‘Insidious: The Red Door’ scares off ‘Dial of Destiny’

Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of July 7-9, 2023.

1. Insidious: The Red Door

Weekend gross: $32.7M
Total domestic gross: $32.7M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s time at the top of the box office chart was short lived, with Insidious: The Red Door dethroning the final Indiana Jones movie after a single weekend.

While this wasn’t the biggest opening weekend for an Insidious movie (that honor belongs to the $40.3 million brought it by Insidious Chapter 2 in 2013), The Red Door managed to strike at the perfect time, following a weak debut by Dial of Destiny and right before Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One hit theaters.

It’ll be interesting to see how much staying power the fifth Insidious film has. Can it compete against Mission: Impossible and then Barbie and Oppenheimer after that?

2. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Weekend gross: $26.5M
Total domestic gross: $121.2M
Last weekend: 1st
Percent drop: 56

Harrison Ford’s final ride as Indy looks to be a quick one at the box office. After a disappointing $60.4 million debut last weekend, Dial of Destiny sunk to $26.5 million this weekend. For comparison, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull grossed $44.7 million its second weekend back in 2008 and had already cracked the $200 million barrier at the domestic box office.

I’m not sure things will get any better for Dial of Destiny. People (like myself) who didn’t catch it on release weekend now have a growing number of other movies to watch if they decide to go to the movies over the next few weeks. If I have a chance to get out, I’m probably going to see Dead Reckoning.

3. Sound of Freedom

Weekend gross: $18.2M
Total domestic gross: $40.2M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA

I didn’t realize Jim Caviezel was still making movies. I figured that QAnon stuff was taking up all his time.

4. Elemental

Weekend gross: $9.6M
Total domestic gross: $109.2M
Last weekend: 2nd
Percent drop: 21

After a disappointing debut, Elemental has actually bounced back pretty well. While The Flash has fallen out of the top five (it finished at No. 12 this weekend with $2.2 million), Pixar’s latest is still in the mix, squeaking across the $100 million mark in the process. Is Elemental a massive hit for the studio? No. But it’s domestic gross is now less than $10 million away from passing Lightyear and its worldwide gross has already done so.

5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Weekend gross: $8M
Total domestic gross: $357.7M
Last weekend: 3rd
Percent drop: 33

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has now been in theaters for six weekends. After finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, back to 1st and then 3rd, the film finally had enough competition to get pushed into the No. 5 slot. Over the course of those six weekends, Across the Spider-Verse has grossed $357.7 million in North America, ticking it just past Guardians of the Galaxy’s $357.6 million. (The final Guardians movie is still a bigger worldwide hit, topping Across the Spider-Verse’s $839.7 million to $642.3 million.)

Box office numbers via The Numbers based on Sunday estimates.

Next weekend

The Mission: Impossible franchise jumps back into theaters this week, with Dead Reckoning Part One officially opening on Wednesday. (There are also preview screenings on Monday and Tuesday.) While this gives Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie’s latest installment a few extra days at the box office before having to compete with Oppenheimer and Barbie the following weekend, it does screw up our ability to score Dead Reckoning in terms of a normal three-day weekend.