‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Breaks Pandemic Box Office Curse With Nearly $60M Opening

A QUIET PLACE PART II

The North American box office is making major noise as Memorial Day weekend unfolds.

John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place Part II grossed $19.3 million on Friday and $14.9 million on Saturday from 3,752 theaters for a projected four-day weekend debut of $58.5 million. That includes a three-day gross of $48.4 million. (Those estimates could shift on Monday.)

All are the biggest domestic numbers in the pandemic-era and — more significantly — are on par with the first Quiet Place, which posted a three-day debut of $50.2 million in 2018. The sequel’s loud performance is a victory for Paramount and the theatrical experience and proves that the box office is righting itself after 15 months of being ravaged by the COVID-19 crisis.

A Quiet Place II has the advantage of getting an exclusive theatrical release before hitting sister streaming service Paramount+ in 45 days. As part of the marketing campaign, Krasinski completed a six-city tour surprising audiences.

Overseas, the horror-thriller took in $22 million from its first six markets for a global start of at least $80 million through Monday. It launched in China to $14.9 million, not far behind the $17.5 million opening for the 2018 film (Fast & Furious installment F9 continued to dominate in the Middle Kingdom).

Fellow Memorial Day offering Cruella is doing solid business at the domestic box office for a title that’s also available in the home. (It is launching simultaneously in cinemas and on Disney+ Premier Access for $30.)

Cruella, playing in 3,982 theaters, is projecting a four-day opening of $26.5 million, including $21.3 million for the three days. The family-friendly origin pic stars Emma Stone as the infamous Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians.

“This is a great result for Cruella. It’s not just about opening weekend for family films, and we always knew we’d be No. 2. We’re in great, great shape for a long run,” says Disney theatrical distribution chief Tony Chambers.

Overseas — where the recovery varies dramatically depending on the country — it took in $16.1 million from 29 markets for a global start of $42.6 million. (It doesn’t open in China until June 6.)

Heading into the weekend, most thought the ceiling for A Quiet Place Part II was $40 million, considering the substantial challenges still facing the box office. Nearly 30 percent of theaters are still closed in North America, and many locations that are reopened face capacity restrictions.

Thanks to A Quiet Place II and Cruella, Memorial Day weekend’s overall revenue in North America will be north of $100 million, another boost for the film and exhibition industries.

“This is a giant leap forward from where the industry has been throughout the past year, and a table-setting weekend for what sustained recovery will look like throughout summer and beyond. The optics and symbolism of large audiences safely returning to cinemas outweigh the box office dollars themselves, but these numbers are still quite impressive even by pre-pandemic standards,” says analyst Shawn Robbins.

Disney’s last live-action reimagining, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, opened to $37 million domestically.

As the box recovers, Disney is hedging its bets on its early summer titles and experimenting with day-and-date releases. Unlike box office grosses, most companies don’t divulge streaming viewership numbers.

“We”ll never know exactly by how much the premium streaming option cut into box office performance, only that it has likely done so to an undefined extent,” Robbins says.

Both films are crowd pleasers and female-skewing: Krasinski’s film, starring Emily Blunt, earned an A- CinemaScore from audiences (the original got a B+), while Cruella received an A.

And both are female skewing (A Quiet Place Part II, 53 percent; Cruella, 64 percent). Of A Quiet Place Part II ticket buyers, 57 percent were between ages 18-34. While more kids obviously turned out to see Cruella, the film also drew a hearty number of younger adults (41 percent were between ages 18-34).

Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong boasted the previous biggest bow of the pandemic era with a five-day debut of $48 million, including $30 million for the three-day weekend.

Elsewhere, F9 crossed the $200 million mark internationally, where it debuted in select markets ahead of its domestic launch. The action pic took in $30.9 million for an early foreign total of $229 million, including $185 million from China. F9 dropped a steep 80 percent overall in its second weekend.

Sony is also first opening Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway in select markets overseas. The family sequel has earned a total of $36.8 million from 11 markets so far, including $10.8 million from the U.K., where cinemas have reopened in recent days.