'Candyman' Far Exceeds Projections, Overall Box Office At 58% of Comparable 2019 Weekend

Universal/MGM’s “Candyman” led the weekend’s box-office sales with $22.3 million, far outperforming projections of $15 million.

The movie, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (shown), also earned $5.2 million in 51 overseas markets, bringing its global total to $27.6 million.

Directed by Nia DaCosta and written and produced by Jordan Peele, the remake of a 1992 horror flick scored 85% on Rotten Tomatoes and attracted a diverse audience, according to the studio’s audience survey: 37% Black, 30% white, 22% Latinos and 5% Asians.

Like the summer’s other movies, the audience was dominated by the 18-34 age segment, accounting for 69% of the total.

20th Century Studios’ Ryan Reynolds action movie “Free Guy” continued to perform strongly, with $13.6 million in its third weekend, to total $78 million domestic and $180 million global to date.

Paramount’s “Paw Patrol: The Movie” brought in $6.6 million in its second weekend, for a 10-day total of $24 million.

Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” became the fifth post-shutdown release to earn $100 million domestically, with $5 million grossed in its fifth weekend.

The movie, which pulled $35 million in domestic box office in its first weekend, has continued to draw audiences through word-of-mouth, “despite its availability as a premium Disney+ title,” noted IndieWire. To date, its global sales total $187 million, not including the undisclosed revenue from paid streaming on Disney+.

Total weekend grosses were $63 million — about the same as last weekend’s, and 58% of the same weekend in pre-pandemic 2019, according to IndieWire. Its four-week rolling average comparing current performance to the comparable weekends in 2019 is now at 56%, the highest level since mid-July.

"Black Widow"— the subject of a lawsuit by star Scarlett Johansson, who contends that its simultaneous release on Disney+ suppressed box-office sales — earned 10th place this past weekend, with $855,000. The movie's total North American gross over eight weeks now exceeds $181.5 million.

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