After last week’s abysmal box office ticket sales, Sony’s horror sequel, Insidious: The Red Door, defied expectations by taking the #1 spot at the box office, earning an impressive $32.7 million during its opening weekend.
As the fifth installment in the franchise that began in 2010, the four previous movies combined grossed over half a billion dollars worldwide. Set ten years after the events of the previous film, Insidious: The Last Key, picks up ten years after the last installment ended. Dalton (Ty Simpkins), the teenage son in the Lambert family, is getting ready to head off to college but is haunted by the presence of a lurking evil spirit.
The opening weekend performance of Insidious: The Red Door surpassed the previous franchise record set by Insidious: The Last Key, which earned $29.6 million in 2018. With no significant horror competition in theaters, the film is poised for continued success. Additionally, it marks the first noteworthy R-rated release since John Wick 4 debuted on March 24th. Critically, the film received a 36% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences were slightly more satisfied, giving it a 71% rating.
The film’s strong opening day earnings of $15.2 million nearly matched its production budget of $16 million. With its successful weekend performance, Insidious: The Red Door is expected to be highly profitable for Sony, who took a calculated risk by releasing it in a short window between blockbuster releases. Consequently, pre-production has already begun on a sixth film in the series, Thread: An Insidious Tale, featuring Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani.
After last weekend’s lackluster performance at the box office, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny dropped to second place, grossing $26.5 million, experiencing a troubling 56% decline from its opening weekend. This drop represents the largest second-week decline for an Indiana Jones movie, slightly surpassing the 55% drop of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. After ten days, Dial of Destiny has earned $121 million in North America and $200 million worldwide. While these figures may appear respectable, they fall short of the estimated $275 million production budget allocated by Disney.
As the highest-grossing film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull amassed $202 million domestically during its first ten days. In comparison, Dial of Destiny has only generated 60% of that amount within the same timeframe. Consequently, Dial of Destiny seems poised to join the list of expensive 2023 sequels that produced disappointing results.
Surprisingly, Sound of Freedom emerged out of nowhere to claim the #3 spot, grossing a total of $18.2 million in ticket sales. Produced by the independent distributor Angel Studios, known for its faith-based titles, the film follows the studio’s earlier successes with His Only Son and a theatrical presentation of episodes from their popular streaming series, The Chosen.
The film has garnered strong support from religious and conservative media organizations, who have united in their backing of this partially crowdfunded project. Angel Studios, based in Utah, employed various unconventional tactics to generate buzz for the film. One such approach involved the development of an innovative app that enables individuals to purchase tickets and donate them to those unable to afford the cost of admission. The “Pay It Forward” app proved instrumental in generating approximately $2.6 million in opening day sales.
These efforts have generated a groundswell of interest in Sound of Freedom, with advanced ticket sales rivaling the film’s entire production budget. Despite its relatively high production cost of $14.5 million, it had already sold $10 million worth of tickets before its July 4th opening. The movie delves into the dark subject of child trafficking, featuring a federal agent who rescues a young boy from traffickers and subsequently dedicates himself to saving the boy’s sister.
With a well-cast ensemble, including Jim Caviezel in the lead role, along with Mira Sorvino and Bill Camp in supporting roles, Sound of Freedom has garnered favorable reviews, with an 78% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes based on 27 reviews, with most top critics mercilessly panning it, and a 99% score from audiences who may or may not have even watched the film they bought and gave away tickets to.
Within its first six days, the film has already grossed an impressive $40.2 million, with further potential for success. It has generated passionate interest among its core Q-Anon demographic. Angel Studios claims that 50,000 of its followers have invested $100 million for the production of future titles, including their upcoming feature, The Shift, a science fiction thriller slated for release in December.
Despite the arrival of three new wide releases, Elemental secured the #4 spot at the box office with a respectable $9.6 million, experiencing only a 21% drop compared to the previous weekend. This represents another solid performance for the Pixar film, accumulating a domestic total of $109 million in 24 days. It looks like Elemental might surpass the earnings of Lightyear, which grossed $118 million domestically and $226 million worldwide in 2022. Considering its production budget of over $300 million, the film will need to continue performing well to turn a profit.
REELated:
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse continues to swing strong, reclaiming a spot in the top five at #5 by adding another $8.0 million to its impressive earnings. With a mere 33% decline, the film has amassed $357.6 million domestically and $620 million worldwide over six weeks. It comfortably holds the position as the second highest-grossing film of the year, trailing only The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which astonished by earning $573.7 million domestically and $1.341 billion worldwide.
Lionsgate’s highly acclaimed film Joy Ride made its wide release debut, achieving a modest box office result of just under $6 million, landing at the #6 position. Joy Ride is a story of four Asian-American friends who go on an international trip to discover themselves. The movie has a “Hard R” rating, and uses several red band trailers in its marketing. In its aspirations, Joy Ride aims to capture a fraction of the triumph achieved by Crazy Rich Asians in 2018, which amassed an impressive $175 million domestically and $239 million worldwide. However, it’s important to note that Crazy Rich Asians held a PG-13 rating and possessed a broader appeal, while Joy Ride is poised to attract a more niche audience, potentially limiting its reach to more adult audiences.
Sony’s No Hard Feelings and Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, both saw a decline of 33%. No Hard Feelings fell from #4 to #7 and Rise of the Beasts fell from #5 to #8. Disney’s The Little Mermaid fell from #7 to #9 and experienced a 35% drop in box office sales. Most of the holdover films performed well, with the exception of Universal’s Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, which experienced a 49% decline in its second weekend, dropping to the #10 position from last weekend’s #6.
The Top 10
1. Insidious: The Red Door (Sony) NEW – Metacritic: 45; Est. budget: $16 million
$32,650,000 in 3,188 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $10,242; Cumulative: $32,650,000
2. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Disney) Week 2; Last weekend #1
$26,500,000 (-56%) in 4,600 (no change) theaters; PTA: $5,761; Cumulative: $121,205,000
3. Sound of Freedom (Angel) NEW – Cinemascore: A+; Metacritic: 60; Est. budget: $15 million
$18,220,000 in 2,850 theaters; PTA: $6,172; Cumulative: $40,207,000
4. Elemental (Disney) Week 4; Last weekend #3
$9,600,000 (-21%) in 3,440 (-210) theaters; PTA: $2,791; Cumulative: $109,192,000
5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony) Week 6; Last weekend #2
$8,000,000 (-33%) in 3,023 (-382) theaters; PTA: $2,646; Cumulative: $357,648,000
6. Joy Ride (Lionsgate) NEW – Cinemascore: B-; Metacritic: 75
$5,850,000 in 2,820 theaters; PTA: $2,074; Cumulative: $5,850,000
7. No Hard Feelings (Sony) Week 3; Last weekend #4
$5,250,000 (-33%) in 2,686 (-522) theaters; PTA: $1,955; Cumulative: $40,412,000
8. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Paramount) Week 5; Last weekend #5
$5,000,000 (-32%) in 2,475 (-377) theaters; PTA: $2,020; Cumulative: $146,723,000
9. The Little Mermaid (Disney) Week 7; Last weekend #7
$3,500,000 (-35%) in 2,080 (-350) theaters; PTA: $1,683; Cumulative: $289,039,000
10. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (Universal) Week 2; Last weekend #6
$2,800,000 (-49%) in 3,408 (+8) theaters; PTA: $822; Cumulative: $11,600,000
In total, all movies playing in theaters this weekend collectively earned $127.8 million domestically, compared to $238.3 million during the same week last summer when Thor: Love and Thunder led all films with a $144.2 million debut.
