Universal’s Good Boys opened to number 1 at the US box office this weekend, outperforming expectations and becoming one of the few original movies to secure the top spot in 2019. It’s the third weekend in a row where Universal has had the number one movie in the country, thanks to the success of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Good Boys was a strong performer on a weekend where the other new releases disappointed.
According to Box Office Mojo, Good Boys debuted to an estimated $21 million, overtaking its $20 million budget. The film, which stars Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams and Brady Noon as a trio of preteens who ditch school and get caught up in a series of misadventures, beat out Hobbs & Shaw ($14.1 million) and The Lion King ($11.9 million) to claim the top spot. It’s the second completely original film to do so this year, after Jordan Peele’s Us debuted to $71,117,625 back in March (there’s an argument to be made that The Curse of La Llorona counts as well, but that movie is, technically, a spin-off of The Conjuring.)
Further down the list, The Angry Birds Movie 2 debuted at #4 with $10.5 million for the weekend. It actually opened on Tuesday, and has made $16.2 million in its opening week – well down on the $38.1 million the original movie earned in its first weekend, before ultimately making $107.5 million domestic and $352.3 million worldwide. But Columbia Pictures can, perhaps, take solace in the film’s 76% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it, by the site’s metrics, the best-reviewed videogame adaptation of all time (Pokemon: Detective Pikachu scored 68% positive reviews).
Further down the chart, shark horror sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged opened at $9 million, Gurinder Chadha’s Blinded By the Light debuted at $4.45 million, and Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette only managed $3.45 million. All three opened wide. For those keeping track of the highest grossing film of all time, Avengers: Endgame – which is out now on home video – brought in an additional $98,000.
Top 10 Films for the weekend of August 16-18 (via Box Office Mojo):
- Good Boys ($21,000,000)
- Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw ($14,140,000)
- The Lion King ($11,900,000)
- The Angry Birds Movie 2 ($10,500,000)
- Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ($10,050,000)
- 47 Meters Down: Uncaged ($9,000,000)
- Dora and the Lost City of Gold ($8,500,000)
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ($7,600,000)
- Blinded By the Light ($4,450,000)
- The Art of Racing in the Rain ($4,403,000)