‘Garfield’ leads the way in slow weekend at box office

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Garfield, voiced by Chris Pratt, in a scene from the animated film “The Garfield Movie.” (Columbia Pictures/Sony via AP)

LOS ANGELES – “The Garfield Movie” topped an extremely slow weekend at North American movie theaters with $14 million, one week after opening a hair behind “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” according to industry estimates released Sunday.

The fantasy film “IF” nabbed second place with $10.8 million in its third weekend in theaters, Comscore reported.

“Furiosa” fell to third place in its second weekend, grossing $10.7 million Friday through Sunday – a disappointing total for a franchise film with a reported budget well north of $160 million.

Fourth place went to “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” with $8.8 million in its fourth week, followed by “The Fall Guy” with $4.2 million in its fifth weekend.
Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases were “The Strangers: Chapter 1” ($3.6 million), “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle” ($3.5 million), “In A Violent Nature” ($2.1 million), “Ezra” ($1.18 million) and “Sight” ($1 million).

“Garfield” fell only 42 percent in its second weekend in North America. It also topped the global box office adding $27 million from international territories, bringing its running worldwide to $152.2 million. The animated pic featuring the voice of Chris Pratt will essentially have the market to itself until “Inside Out 2” arrives on June 14.

The 2024 box office is struggling compared to both last year (down 23.9 percent) and pre-pandemic standards (down 42.2 percent from 2019 and 46.4 percent from 2018), according to data from Comscore.

On this weekend last year, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” opened to $120.7 million while “The Little Mermaid” was still pulling in over $41.4 million in its second weekend. This year has yet to have any film open to over $100 million domestically.

The top-grossing movie of this year remains “ Dune: Part Two,” which Warner Bros. released in early March and has made over $711 million globally. Its domestic take of $282.1 million represents 10.5 percent of the overall box office for 2024. (With CNS report)