Box Office: ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ Fends Off ‘Scary Stories’ for Top Spot

hobbsandshawBo1
Universal Pictures

The top five movies for the second weekend of August is mostly filled with previous releases with Hobbs & Shaw Keeping the top spot for the second week in a row over newly released Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

In first place, Universal’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw will bring in at least $25 million more into its coffers this weekend. The Fast & Furious spinoff should bring the film’s two-week domestic total to about $109 million. Still, the film had a hopping $200 million budget, so the overseas take will have to make up the difference — and probably already has.

In second place, the debut of Lionsgate’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will likely beat the weekend’s other newcomers with a $22 million opening, Variety reported. The fright pic seems poised to earn a bit better than forecasts and has also scored fairly well with critics.

Up for the third spot, Disney’s Lion King is holding its appearance in the top five once again. The film will bring in around $19 million this weekend and will likely top $475 million at the domestic box office before the weekend is done.

Another fresh opening, Paramount’s Dora and the Lost City of Gold, will figure in as the fourth most popular movie for the weekend with a $17 million-plus opening, according to Box Office Mojo. The film has also earned a very high audience and critic rating, though the adulation wasn’t enough to push it higher in the top five.

Finally, another holdover earned the fifth spot on the weekend box office chart, with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood keeping its top five rating. The Leonardo DiCaprio-Brad Pitt vehicle will finish the weekend with another $11 million in its pockets to bring its total domestic cume to around $99 to $100 million.

The weekend’s biggest disappointment, though, appears to be Warner Bros. and New Line’s The Kitchen. The drama features Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, and Tiffany Haddish as three women who take over the crime business from their mob boss husbands after they are arrested. While it was expected to earn as much as $14 million for its debut, it appears that the drama will be lucky if it pulls in $6 million. The 1970s period piece was also severely panned by reviewers.

On top of all that, the weekend will not help reverse the trend of 2019 trailing 2018. “Year-to-date box office was at $7.13 billion — down 6.5% as of Aug. 7, according to Comscore. Summer is even at $3.65 billion,” Variety wrote.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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