“ A Quiet Place: Day One ” is making noise at the box office. The prequel grossed approximately $53 million in its first weekend in North American theaters, according to studio estimates released Sunday.
It is both the best franchise and significantly more than expected. Heading into the weekend, pre-release tracking had predicted “Day One” would have a $40 million debut, but audiences were clearly more excited to see the action-horror starring Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn and released by Paramount. “The same cannot be said for Kevin Costner.” Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1”, which premiered with 11 million dollars.
However, the victory of “Quiet Place” was not enough to earn the coveted top spot on the charts. That honor once again fell to the Disney and Pixar giant, ” Inside Out 2”, which added an estimated $57.4 million to its Third weekend in theatersand surpassed one billion dollars worldwide.
There’s a slim chance that locations will change when actual data is released on Monday. But in any case, it’s good news for movie theaters in a summer season that’s finally gaining momentum but is still well behind last year’s norms (down 19%) and pre-pandemic norms (down 36% from 2019).
“Inside Out 2” continues to be a box office phenomenon the likes of which the industry has not seen since “Barbie” almost a year ago. In just three weeks since its release, it has grossed almost $470 million in North America and $545.5 million internationally, bringing its global total to $1.01 billion. The sequel is the only 2024 release to surpass the billion-dollar mark, and it did so in just 19 days, a record for an animated film.
“A Quiet Place: Day One,” directed by Michael Sarnoski and rated PG-13, is also rapidly approaching an important threshold. Including $45.5 million from international screenings in 59 markets, the $67 million production has already grossed $98.5 million.
In a rare feat for a third film, it opened higher than “A Quiet Place” ($50.2 million upon its release in April 2018) and “ A Quiet Place: Part II ” ($47.5 million when it opened in May 2021). Juan Krasinskiwho wrote and directed the first two, continued working as a producer.
Screening on 3,708 screens in the US and Canada, nearly 40% of its domestic revenue came from “premium screens,” including IMAX and other large formats. It entered the market to mostly positive reviews (84% on Rotten Tomatoes); Audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore and four out of five stars on PostTrak.
Meanwhile, the start of “Horizon” was slow. Although older audiences, who are most likely to support a Western epic, don’t typically rush out to see movies on opening weekend as they often do with horror and superhero movies, the road ahead won’t be easy: criticisms have It hasn’t been great and earned a disappointing B- CinemaScore.
In the case of “Horizon,” a $100 million production that Costner financed on his own and partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute, that’s also a bit different. It opened in 3,334 theaters. It’s a passion project decades in the making, so he mortgaged property in Santa Barbara, Calif., to finance it and walked away from “Yellowstone” to make it happen. In a bold and unconventional move, “Part 2” will hit theaters later this summer on Aug. 16. He also has plans for two more films.