The critically acclaimed superhero film debuted in first place June 2 before it was fleetingly replaced by new installments from the “Transformers” and “Justice League” franchises.
In yet another triumph for animation — the medium has dominated the theatrical marketplace this year — Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental” nabbed second place with $18.5 million, sustaining only a 38% drop in its sophomore outing despite a disappointing domestic opening last weekend. That number brings the family film’s North American total to $65.5 million.
Locked in a tight race for third and fourth place were Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” and Sony Pictures’ “No Hard Feelings.” The former barely clinched the bronze, grossing $15.3 million in its second weekend for a North American total of $87.6 million; while the latter opened to $15.1 million in the United States and Canada.
The doomed DC film starring Ezra Miller disappointed for the second week in a row after analysts predicted it would stay at No. 1; while Sony’s Rated-R comedy starring Jennifer Lawrence exceeded early box office projections in the $12-million range.
Directed by Gene Stupnitsky, “No Hard Feelings” tells the raunchy story of a down-on-her-luck Long Island woman (Lawrence) who agrees to date a sheltered 19-year-old (Andrew Barth Feldman) in exchange for a car she desperately needs. The summer rom-com also features Matthew Broderick, Laura Benanti and Natalie Morales in key roles.
Billed as Lawrence’s highly anticipated return to the big screen (since 2019, she had only appeared in Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up” and Apple TV+’s “Causeway”), “No Hard Feelings” scored a decent 68% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“What makes ‘No Hard Feelings’ so sharp and funny … isn’t the raunchy jokes or the physical comedy (though the sight of Lawrence bouncing Feldman on her knee might be the funniest image onscreen this summer),” wrote film critic Katie Walsh for the Tribune News Service, “it’s the savagery of the generational social commentary underpinning the script by Stupnitsky and John Phillips, and no generation is safe.”
Opening in wide release next weekend are Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and DreamWorks’ ”Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” and an expansion for Zeitgeist Films’ “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy.”