Heading into this weekend, the expectation was that, despite a disappointing opening, Snow White would remain #1 in North America. However, in a shock win, Suicide Squad director David Ayer and Jason Statham's new action thriller A Working Man, has beaten it to the top spot.
With a $15.2 million haul, the movie made short work of Snow White after it suffered a -66% drop. Following a $45 million debut, its second weekend has conjured up a mere $14.2 million, putting the Disney movie squarely in "flop" territory.
As of now, it's grossed $66.8 million domestically and $143.1 million worldwide. With a combined production and marketing budget of well over $300 million, it will be impossible for Snow White to break even, especially with A Minecraft Movie expected to arrive at #1 next weekend.
A B- CinemaScore didn't hold A Working Man back, and it should be another modest hit for Ayer and Statham, thanks to a $40 million budget. Their previous collaboration, The Beekeeper, opened to $16 million and eventually grossed $162 million globally.
It was another so-so weekend for theaters and new releases in general. The Chosen: Last Supper made $11.5 million, The Woman in the Yard collected $9.4 million, and A24's Death of a Unicorn - which stars Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega - grossed just $5.8 million. Still, that's an improvement over Opus' disappointing $1.8 million (its cume since first being released).
On the plus side, there's some good news for Captain America: Brave New World. It earned $2.8 million during its 7th weekend in theaters and has reached $196.6 million in the U.S. That makes $200 million a guarantee, and while Marvel Studios' latest movie isn't exactly a hit, this sort of hold suggests that even the weakest MCU title can still bring people into theaters.
Doing the rounds to promote A Working Man, Ayer was inevitably asked about his director's cut of Suicide Squad. "When I did speak with James [Gunn], he wanted to [first] get some scores on the board. DC has its history and its legacy, and it’s taking some work to reestablish that IP and get it moving in the direction they want. So it’s absolutely fair for them to do that."
"Maybe with enough time, it’ll be seen as a more nostalgic thing. But just for the sake of everybody that worked on [2016’s Suicide Squad], it really does deserve to be seen," he continued. "I am incredibly proud of the work I did there. But at the same time, it’s not my IP, and it’s not my studio."
"So I absolutely understand what James is doing, and I think he’s going to have some real successes with the lanes he’s going down."
With his action movies finding such great success in theaters and on streaming, Ayer might be better off focusing on those and moving on entirely from Suicide Squad. Yes, the experience was a disappointing one, but with hits like these, it's a project from which his career has recovered.
What did you watch in theaters this weekend?