Free Guy keeps the dogs at bay by beating all four newcomers to maintain the number one spot in the Domestic box office. By grossing $18.8M to Paw Patrol’s $13.0M, showed amazing staying power by dropping only 34% from its first weekend. This performance is the best hold of the summer by far and speaks to the positive word of mouth for the picture. It didn’t hurt that its only real competition, Paw Patrol, was streamed while Free Guy is exclusive to theatres.
As for the other three opening pictures, The Protégé finished 7th with a gross of $2.935M, The Night House finished 8th grossing $2.869M and Reminiscence starring Hugh Jackman, mustered only $2M and finished 9th – an embarrassing performance. This is Jackman’s fourth bomb in a row and he is without a hit movie since The Greatest Showman in 2017. It appears that this weekend will gross approximately 60% of the same weekend in 2019, which continues the pattern of stabilization against 2019. Next weekend, only Candyman – which will be the sixth horror film released since July 2 – stands in the way of Free Guy topping the box office for three consecutive weeks, something that no other picture has done this summer.