John Krasinski’s IF leads an uninspiring weekend box office

John Krasinski’s IF is somehow both a winner and a loser at the weekend box office. Sure, it was the #1 movie in theaters this past weekend, but it also came up a few million short of projections. The film was expected to make $40 million and only raked in $35 million domestically, according to Variety. IF’s worldwide box office total came to $55 million, about half of the movie’s $110 million budget (and that doesn’t include marketing costs).

It’s really not a bad showing for an original children’s movie, but it’s not setting the world on fire, either. (IF did well with audiences but got mixed reviews from critics.) The box office runner-up, Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, only grossed $26 million this weekend, a 55% drop off from its opening. The Fall Guy continues to have a tough time, taking in a paltry $8.4 million in its third weekend. Only The Strangers: Chapter One exceeded expectations, defeating box office projections (and poor reviews) to take in $12 million in its opening weekend. (It was projected around $7 million.)

All of this looks like a sad state of affairs for the movie business: Per Variety, this weekend is 22% behind 2023 and 42% below the pre-pandemic box office in 2019. In other words, the conversation about how to fix the theatrical experience and if cinema can be saved continues to be ongoing. That said, all hope is not lost, particularly for a movie like IF. “Fun for the whole family” flicks tend to have legs at the box office, and Paramount is apparently sanguine about this debut. “Families came out in force and they loved the film,” Chris Aronson, the studio’s head of domestic distribution told ABC News. “I think it bodes well for moviegoing in general as we move into the summer movie season. Kids are out of school starting this coming week and I couldn’t think of a better film to be in the marketplace than this one: It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s original, and it’s such a heartwarming film.”

There is growing pushback on considering a film a failure just because of a middling opening weekend. That sentiment made it all the way to Cannes, where Horizon: An American Saga writer-director-star Kevin Costner proclaimed (via The Hollywood Reporter), “I think movies aren’t about their opening weekends, they are about their lives. And about how many times you are willing to share it. And I hope you do share this movie with your sweethearts, with your children.” You heard the man: If you like a movie, tell your friends!

Anyway, here’s the weekend’s box office top five, per Comscore:

• IF ($35 million domestic, $20 million international)
• Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes ($26 million domestic, $40.6 million international)
• The Strangers: Chapter One ($12 million domestic, $1.7 million international)
• The Fall Guy ($8.4 million domestic, $7.2 million international)
• Tarot ($2 million domestic, $5 million international)