widely credited<\/a> with launching the summer blockbuster, with its outsized profits making studios realize the appeal of releasing films when kids were out of school, as well as the merchandising opportunities that an escapist adventure can create.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cCaught Stealing,\u201d directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz, landed at No. 3 with $7.8 million over the traditional weekend and an estimated $9.5 million over the four-day holiday frame. It\u2019s a so-so start for the $40 million budgeted film, about a New York City bartender who finds himself in the crosshairs of threatening gangsters after agreeing to watch his neighbor\u2019s cat. Though reviews were positive (84% on Rotten Tomatoes), moviegoers weren\u2019t as enthusiastic and gave the film a \u201cB\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis opening is good-not-great,\u201d says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. \u201cThere are a lot of crime thrillers, and this is not an easy sell following a summer lineup of event pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFourth place went to Disney\u2019s \u201cFreakier Friday,\u201d the sequel to the 2003 body-switching comedy, \u201cFreaky Friday,\u201d which earned $6.5 million over the weekend and $8.3 million across the four-day holiday. Its domestic gross should stand at just over $80 million, and its global haul will hit $130 million through Labor Day.<\/p>\n
\n\tMeanwhile, \u201cThe Roses\u201d debuted in fifth place with $6.4 million over the weekend and an estimated $8 million through Labor Day. Directed by Jay Roach and loosely based on the 1981 novel \u201cThe War of the Roses,\u201d the story follows a seemingly picture-perfect couple with serious cracks in the relationship. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman lead the cast alongside the ensemble of Andy Samberg, Allison Janney and Kate McKinnon. Critics didn\u2019t love the film (64% on Rotten Tomatoes), but audiences seemed fonder, granting \u201cThe Roses\u201d a \u201cB+\u201d grade on CinemaScore.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is a soft start,\u201d says Gross. \u201cThese days, a release like this will finish quickly on its way to good ancillary business, again, driven by the quality cast.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPerhaps it felt overly familiar. \u201cThe War of the Roses\u201d was already adapted into a 1989 film with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. Unlike \u201cThe Roses,\u201d it was a huge hit, earning $160 million \u2014 a huge sum for the time.<\/p>\n
\n\tLabor Day isn\u2019t known for packing in crowds at the movies, so it\u2019s no surprise that this weekend was among the softest of the year. Overall, the four-day stretch brought in roughly $86 million, a 19% decline from last year\u2019s holiday, which was powered by Marvel\u2019s billion-dollar blockbuster \u201cDeadpool and Wolverine.\u201d The summer season officially ended with domestic revenues at $3.67 billion, down 0.2% from 2024 and a whopping 10.2% behind 2023, according to Comscore. That\u2019s disappointing news for the business, which thought this crop of sequels, spinoffs and superhero adventures would be enough to push ticket sales to $4 billion.<\/p>\n
\n\tBetter luck next summer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Box office, welcome to the dog days of summer. In this terribly sluggish Labor Day holiday weekend, a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":189671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,67,132,68,9826],"class_list":{"0":"post-189670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115124377146411126","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}