'Good Boys' Gives Universal Its Third Straight Weekend No. 1

Universal scored a strong performance this weekend from their new R-rated comedy Good Boys, which out performed expectations and took the top spot at the weekend box office. The studio also scored a second place finish with Hobbs & Shaw over a weekend that saw yet another five new wide releases hit theaters. However, outside of Good Boys, the weekend's four other newcomers mostly struggled over the weekend, which includes WB's Blinded by the Light narrowly finding its way into the top ten while UAR's Where'd You Go, Bernadette fell short.

With an estimated $21 million, Universal's Good Boys finished atop the weekend box office. Doing so with not only a strong critical reception heading into the weekend, but audiences liked what they saw, with the film receiving an 89% audience score at RottenTomatoes and a "B+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences. The film played to a crowd that was 52% male and 59% of the opening weekend audience was aged 25 or older. Looking ahead, the performance for the $20 million production is very close to the studio's $20.5 million opening for Blockers last April, which went on to gross over $60 million domestically.

In a year filled with sequels, adaptations and remakes, Good Boys sits alongside The Curse of La Llorona and Us (another Universal release) as only the third original film in 2019 to top the weekend box office. To go along with that, the film's performance helped Universal become only the second studio in 2019 to top $1 billion at the domestic box office so far.

Internationally, Good Boys opened in 13 overseas markets with an estimated $2.1 million, led by a $1 million opening in the UK. Next weekend the film will debut in France, Germany, Spain and Austria with openings in Italy and Australia in September and an early October launch in Mexico.

Finishing in second is Universal's Hobbs & Shaw, which held on pretty well as it entered its third weekend in release, dipping -44% and finishing with an estimated $14.1 million for the weekend as its domestic cume now climbs to $133.7 million. Internationally, the film added another $45.7 million, including a franchise record, $15 million debut in South Korea. Overall the film has now grossed over $303 million overseas for a worldwide cume totaling $437 million.

Disney's The Lion King landed in third place with an estimated $11.9 million as it is closing in on $500 million domestically after leap-frogging Finding Dory on the all-time domestic chart this weekend to become the 14th highest grossing domestic release of all-time with over $496 million so far.

Internationally, The Lion King added another $33.8 million this weekend for an overseas cume that now stands at $939.1 million and a $1.435 billion global tally. The result makes the film the #9 worldwide release of all-time, topping Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Sony Animation debuted The Angry Birds Movie 2 on Tuesday of this week and the animated sequel has struggled when compared to the original release, which delivered over $38 million in its first three days. By comparison, Angry Birds 2 could only muster an estimated $10.5 million this weekend for a $16.2 million six-day performance. The film received a "B+" CinemaScore while playing to an audience that was 51% female with 53% of the crowd coming in aged 25 or older.

Rounding out the top five is Lionsgate's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which dipped -52% in its sophomore frame for an estimated $10 million and a domestic cume that now totals more than $40 million after just ten days in release. Internationally, the film added another $5.6 million for an international cume that now tops $14 million and a global cume just shy of $55 million.

Outside the top five, Entertainment Studios's 47 Meters Down: Uncaged fell well short of the studio's $15-16 million expectations with an estimated $9 millionperformance over the three-day weekend. The performance is also well short of the $11.2 million opening for the first film, which went on to deliver a solid $44.3 million domestically. The sequel received a "C+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences.

Battling for a spot out at the bottom of the weekend top ten is WB's Blinded by the Light and UAR's Where'd You Go, Bernadette with only one of the two able to crack $4 million over their first three days in release. Blinded by the Light debuted with an estimated $4.45 million over its first three days despite the fact it entered the weekend with great reviews and audiences that turned out seemed to agree, giving the film an "A-" CinemaScore. Unfortunately, this is the second disappointment for WB in two weeks following the release of The Kitchen last weekend. Blinded played to an audience that was 51% female with 86% of the crowd coming in aged 25 or older.

Outside the top ten is where we find Where'd You Go, Bernadette, finishing with an estimated $3.45 million. The film played to a crowd that was 66% female and 84% of the opening weekend audience was aged 25 or older. Opening day audiences gave the film a "B" CinemaScore.

In limited release, Fox International's Misison Mangalopened on Thursday and brought in $1.46 million over its four day debut from 263 locations; Sony Classics launched Aquerela in five theaters on Friday with an estimated $23,474 (PTA $4,693); and Cinema Guild's End of the Century opened in one theater with an estimated $10,398.

Next weekend gets off to an early start with Fox’s Havoc of the Planet of the Apes and Fox Searchlight's Ready or Not debuting on Wednesday followed by Lionsgate's release of Angel has Fallen and Sony's Overcomer on Friday.

You can check out all of this weekend's estimated results right here and we'll be updating our charts with weekend actuals on Monday afternoon.