Any other year an $8.1M opening at the top of the U.S. box-office on the weekend that analysts herald as the start of the Summer moviegoing season, would be seen as a disaster. As it is, Wrath of Man‘s pandemic-era opening tally will just be labelled as something of a disappointment for the long-overdue Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie reunion.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★★ review of Wrath of Man here
It’s the slowest start to the traditional summer season since Spike Lee’s He Got Game debuted with $7.6M in May 1998 (@ERCboxoffice), and this was meant to be the weekend on which Marvel finally dropped Black Widow, before that was bumped to July and a simultaneous Premium Disney+ release.
Wrath of Man should still be able to make a fair chunk of change before the big-hitters arrive at the end of the month to really test the moviegoing appetite for the big-screen return. Theatre owners will be hoping the double-whammy of Cruella and A Quiet Place Part II will see box-office receipts returning to something like pre-pandemic levels.
In the meantime it looks as though audiences have cried “finish him” to Mortal Kombat, which dropped another -62% in its 3rd week of release with $2.3M, and a running total of $37M domestic, finishing below anime blockbuster Demon Slayer, which has now grossed $39M in the U.S. to add to its whopping $400M+ global tally. Elsewhere Godzilla vs. Kong edged towards the $100M mark in its 6th week of release, taking $1.9M for a domestic cume of $92M.
The full chart can be found over at BoxOfficeMojo.