“No Hard Feelings” came out on top of the domestic box office on its opening day, bedding $6.25 million in Friday and Thursday preview screenings from 3,208 venues. Meanwhile, the top spot for the weekend is a battle between animated adventures; both “Elemental” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” are staying above “The Flash,” which looks to be collapsing in its second outing.
Heading into the weekend, Sony and Columbia’s “No Hard Feelings” was projected to launch with a mild $12 million. The raunchy R-rated Jennifer Lawrence vehicle is already outrunning those estimates, now forecasting a debut of $15 million or so.
“No Hard Feelings” may lose pace to holdovers as the weekend unfolds, but box-office-king-for-a-day is certainly a higher honor than most studio comedies have achieved of late. The once-prolific genre has fallen far from theatrical relevance in recent years, with the past few months containing an expansive slate of box office disappointments and failures, from “The Machine” to “Easter Sunday” to “Bros.”
An A-list talent like Lawrence and some solid enough notices in the press — 67% approval rating from top critics on Rotten Tomatoes — are giving “No Hard Feelings” a lift above those genre peers. Audience buzz isn’t bad either, as indicated by the “B+” Cinema Score grade determined by surveying early viewers. But while the film is outperforming tempered expectations, it may still be an uphill climb for “No Hard Feelings” to turn a genuine profit — it cost $45 million to produce.
Directed by Gene Stupnitsky, “No Hard Feelings” stars Lawrence as Maddie, a beleaguered Uber driver who gets her car repossessed. Maddie is determined to change her luck after spotting a Craigslist ad from two parents, offering their old car in exchange for somebody to date their awkward Princeton-bound son (Andrew Barth Feldman).
Meanwhile, things still aren’t coming up “Flash” at the box office. After its disastrous opening of $55.7 million last weekend, the DC Comics multiverse mash-up is getting kneecapped in its second outing. The Warner Bros. Discovery release cratered with $4.5 million on Friday, down 81% from its opening day. once projected to retain its top spot on domestic charts, “The Flash” will now be lucky to stay one of the top three releases in theaters. A week-to-week drop north of 70% looks to be in the cards.
That would notch higher than the 66% tumble that DC solo film “Green Lantern” took in 2011, on its way to a disappointing $116 million domestic finish. Similar second weekend comic book collapses include last year’s terribly reviewed “Morbius” and the morose 2003 adaptation of “Hulk,” which fell 73.8% and 69.7% respectively. However “The Flash” stacks up, it has little hope of justifying its $200 million production budget at this point; its domestic gross should stand at around $87 million through Sunday.
After bombing in its opening weekend, Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental” may at least be able to take some solace in box office bragging rights. After earning $5.6 million on Friday, the animated adventure is looking to put together a terrific hold, projecting a fall of less than 40%. The second wind may be coming from strong audience notices — “Elemental” earned an “A” grade through Cinema Score — and the film is also benefiting from a marketplace with slim pickings for family audiences. While the film may end up on top of charts, its current domestic gross of $53 million won’t be able to expand enough to match the $200 million production budget.
Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” has a shot at returning to No. 1 on domestic charts in its fourth weekend of release. The animated Marvel adventure is projecting an $18.2 million haul through the weekend, down only 31% from its last outing. The “Spider-Verse” sequel has been a box office smash since debuting at the start of the month. With $305 million in domestic ticket sales, the film has a shot at surpassing “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($347 million) to become the second-highest grossing North American release of the year.
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” should round out the top five. After facing a sharp 66% tumble in its second outing last weekend, the robo-rumble is projecting a softer 45% drop this weekend, projecting $11.3 million for the three-day frame. The Paramount release should push its domestic gross to $122 million through Sunday. Those aren’t the numbers of the “Transformers” franchise’s heyday, but it’ll soon pass the North American finishes of the two most recent entries, “The Last Knight” ($130 million) and “Bumblebee” ($127 million).
Expanding this weekend, “Asteroid City” is retaining some box office heat in nationwide play. The Wes Anderson wonder went from six theaters to 1,675, grossing $3.8 million on Friday, notching fifth place for the day. The quirked-up sci-fi ensemble comedy is expecting an $8.4 million weekend for Focus Features.
