Director Sam Raimi’s :Send Help” opened with $20 million this weekend to lead all films in North America, eking out a close victory over “Iron Lung” in an interesting battle between old and new Hollywood, according to industry estimates released today.
“Send Help” is a traditional, star-driven thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, while “Iron Lung” is based on a 2022 video game and is directed by YouTube personality Mark Fischbach in his feature directorial debut.
“Iron Lung” opened with $17.8 million, Comscore reported.
The No. 3 spot went to “Melania,” director Brett Ratner’s documentary about first lady Melania Trump. Its $7 million total was the best opening weekend for a documentary in years, and surpassed expectations for the
Amazon MGM release, which has received considerable ridicule in media outlets hostile to President Donald Trump and bears the added baggage of Ratner’s 2017 sexual assault allegations, which he denies.
“Zootopia 2” continued its impressive run, making $5.8 million in its 10th weekend in theaters for a cumulative domestic total of $408 million.
Jason Statham’s action thriller “Shelter” opened in fifth place with $5.505 million.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” was sixth with $5.5 million Friday through Sunday in its seventh week.
Rounding out the top 10 releases were “Mercy” ($4.7 million), “The Housemaid” ($3.5 million), “Marty Supreme” ($2.9 million) and “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” ($1.6 million).
This weekend’s overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $82.2 million. The year-to-date total is $660.6 million — up 12% from the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.