Girl Power. DC’s “Wonder Woman” enjoyed one of the smallest drops for a superhero franchise in recent memory, falling a paltry 45% to finish its sophomore weekend at USD $57 million. That was good enough to easily remain atop the North American boxoffice, crushing Tom Cruise’s redux of “The Mummy”. The film padded its overseas total with another USD $60 million this weekend, bringing its international take to USD $232 million. “Wonder Woman” currently sits at #5 on the list of Highest Grossing Films of 2017 after only 10 days in the marketplace.

At least here in America it’s more than a wee bit concerning when moviegoers are asking themselves during a Tom Cruise movie, “Yeesh, where’s Brendan Fraser when you really need him?”. Universal’s Dark Universe lead off batter, “The Mummy”, delighted Tom Cruise’s fan base overseas but was buried alive here in the States with a cadaverous USD $32 million, which by the way was the exact  total predicted by us at Celluloid Junkie last Monday. I feel I’m being repetitive pointing out the difference between domestic and international boxoffice these days but it’s one of the most important trends in the industry. Overseas, “The Mummy” unearthered USD $142 million at the boxoffice, Tom Cruise’s highest international opening ever. Yes, ever. However here in the States, the industry is (rightfully) proclaiming this a dismal failure for Cruise as the film was buried alive at the boxoffice and coupling a Rotten Tomatoes score of 17 with a lackluster B- Cinemascore its long term prospects look grim. Expect a second week drop of at least 60% this coming weekend.

The other two new openers didn’t fare much better. A24’s “It Comes at Night” garnered excellent reviews (86 Rotten Tomatoes score) but a D Cinemascore on its way to a USD $6 million opening. Bleecker Street’s “Megan Leavey” could only translate an impressive A Cinemascore into USD $3.7 million.

In other items of note…

• “Wonder Woman” crosses the USD $200 million domestic threshold today;
• In a shrewd move, director Patty Jenkins has yet to sign on for the “Wonder Woman” sequel, thereby ensuring a paycheck that even a Powerball winner would be envious of;
• “Fox Searchlight’s “My Cousin Rachel” almost nabbed a spot in the Top 10, grossing USD $950,000 on only 525 screens, good enough for 11^th place;
• USD $52 million of “The Mummy”s international tally of USD $142 million came from China;
• “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2” is now up to USD $366 million on these shores with a worldwide total of USD $828 million.

Now let’s analyze boxoffice prospects for this week’s Gang of Four.

“Cars 3” (BV)—Pixar revs up the engines on another installment of the “Cars” franchise and why not? It’s perfect summer entertainment for the young ones and “Cars 2” enjoyed an international total of USD $370 million, far exceeding the original’s USD $218 million gross across the pond. There’s no Michael Caine or Eddie Izzard this time out but Owen Wilson and Larry The Cable Guy return and director Brian Fee cut his teeth on the first two “Cars” films as well as on Pixar’s  “Wall-E”.

The Verdict:  Along with late June’s “Despicable Me 3”, “Cars 3” is one of the two can’t-miss animated titles this summer. The movie plays especially well in the middle of the country where Larry The Cable Guy remains a bankable name (I’m not kidding, just check out the ratings for his weekly Sirius/XM radio show). The first “Cars” opened to USD $60 million in 2006 and its sequel scored a USD $66 million debut five years later (but with a faster fade). We’ll figure it’s a good Fathers Day afternoon out with dad and the boys and this gets to USD $61 million.

“Rough Night” (Sony)—It’s been more like Rough Year for Sony as the studio currently sits in 7^th place with a piddling 3.7% market share. This week they pin their hopes that girl power isn’t resigned to just “Wonder Woman” with “Rough Night”.  Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon and Zoe Kravitz star in this bachelorette-party-gone-horribly-wrong comedy, helmed by TV director Lucia Aniello.

The Verdict:  It’s never a good sign to hear the word reshoots associated with a movie. Neither is an exhibitor screening reaction of “I think I laughed once”. And to bring up a rather obvious point, you’re always setting yourself up for snarky headlines with a movie called “Rough Night” if it fails at the boxoffice. Sony is hoping for a “Bad Moms”-like mid 20’s opening and most in the industry have this in that range as well. But pairing the rubbish exhibitor screening reviews with the fact that ScarJo’s career hasn’t exactly been littered with knee slapping guffaw fests, the guess here is that this underperforms a bit with USD $18 million.

“All Eyez On Me” (Lionsgate)—Portraying the life of rapper, actor, poet and activist Tupac Shukur, “All Eyez On Me” features a compelling performance from Demitrius Shipp, Jr in the title role of one of the most influencial figures of the past thirty years.

The Verdict:  This will be one of the most successful urban films of the year but the question is crossover. Lionsgate’s marketing  department has been spot-on so far in 2017 and Tupac’s fame crosses racial and cultural boundaries. The thought here is, unlike “Rough Night”,  this overperforms at USD $22 million.

“47 Meters Down” (Entertainment Studios)—Mandy Moore and Matthew Modine star in this thriller about two sisters trapped in a shark tank while scuba diving on vacation. Those two leads might have meant something in the 80’s or 90’s but last time I checked it’s 2017 and “Vision Quest” was some time ago. All that’s missing from this are Lacey Chabert and the guys from Right Said Fred.

The Verdict: Need this week’s Fun Fact to Know and Tell? This film has 23 producers and executive producers. USD $2 million.

ALSO OPENING

• Focus releases the Naomi Watts drama, “The Book of Henry”.
• Abramorama adds to its collection of movies with the longest titles in recorded history with “Hare Krishna! The Mantra, The Movement and the Swami Who Started It All”.