Last year’s Labor Day box office was a bad one for movie theaters, posting the lowest total for the four-day weekend since the turn of the century. But thanks in good part to Warner Bros.’ “Crazy Rich Asians,” this Labor Day weekend is seeing a substantial rebound.
After a $22 million three-day total, the Jon M. Chu romantic comedy is expected to push its weekend numbers to $28.5 million today, while the combined grosses for all films this weekend is estimated to be at least $121 million. That’s a 24 percent increase over last year’s $97.8 million.
That also means that this summer’s total box office gross should close out at $4.37 billion, up 16 percent from last year’s 11-year low of $3.77 billion. That doesn’t include the opening week of “Avengers: Infinity War,” which would push the total to an industry record of $4.78 billion.
“Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Meg” took a 1-2 finish on the charts, finishing what has been a stellar August for Warner Bros. The two films have combined for a domestic gross of $240 million, with “The Meg” earning $123 million and “Asians” earning $117 million.
Though WB hasn’t had a runaway hit like last year’s “Wonder Woman,” it had has several solid successes, with “Ocean’s 8” and “Ready Player One” joining the two August releases as the studio’s four $100 million-plus grossers this year. This coming week, WB will see its domestic total cross $1 billion for the year, with their “Conjuring” spinoff “The Nun” opening next weekend.
Further down on the charts, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” is in third with a $9 million four-day estimate, pushing its domestic total to $206 million and its worldwide total past $650 million. The Tom Cruise franchise film is now closing in on the $682 million grossed by “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” in 2015, and is the first Paramount release in four years to gross over $200 million domestic.
Newcomer “Operation Finale” is looking at a $7.7 million four-day weekend, with a total of $9.5 million for the MGM title after its release last Wednesday. Screen Gems’ critically-acclaimed thriller “Searching” completes the top five with $7.3 million in its first wide release weekend on 1,207 screens, while Lionsgate’s “Kin” has bombed with a four-day opening of just $3.6 million.