Skyscraper Bombs, Hotel Transylvania Dethrones Ant-Man Sequel at Box Office

CBR

By Nicole Sobon

Published Jul 15, 2018

Skyscraper failed to scale the box office this weekend, while Hotel Transylvania 3 took the top spot, with Ant-Man and the Wasp falling to 2nd place.

Dwayne Johnson's Skyscraper failed to scale the box office this weekend, while Sony's Hotel Transylvania 3 managed to take the top spot, knocking Ant-Man and the Wasp to second place.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation's $44 million domestic opening marks the franchise's 2nd best opening, behind Hotel Transylvania 2, which opened to $48.4 million back in 2015. It's an impressive feat for a franchise that had previously avoided the summer release frame. Also debuting this weekend was Johnson's Skyscraper, one of the few non-sequel films to hit this summer, which opened in 3rd place with a less-than-stellar $25.4 million, behind Ant-Man and the Wasp, which took in another $28.8 million in its second weekend.

Internationally, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation took in $46.4 million, giving the film a $100 million global start. In regards to its impressive opening, Sony’s president of worldwide distribution Josh Greenstein noted the film's performance over its competition, saying, "We took the No. 1 slot this weekend with a tremendous amount of competition." The film should continue to have legs at the box office in the coming weeks with kids still out of school, something the studio is counting on.

As for Skyscraper, the Johnson-led film wasn't as lucky in its opening weekend. The film failed to meet initial expectations, opening to just $25.4 million. Like the actor's last film, Rampage, it looks as though it'll be up to the international box office to carry it as Skyscraper had a massive $125 million production budget.

Along with an additional $28.8 million stateside, Ant-Man and the Wasp pulled in another $35.3 million internationally, which brings its worldwide total to $284 million; that includes $133 million stateside and $151 million overseas. While those numbers are nowhere near Black Panther or Avengers: Infinity War, the film is performing better than its predecessor as the first film completed its theatrical run with just $180 million domestically back in 2015. The film should easily go on to surpass $200 million domestically by the time its run is over, all but securing a third installment.

Via Variety