While
Free Guy took the top spot last weekend (on what may have been the busiest weekend at the box office since pre-pandemic days) no one expected it to repeat on its second weekend especially against another slate of varied opponents and yet - here we are. While the list of new releases over the weekend included more low-key titles than
Free Guy such as the Maggie Q/Samuel L. Jackon/Michael Keaton actioner
The Protege from director Martin Campbell (
Casino Royale),
PAW Patrol: The Movie (which also premiered on Paramount+), the Hugh Jackman sci-fi thriller
Reminiscence (which also premiered on HBO Max) as well as Seachlight Pictures'
The Night House which we ended up reviewing this week largely due to the continued trend of no Thursday night screenings for these day and date HBO Max releases from Warner Bros. (
The Suicide Squad being the lone exception). That said, David Bruckner's latest psychological horror trip starring Rebecca Hall seemed to at least be the most interesting of the new weekend crop if not the most successful as
The Protege,
The Night House, and
Reminiscence landed in seventh, eighth, and ninth place to middling returns while the one new release able to compete with
Free Guy was the big screen adaptation of Nickelodeon’s kid-friendly animated TV show. Last week, (the surprisingly exceptional)
Free Guy landed in the No. 1 spot with a $28.4 million haul and added another $22.5 million internationally, bringing its first-weekend worldwide total to $50.9 million. In weekend two, the Shawn Levy-directed and Ryan Reynolds starring irreverent comedy continued its winning streak despite COVID cases spiking higher than they’ve been at any point in the past six months.
Free Guy saw a surprisingly small drop from its debut weekend, just -33.8% (which was good enough for the best second-weekend hold of the summer thus far), and while part of the reason for its success has to do with the fact it was not released simultaneously on a streaming service (look for it to arrive on digital platforms on 9/28 and on home video formats on 10/12) one hopes some of it has to do solely with the quality of the film and how much audiences are enjoying the theatrical experience of it all. While
Free Guy (and the PAW Patrol gang) were likely the only ones happy about box office returns this weekend and while it remains to be seen how studios will react to the pandemic’s new wave of Delta-variant infections the hope can only be that more people continue to get vaccinated and that these cases peak soon so that the world might return to some semblance of normalcy by the time awards season rolls around. As always, be sure to follow the official
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