This weekend at the North American box office, the animated film "Despicable Me 4" continued its reign in first place for the second week in a row, bringing in $44.7 million and pushing its total earnings over $200 million. The movie, part of the popular Universal and Illumination franchise, was expected to perform well and did not disappoint.
However, the real surprise of the weekend came from the horror film "Longlegs," which debuted in second place with an impressive $22.6 million. The movie, starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, is an original story about a serial killer and received positive reviews from critics, earning an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its strong start, audiences gave it a more lukewarm reception with a CinemaScore of C+.
On the other hand, the romantic comedy "Fly Me to the Moon," starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, underperformed with only $10 million in its opening weekend. The film, distributed by Sony and produced by Apple Original Films, tells the story of a marketing executive tasked with selling the space race to the American public.
Overall, the box office performance this year is showing signs of improvement compared to last year, with a 16.1% decrease in revenue from 2023. The industry is hopeful that the summer movie season will continue to surprise and impress, with both expected and unexpected hits contributing to the overall success of the season.
As the summer movie season unfolds, audiences can look forward to upcoming releases like "Twisters," which opened internationally this weekend, and "Deadpool & Wolverine," the first Marvel release of the summer. The box office numbers for these films, as well as final domestic figures for this weekend's releases, will be released on Monday.