Even though we’re getting extremely close to August, which is notoriously bad for the box office, I expected a stronger performance from Universal Pictures’ Old, the latest mind-bending thriller from M. Night Shyamalan.
While the film, about a family on a tropical holiday who discovers that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly, appears to be extremely divisive among both critics and filmgoers, the marketing campaign has been extraordinarily strong. It was enough to propel the film to a $16.5M opening with an additional $6.5M overseas.
Old, which Meagan Navarro wrote “captures the absurdity of our times,” bested a crowded marketplace, dunking on Space Jam 2, as well as Snake Eyes, Black Widow, and even F9.
This is all extremely bad news for Sony Pictures’ Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (read our review), which after two weeks has yet to meet the opening weekend of its predecessor. In its second week of release, the thriller had a monstrous 61% drop for a $3.4M take and a two-week total of $16M. It’s currently sitting at $20M worldwide. The 2019 Escape Room opened to $18M and ended with $155M globally. The sequel is a major flop and that’s a shame considering the concept has serious franchise blood.
In case you’re curious, The Forever Purge just topped $50M worldwide while A Quiet Place: Part II, now on PVOD and Paramount+, surpassed $285M and is targeting $300M globally.
In regards to Escape Room 2, Sony has got to be extremely concerned about the Aug. 13 release of Don’t Breathe 2, which doesn’t appear to be positioned any better than the former. We’ll see how things fare for the box office with the return to school looming and a pandemic that continues to wreak havoc on our globe.
Rachel (Holland Roden), Nathan (Thomas Cocquerel), Ben Miller (Logan Miller), Brianna (Indya Moore) and Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell) in Escape Room: Tournament of Champions.
