‘The Monkey’ Seeing & Doing $12M-$14M, 2nd Best Debut Ever For Neon; ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Leading With Mid-To-High $20Ms – Box Office

FRIDAY PM: Neon‘s The Monkey is headed to the Oscar winning indie distributor’s second highest opening of all-time between $12M-$14M after what’s shaping up to be a Friday that’s north of $ 5M at 3,200 theaters. That’s good enough for second place. Of course these R-rated horror movies find their business in the latter hours of the night.

With a social media universe of 154.5M across TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook and Instagram before opening, The Monkey‘s online reach is pacing 16% above horror genre norms per RelishMix “in a sea of NEON Aor materials, in that race for Oscar”.

Overall positive word of mouth says RelishMix with “horror fans flocking around the latest from writer/director Oz Perkins. After Neon’s success with his last horror film Longlegsfans are sharing their enthusiasm for their next cinematic pairing, exclaiming ‘Oz Perkins loves to scare us… I’m so ready for this after Longlegs,’ and, ‘Neon are really stepping it up these past few years.’ plus, ‘Oz has truly crafted his own style and brand of horror.’ Many are seeing comparisons in other horror hits, sharing, ‘this movie is essentially Final Destination meets Stephen King,’ and, ‘This looks like it’s gonna out-Final Destination Final Destination.’

The trailer, which scored record traffic for an indie horror movie, stoked great excitement, as fans loved Elijah Wood cameos, and were sold on the image of the lady running with the stroller on fire.

Disney/Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World at 4,105 is seeing a second Friday of $7.5M for a take in the mid to high $20Ms. Among Disney MCU movies, The Marvels owns the worst second weekend drop at -78% off a B CinemaScore. Brave New World was B-. At $29M, that’s a -67% decline. Running ten-day total by EOD Sunday at the high end resides at $142M.

Third goes to StudioCanal/Sony’s Paddington in Peru with a second Friday of $ 1.4m3-day around $ 6m-53%, for a running cume of $ 24.7m by Sunday

Fourth is DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s Dog Man at 3,179 sites with a fourth Friday of $1.2M, 3-day of $ 5.2M (-47%) and running total by Sunday of $ 78m. The pic hit digital on Tuesday.

Fifth is China’s animated sequel Ne zha 2 at 800 sites with a second Friday of $ 850k, 3-day of $ 3M-60% and 10-day of $14.8M.

Lionsgate’s faith-based Unbreakable Boy at 1,687 sites is seeing $ 850k Friday, $ 2.2M 3-day.

FRIDAY AM: There have been a lot of horror films in the last month and a half, but Neon’s The Monkey is on its way to posting the best opening for a horror movie YTD with $12M-$14M this weekend after $ 1.9m previews. That number for the Oz Perkins-directed movie includes advance screenings.

For Neon, which shot to box office heights with Perkins’ pic last summer, Longlegs, with $3M previews and a $22.4M opening, The Monkey‘s previews are the second best for the distributor. The Monkey‘s previews in total are higher than the $1.7M clocked by New Line’s critically acclaimed and audience fave Companionwhich settled for a $9.3M opening.

Quorum says this AM that The Monkey climbed to higher awareness than Longlegs before opening on what was a traditional campaign (read, Neon hid the killer in its Longlegs promos in a clever YouTube short clip stunts, whole the Monkey is natch everywhere to be found in its push for the Perkins film, from one sheets to eight-foot size chimps in multiplex lobbies), however, “interest is seven points lower for The Monkeywhich points to a mid-teen opening.” The 18-34 bunch showed up at 63% per Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak starting at 7PM last night when previews began. P&A spend for The Monkey was around $10M, the same as Longlegs. RT audience score on The Monkey is 73% to a solid critical score of 80% certified fresh.

More excitement for Neon this weekend beyond box office: Their Cannes Film Festival-winning movie Aor is also up for Best Feature at the Film Independent Spirit awards tomorrow and Best SAG ensemble on Sunday. Should that Sean Baker movie score those top prizes, it’s just more momentum after DGA and PGA wins toward Oscar’s Best Picture….

Among regular ranked movies, Disney/Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World led Thursday with an estimated $ 3.2M-5% from Wednesday, ending its first week with $113M at 4,105 theaters. The Anthony Mackie movie is expected to lead the box office again in its second frame with a $30M+ take.

Lionsgate has the Kingdom Story movie The Unbreakable Boy which is 43% with critics and a mid-1000 theater break. It’s expected to file in the single digits.

Sony/StudioCanal’s Paddington in Peru did $737K yesterday at 3,890, -2%, for a first week of $18.7M.

Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Dog Man is third for the week with $15.8M at 3,335 locations, after $668K yesterday and a running cume through week 3 of $72.8M.

Fourth for the week belongs to Screen Gems/Spyglass’ Heart Eyes with $12.3M second week at 3,102 theaters, $388K estimated yesterday and running total of $23.9M.

CMC Chinese billion-plus global grossing animated sequel Ne zha 2 ends its first week with $11.8M at 660 locations after a $592K Thursday.