“Cars 3” Will Race Past Its Competitors at the Box Office

	Cars 3	$58.5 million
	Wonder Woman	$32 million
	All Eyez On Me	$21 million
	Rough Night	$18.6 million
	The Mummy	$12.3 million

After two weeks at the top, Wonder Woman will be de-throned this weekend by racing, talking vehicles in Pixar’s latest sequel, Cars 3. The film has a lot going for it to quickly rise to the top of the box office — it’s a family animated film from a trusted and admired company, and it’s also a continuation of an existing IP — but if it can’t top $60 million, Cars 3 will be the smallest opening of the franchise. But, of course, context is everything. An opening in the high 50s, even if it can’t reach 60, is still a great performance given only nine films so far this year have opened even north of $50 million.

While the Cars franchise can’t boast being a Toy Story or Finding Dory franchise, both of which have made nearly $2 billion worldwide each, the first two Cars films have made a little over $1 billion worldwide together, and that number will likely grow exponentially over the next couple of months. They are neither Pixar’s best reviewed (the first Cars ranks best with a 74 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, Cars 2 received a 39 percent, also the lowest of any Pixar film, while this new one currently boasts a 64 percent) nor their best loved (talk to any Pixar fans and reactions to Cars are mixed and snarky at best), but they are still guaranteed to make money with the Disney/Pixar brand slapped on them as well as the fact that kids, by and large, like them very much (and really, that’s one of the most important factors here).

Walt Disney Studios

Cars 3, in particular, has been garnering plenty of attention for its more dramatic, and slightly more grown-up take on the universe with an aging Lightning McQueen and what happens when his racing career nears its end. Pixar has always been praised for the maturity in its films, drawing in audiences of all ages, as shown by the nearly $11 billion the company has made from the 17 films they’ve released since Toy Story in 1995. They are one of the most lucrative animation studios around — for comparison, DreamWorks has made $14.3 billion worldwide, but that’s with 35 films since 1998. Pixar shows no signs of slowing down and Cars 3 will help them speed through bigger and bigger numbers.

However, just because Wonder Woman will drop to second place this weekend, doesn’t mean it won’t still succeed. It’s looking at another drop below 50 percent for its third weekend out in theaters and that’s another striking and impressive performance for a big-budget blockbuster. The film is $40 million away from $500 million worldwide as it closes in on the next-best film in the DC Extended Universe, Man of Steel. Much of Wonder Woman‘s success has to be attributed to the fact that people can’t stop talking about the film, with good reason. Articles continue to be written in abundance about the film, it remains the most Tweeted about film of the year, and fans and critics alike are finding their enthusiasm for the movie hasn’t diminished. For a film that was rumored to be plagued by production problems, bad impressions of the DCEU at large, and a too small marketing campaign, Wonder Woman has overcome them all for a truly great box office performance so far.

	Opening Weekend	Current Gross	Facebook Likes	Tweets
Cars 3	N/A	N/A	16,659,512	64,016
Wonder Woman	$103.2m	$227.8m	82,573	658,838
All Eyez On Me	N/A	N/A	227,179	19,359
Rough Night	N/A	N/A	192,737	14,580
The Mummy	$31.6m	$40.5m	66,951	127,018

Next up will be two other newcomers to the field, making this one of more dynamic weekends of the box office, at least in terms of seeing new titles in the top five. It will be a close race between these newcomers, but the new Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me should come out on top as it eyes an opening between $20 and $25 million. While its marketing campaign has been relatively nonexistent, there’s a definite audience for the film that will make a point to see the film, regardless of a lack of billboards and promotional trailers. Unfortunately, how long the audience sticks around with the film could be the aspect that hurts this film the most. It currently only has an 11 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with one critics, Rafer Guzman of Newsday, saying the film “won’t earn Shakur any new fans and will disappoint the ones he has.” Even if the film performs well this weekend, it could very well drop off drastically in its second week, and with a $60 million budget, that would be damning.

Sony Pictures

Rough Night, the first of two female-led raunchy comedies this summer, is looking at an opening between $12 and $20 million according to projections. The film hasn’t earned the best of reviews so far, but it’s a good option for those movie-goers who are in need of something light that will make them laugh — those that aren’t into animated films, biopics, or action blockbusters at the very least. It’s not looking at one of the best openings for an R-rated comedy but as several movies of the past have proven, an R-rating doesn’t necessarily mean a limited or weak performance at the box office. Currently, The Hangover Part II boasts the best opening for an R-rated comedy with $85.9 million and while Rough Night won’t come anywhere close to that, it could still have a decent showing, especially with a smaller budget.

	Rotten Tomatoes		IMDb	Metacritic
	Critics	Users	Stars
Cars 3	64	N/A	7.7	61
Wonder Woman	92	92	8.1	76
All Eyez On Me	11	N/A	6.9	N/A
Rough Night	53	N/A	5.7	56
The Mummy	16	44	5.9	34

Bringing up the rear will be Tom Cruise and Universal’s The Mummy, looking at a drop of far more than 60 percent. Many have already commented on the film’s poor performance (at least domestically) and what that might mean for the studio’s intended Dark Universe. Of course, it isn’t likely they’ll give up on it, given the progress they’ve already been putting it into the universe and its future, but it might mean a re-shuffling or at least tweaking. Despite The Mummy‘s solid foreign performance (so far it’s made $140 million overseas), its domestic intake, currently at $40.5 million, shows a lack of interest in the movie and possibly the whole universe. Depending on how quickly it comes to a screeching halt, it may ot even surpass 1999’s The Mummy, which made $155 million domestically when all was said and done.

The other wide release of the film is the shark thriller 47 Meters Down, which isn’t even expected to approach $10 million.

(Sources: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com, rottentomatoes.com, imdb.com, metacritic.com. Tweets and Likes represent figures for this week only. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed. Tracking Board does not report Rotten Tomatoes user ratings for movies that have not yet seen wide release.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor