‘Garfield’ Wins At The Theater With Summer Box Office Numbers Way Down

“The Garfield Movie” won at the theater over the weekend with the summer box office numbers down 69 percent domestically from where they were last year at this time.

The Chris Pratt-led film topped the box office after earning $14 million domestically over the weekend for its second weekend out, bringing its total gross domestically to $51.5 million, the Hollywood Reporter reported.

Coming in second place was the live-action animated movie “IF” from John Krasinski, which scored $10.8 million over the weekend, to make a total of $80.4 million domestically its third weekend out.

Taking over the third spot was the highly promoted George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” — which has struggled since it opened on May 24 — earning just $10.7 million over the weekend to bring its gross total in the states to $49.6 million. The movie cost a whopping $168 million to produce and in its second weekend out, it fell 59 percent in sales.

The film — with stars like Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy — has been a disappointment after ticket sales over the long memorial holiday weekend brought in just $32 million, barely beating out “The Garfield Movie,” which had $31 million over the four-day weekend, as previously reported.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it, the numbers that are coming out this weekend are nothing to write home about,” Paul Degarabedian, senior media analyst with Comscore, previously told CNN about the disappointing results.

“Summer is the most important moviegoing season of the year, accounting on average for nearly 40% of the total domestic annual revenue, so as goes the summer so goes the year,” he added.

Last summer was dominated by “Barbenheimer” mania, with the release of the comedy “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s historical drama “Oppenheimer” on the same weekend in late July. Combined, the films raked in close to $1 billion domestically. This summer so far doesn’t have any standout contenders that could bring similar results. 

The analysts are still blaming post-pandemic viewing habits for the low ticket sales but insist that there’s still potential for studios to make money this summer. 

“Moviegoing habits have changed drastically since the pandemic, but we continue to see significant enthusiasm when it comes to the theatrical experience,” Daniel Loria, editorial director at Box Office Pro, told CNN.