Box Office

In the box office lexicon, a “drop” refers to how much a movie’s revenues have fallen in its second outing, following the opening weekend. The drop is important, as it offers a pretty accurate way to project the final outcome of that particular film’s life in theaters around the world.

When The Mummy and Jack Reacher turned out to be box office disappointments, commentators were quick to claim that Tom Cruise was incapable of accepting that age eventually catches up with all of us, him included. He was history.

We have seen this plot before. Major blockbuster on the way.

So, who’s the real winner at the global box office this week? According to most reports out of the United States, it’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, which generated $76 million domestically and $85 million internationally for a global gross of $161 million. Numbers not comparable with Avengers: Infinity War or Black Panther earlier this year, but the 20th film by the Marvel Cinematic Universe starring Paul Rudd as the titular superhero and Evangeline Lilly as the Wasp always had smaller ambitions.

It was only last summer when a drop in the box office generated major panic in the film industry. It was supposed to mark the beginning of the end of the summer blockbuster, as audiences grew tired of seeing over again the same heroes and super-heroes.

After roaring freely over foreign territories for two weeks, the fierce and scary dinos of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom landed in the US. The reviews were not exactly stellar.

Incredibles 2 or Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom? The two summer blockbusters have chosen different strategies to conquer the world markets and so far, they have not crossed each other’s paths. The only exception: a few countries such as Russia and the UAE, where the magic powers of the Parr family managed to beat the fierce dinosaurs of Isla Nublar.

To avoid having to compete with the World Cup, an event that keeps half the population of the planet glued to its TV screens, Universal decided to let its dinos roam free and launch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 48 countries, delaying the domestic opening to June 22. And the strategy seems to have paid off, as the last film in the franchise based on Michael Crichton’s bestsellers and launched by Steven Spielberg back in 1993 (Spielberg is now the executive producer of the new series) attracted over $150 million.

If you look at the box office from a domestic perspective, Solo: A Star Wars Story can claim another victorious week. Not a major victory, actually: it made $29.

The Force was not with Solo: A Star Wars Story after all, not as much as Disney and Lucasfilm were expecting. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Alden Ehrenreich, the film follows Han Solo – an iconic character made famous by Harrison Ford – as he meets Chewbacca and other misfits in his younger days as a mercenary pilot.