After a rather eventful race for the top spot last weekend, the domestic box office won’t witness similar drama this time around, withThe Equalizer 3poised to comfortably top the chart in its debut. Touted as the final installment of thesurprisingly successful serieswhich followed in the footsteps ofLiam Neeson’s late-period action hits, the film is exceeding projections and eyeing a $35 million finish across the traditional three-day weekend, which could expand to around $43 million over the extended four-day Labor Day weekend. This is poised to be the second-biggest Labor Day debut ever, behindShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' $94 million opening a couple of years ago.
StarringDenzel Washingtonas a retired Marine named Robert McCall,The Equalizer 3made $13 million on Friday, after $3.8 million from Thursday previews. Each film in the trilogy has been helmed byAntoine Fuqua, who most famously directed Washington to an Oscar inTraining Day. The firstEqualizerfilm, which was released nearly 10 years ago in 2014, made $101 million domestically and $192 million worldwide.The Equalizer 2debuted four years later, and grossed roughly the same amount — $102 million domestically and $190 million worldwide.
After throwing down against Sony’sGran Turismolast weekend and finishing second for only the second time in its blockbuster run, Warner Bros’.Barbieonce again took the second spot, and is eyeing a $10 million haul in its seventh weekend of release. The film made $2.5 million on Friday, and is projected to make around $13 million over the four-day extended weekend. But there are more reasons for W.B. to celebrate this weekend: not only didBarbiecross the $600 million mark domestically on Friday, it also finally overtookThe Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $1.35 billion lifetime haul to become the year’s biggest hit.
A Tight Race for the Third Spot is Underway
Another W.B. release will claim the third spot this weekend. The lowkey superhero titleBlue Beetlemade $1.5 million on its third Friday, and is eying $6.4 million across the traditional three-day frame and $8.3 million across the extended weekend. This should take the movie’s running domestic haul to a lackluster $57 million. While the film didn’t cost as much as the typical superhero movie does these days, it found itself between a rock and a hard place as it debuted to minimal interest among fans of the almost-defunctDC Extended Universe, and the soon-to-be-launchedDC Universe.
The fourth spot went to last week’s champion,Gran Turismo, which is eying $6.5 million across three days and roughly $8 million across the extended four-day frame. You know what this means:another tight racefor the second weekend in a row. DirectorNeill Blomkamp’s video game adaptation, which was curiously sold as a fact-based inspirational sports drama, will struggle to hit the $30 million mark domestically even by Monday. Fifth place went to Universal’sOppenheimer, which generated $1.3 million on its seventh Friday, taking its running domestic total to $304 million. This weekend,Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic will also pass the $850 million mark, becoming his third-biggest hit ever ahead ofInception. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
