Weekend box office: 'Hotel Transylvania' surpasses expectations, easily takes top spot

Weekend box office - July 13-15, 2018

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) - “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” is expected to finish the weekend with $44 million domestically and a worldwide total of $100 million. Most, including Sony, were expecting a total closer to $40 million. The animated film was made for $80 million. This suggests that the film will probably begin to turn a profit next weekend. The original film, which was released in 2012, finished with a worldwide total of $358 million. Its sequel, released in 2015, did even better and concluded its theatrical run with a worldwide gross of $473 million. Next week will give us an idea as to where “Summer Vacation” is headed.

In its second weekend, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” brought in $28.8 million domestically. That’s a drop of 62 percent. International numbers were a bit stronger as the film added $35 million. Worldwide, the Marvel sequel has earned $283 million. The original film earned $519 million worldwide.

Dwayne Johnson’s “Skyscraper” struggled domestically as it managed only $25 million. Fortunately for Universal, the film brought in $40 million overseas. Still, a worldwide total of $65 million against a production of budget of $125 million isn’t a great start. However, the film does open in China next week and that could prove to be a massive difference-maker.

“Incredibles 2” continues to suffer the embarrassment of success as it added $16 million domestically and $35 million overseas. That pushes its worldwide total to the fantastic heights of $856 million. “Toy Story 3” and “Finding Dory” are the only Pixar films to reach the $1 billion mark; “Incredibles 2” has a decent shot at joining that rather exclusive club.

“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” grossed $15.5 million domestically this weekend. Its U.S. total is $363 million; worldwide, the dinosaur sequel has earned $1.1 billion. Only “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Black Panther” have earned more worldwide in 2018. “Infinity War” has surpassed the $2 billion mark and “Black Panther” wrapped its run up with $1.3 billion.

“Sorry to Bother You” expanded into 800 theaters and came away with a solid $4.2 million.

A24’s “Eight Grade” opened on four screens for $256,000. That’s an incredible $64,000 pre-theater average. The acclaimed drama expands into additional markets next week.