Despicable Me 3will lead the holiday weekend box office with an estimated $75.4 million, culled from Thursday night previews all the way through the final showings on Sunday. This is not even a little bit of a surprise.
Second place will go toEdgar Wright’sBaby Driver, one of the more original and galvanizing big-studio pictures to be released so far this year, alongsideLogan,Alien: Covenant, andWonder Woman. Unlike those movies, however, Wright isn’t depending on any franchise heft to sell this wild-eyed action-comedy, which is looking at an estimated $30 million over the weekend, starting from Tuesday night previews. It’s also easily the most visually daring of that lot. Wright has been deserving of an in-theaters hit for a long time, especially considering the cults that have formed around literally every other movie he’s made, fromShaun of the DeadtoScott Pilgrim vs. The WorldtoThe World’s End. It doesn’t get himAnt-Manback but this success should at least help him secure funding and distribution for the myriad of fascinating projects he has in the pipeline.
There are other stylish directors in the top five this week -Patty JenkinsandMichael Bay, namely - but none of them seem to be challenging and investigating their own perspective the way Wright is here. Bay’sTransformers: The Last Knight, which lands in the fourth spot with $17.3 million, has his visual totems and thematic interests in spades but his narrative is at once frenzied and insufferably rigid in its plotting.Wonder Woman, coming in with $16.1 million in its fifth frame to take the fourth spot, spends a little too much time on explaining mythology but its larger ideas about war, evil, and the limitations of a good hero are what stand out and Jenkins has a firm grip on making active, thrilling compositions for the big screen.
Cars 3, which came in at number five with $9.5 million, lacks both directorial finesse and any potent thematic interests, which is par for the course for most animated films, including this week’s big hit. The broad strokes ofDespicable Me 3may still make the big bucks, but another lesson to take away from this weekend is that hiring a director with a clear, distinct vision and allowing them to develop that with minimal interference often results in a remarkable movie, if not always the most lucrative one.
Here’s your top five:
Weekend Domestic BO
Total Domestic BO
1. ‘Despicable Me 3’
$75,410,275
2. ‘Baby Driver’
$21,000,000
$30,029,015
3. ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’
$17,350,000
$102,103,351
4. ‘Wonder Woman’
$16,100,000
$346,644,475
5. ‘Cars 3’
$9,524,000
$120,714,099
