Harrison Ford’s latest film was not expected to perform as well as it did, with Sonic the Hedgehog originally poised to win the box office weekend. Overall, it was not a star-studded weekend for films with thin competition and limited new releases.
The Call of the Wild received an A- Cinemascore and currently sits at 64 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the film’s family-friendly tone and Ford’s performance. The film is an adaptation of Jack London’s 1903 classic adventure novel. While The Call of the Wild may win the box office weekend by a small margin, it has a ways to go to break even. The movie had a lofty $125 million budget, partly due to heavy spending on visual effects.
Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog continues to perform well. After an over-performance during the holiday weekend, the film normalized a bit and is expected to fetch $25 million this weekend. The film has performed well with young audiences and families, bringing in a total of $105 million to date. Sonic the Hedgehog has quickly become of the most successful video game movies.
Outside of The Call of the Wild and Sonic the Hedgehog, it has been a relatively tame weekend for the rest of the pack. Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is expected to finish in third place at $7 million range. The latest offering from DC Comics, Birds of Prey has had decent legs after a less-than-stellar opening weekend.
Brahms: The Boy II opened up to $6 million at the box office, mostly aligning with expectations. The film did not perform well with critics or audiences, however. It received a paltry C- Cinemacore and is sitting at a poor 9 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
The final notable new release of the weekend was Impractical Jokers: The Movie. TruTV’s limited release of the movie based on the television show is projected to rake in $2.3 million. Other films in the final stages of their box office, such as Bad Boys for Life and 1917, continue to bring in audiences and add to their strong totals.
This weekend, IMAX released Bong Joon Ho’s acclaimed Parasite for a limited theatrical run with the enhanced format. Parasite won the Oscar for the best picture this month, giving itself new life for domestic audiences. The film’s successes had recently caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who referenced Parasite during a rally in Colorado Thursday.
“By the way, how bad were the Academy Awards this year?” Trump asked. “Did you see them? And the winner is a movie from South Korea. What the hell was that all about?”
Neon, the film distributor of Parasite, tweeted a rebuttal to the president on Twitter soon after: “Understandable, he can’t read.”
