411 Box Office Report: The Invisible Man Powers to #1 With $29 Million Start

Universal brought the goods for horror’s first hit of 2020, as The Invisible Man surged to the top spot this weekend. The Leigh Whannel-directed reimagining of the 1933 horror film scored $29 million, performing at the high end of its $25 million to $30 million expectations. It’s the best opening of Whannel’s directorial career, beating out the $22.7 million of Insidious Chapter 2, and the first box office hit as a lead star Elisabeth Moss after The Kitchen, which she co-headlined with Melissa McCarthy and Tiffany Haddish, faltered last year.

The film is a welcome change of pace for the horror genre in 2020 following a string of failures. The Grudge, The Turning, Gretel & Hansel, Fantasy Island, and Brahms: The Boy II have all tried to make an impression this year and fallen way short. The key difference between those failures and this one are pretty simple: they all felt like cheap cash grabs, and proved to be exactly that. The Invisible Man, on the other hand, managed to avoid the same traps and pulled people in based on an effective marketing campaign. Instead of relying on just its IP name value, Universal sold this on the suspenseful mood and Moss’ name value as a TV star, which paid off in spades.

It also must be said that, unlike all those other horror films, The Invisible Man is a film that critics and fans all like. The film has been well-recieved by critics with a stellar 90% aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, the all-important word of mouth has been great with a B+ CinemaScore and a 52% definite recommend/41% probable recommend via PostTrak. All of that lifted the film’s Saturday grosses by 13%, an impressive result for a genre that is typically much more front-loaded. That’s a bump in the same range as Get Out, which boosted by 17% on Saturday.

All of this adds up to mean a serious hit for Universal. The film added $20.2 million overseas for the weekend to tally a $49.2 million gross, already great against a $7 million production budget plus marketing. $100 million domestically should be quite doable and, without any direct genre competition until March 20th brings A Quiet Place Part II, it could go even higher than that. Either way, this is a definite success.

Sonic the Hedgehog is proving to play out like the family film it is, down just 39% in its third weekend to $16 million. The Paramount adaptation of the SEGA video game character has brought in some serious money at this point, with $128.3 million domestically and $265.5 million worldwide. Even with a $95 million budget, this is a hit for the studio and likely a franchise starter. It’s still looking like it could get to $170 million domesyically by the end of its run.

Call of the Wild was down 47% in its second weekend to tally $13.2 million. The 20th Century Studios film currently stands at $45.9 million domestically and $79.3 million worldwide. These would be really solid numbers if it wasn’t a $125 million budgeted film (plus marketing). As it is, this is another money loser for the Disney-owned former 20th Century Fox. It should make it to $70 million in the US, but that won’t be near enough for anything less than a financial disaster.

My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising has an impressive weekend, posting a $5.1 million three-day take. That’s a fantastic weekend and over triple the $1.4 million that My Hero Academia: Two Heroes started with in September of 2018. In fact, in five days Heroes Rising has tallied $8.4 million, which is more than the $5.4 million that Two Heroes earned in the entirety of its box office run.

That marks an impressive win for FUNimation, who also had a hit last year with January’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Heroes Rising won’t be coming near Super Broly’s $30.4 million final US take, but it was never expected to. It should end its run in the $10 million to $12 million range domestically. Worldwide it’s at $23.5 million and will be an impressive hit for the anime studio.

Bad Boys For Life delivered yet again with a stellar hold, down 26% in its seventh weekend. The action sequel brought in $4.3 million and now stands at $197.4 million domestically and $405.4 million worldwide. Those are huge numbers for this film and make it a huge hit for Columbia Pictures, with a fourth film already in development. It is now targeting around $215 million domestically. The budget was $90 million.

Birds of Prey had a decent drop, down 40% in its fourth weekend to $4.1 million. The DCEU film is now up to $78.8 million domestically and $188.4 million worldwide, not a smash but also not a bomb against its $80 million production budget plus marketing. This one should finish off in the $90 million to $92 million range stateside, good enough for a minor profit assuming that the overseas grosses don’t utterly disappear at this point.

truTV made its first foray into the box office top 10 as Impractical Jokers: The Movie jumped to $3.5 million after going into semi-wide release. The comedic reality film based on the network’s TV series pushed its release slate to 1,900 theaters, enough to slide it into the #7 spot. This is a genre that isn’t well-explored, and rarely goes wide, but it should slip back out of the top 10 in short order. And that’s fine for truTV, who likely have what they want out of this: $6.6 million so far, enough to make back its $3 million budget and minimal marketing, plus advertisement for the television show. It should close out with around $10 million or so which is decent enough for its release strategy.

1917 dipped 37% in its tenth weekend with $2.7 million. The Sam Mendes-directed war film has reached $155.9 million domestically and $362.4 million worldwide, a profitable venture against its its $100 million budget. $160 million or slightly more is still the final domestic range.

Brahms: The Boy II was down 55% from its opening weekend, bringing in $2.6 million. Considering The Invisible Man’s success, that would be an acceptable drop if the film hadn’t already started low. The STX sequel is up to $9.8 million domestically and $16.1 million, an okay level against a $3 million budget and marketing. It will likely finish off with around $13 million in the US.

Fantasy Island closed othe top ten with $2.3 million, off 45% in its third weekend. The horror film is now at $24.1 million domestically and $40.5 million, fading quickly. It will finish off at around $30 million domestically, enough for a little bit of profit against its $7 million budget.

Pixar will return to the top of the box office next weekend with Onward. The animated film should be starting off with around $50 million to $55 million. Also opening is the Ben Affleck drama The Way Back, aiming for the high single digit range.

BOX OFFICE TOP TEN (Three-Day Domestic Numbers)
1. The Invisible Man – $29 million ($29 million total)
2. Sonic The Hedgehog – $16 million ($128.3 million total)
3. Call of the Wild – $24.8 million ($45.9 million total)
4. My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising – $5.1 million ($8.4 million total)
5. Bad Boys For Life – $4.3 million ($197.4 million total)
6. Birds of Prey – $4.1 million ($78.8 million total)
7. Impractical Jokers: The Movie – $3.5 million ($6.6 million total)
8. 1917 – $2.7 million ($155.5 million total)
9. Brahms: The Boy II – $2.6 million ($9.8 million total)
10. Fantasy Island – $2.3 million ($24.1 million total)