion King” and “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” in theaters. The good news is that critics have so far given “Angry Birds 2” more positive reviews with a 73% Rotten Tomatoes score compared to 44% for the original.

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Of the films opening on Friday, Universal’s “Good Boys” and Entertainment Studios’ “47 Meters Down: Uncaged” are projected to have the highest openings with “Good Boys” set at $10-12 million while “Uncaged” is projected for $13-15 million. The first “47 Meters Down” remains the highest grossing film ever for Entertainment Studios with $44.7 million and an $11.2 million opening. Since then, only one other release from the studio, TIFF acquisition “Hostiles,” has grossed more than $15 million.

“Good Boys” is the second release this summer from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production banner Point Grey Films, following the romantic comedy “Long Shot.” Released by Lionsgate in the shadow of “Avengers: Endgame,” “Long Shot” opened to $9.7 million and grossed $30 million domestically.

Early reviews for “Good Boys” have been mostly positive, with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 83%. But reviews were even stronger for “Booksmart,” and that comedy got caught in the undertow of larger blockbusters like “Aladdin” and only grossed $22 million.

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Universal, which will cross $1 billion in domestic grosses this weekend, has been able to release several well-performing comedies in recent years like “Girls Trip,” “Neighbors,” and “Trainwreck.” But overall, the increasing reliance on a strong opening weekend to create word of mouth has led to a decrease of hit comedies ever since “The Hangover” legged out to a $277 million domestic run from a $44 million opening in 2009.

Two other comedies, Annapurna’s “Where Did You Go Bernadette?” and WB/New Line’s “Blinded By The Light” are projected to launch even lower with openings of $4-9 million. “Bernadette,” the latest film from “Boyhood” director Richard Linklater, will be released on 2,300 screens while “Blinded By The Light,” which comes from “Bend It Like Beckham” filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, rolls out on 2,000 screens.

Top 10 Box Office Predictions for 2019 (Photos)

  • The very first trailer for "Avengers: Endgame" is now out, and surely you all have seen it by now if you're reading this. It's not super heavy on detail, which is to be expected this far out, but there are still details we can glean about the plot of this crazy thing. So let's do dive in. 1. Tony Stark is adrift in space in the Guardians' ship All of the first minute of the trailer is spent with Tony Stark, who is adrift in space in the Milano seemingly about to run out of food and air. Tony is recording a goodbye message to Pepper Potts. It seems likely this could be the very beginning of "Avengers: Endgame," with a rescue to mirror Thanos' attack on the Asgardians in "Avengers: Infinity War." The question is: who's doing the rescuing? Could Captain Marvel show up on the stage that early in this? 2. Nebula is with him Nebula was the only other survivor from Titan, and I guess the ship that she rammed into Thanos during the big battle in "Infinity War" wasn't fit to fly after she wrecked it.Of course, if Nebula is with Tony, why wouldn't they be able to get anywhere? She would know how to fly the Milano, you would think. Hmmm. 2. Thanos is still wearing the burned up Infinity Gauntlet We get a brief look at Thanos on that planet he retired to after doing mass murder on a scale hitherto undreamt of. He's set up his armor as a scarecrow, and he's still wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. We know it's not completely broken -- we saw him use the burnt-out gauntlet to teleport out of Wakanda at the end of the battle there. But is there a reason he's still wearing it? Maybe he knows that the Avengers will need it if they wanna undo what he did? That's how it goes in the comics, anyway. 3. They know Spider-Man got dusted There's a shot in Avengers HQ with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) looking at two pictures and crying. The pictures are of Scott Lang and Peter Parker. Presumably this means the Avengers think they both got dusted. That makes sense for Scott, since he really did disappear at the time of the snap as he was in the Quantum Realm at the time. But they would have known Peter went to space with Tony Stark in pursuit of the Black Order. Of course, there's a pile of other questions this item inspires. Like: Could that scene happen after Tony is back on Earth? Do any of the other Avengers even know Spider-Man's secret identity? I guess Pepper or Happy could have told them, presuming they survived. Anyway, this is an interesting nugget, at least. 3. Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) is now Ronin 4. The surviving Avengers on Earth have a plan 5. Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) is out of the Quantum Realm Marvel Studios
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Just like 2018, Disney is going to be all over this year’s box office

2019 has just gotten started, and it's already looking like it could very well bring a box office as big as 2018. That's thanks in large part to Disney, which is sporting six -- yes, SIX -- films that could make a bid to earn over $1 billion worldwide this year. That's why the company dominates our predictions for the top 10 highest global grossing films of 2019, including the top five slots.

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