And here we are! Can you believe it? We actually made it through 2017. In this month’s edition of Box Office Prediction, I will first be giving my overall 2018 opening weekend predictions (i.e. I will be sharing my prediction of the top ten opening weekends of this year), then I will be giving my predictions for Januar 2018, before finishing up this month’s post with a look back the Billion Dollar Club-members from 2017.
2018 Preview – Predicting the Top Ten Opening Weekends of 2018:
- Avengers: Infinity War — Disney — $195 million
- Solo: A Star Wars Story — Disney — $170 million
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom — Universal — $170 million
- Deadpool — Fox — $143 million
- Black Panther — Disney — $114 million
- The Incredibles 2 – Disney — $112 million
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — Warner Bros. — $84 million
- Ant-Man and the Wasp – Disney — $78 million
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix — Fox — $75 million
- Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 — Disney — $74 million
Solo: A Star Wars Story will become the first Star Wars film in the Disney era not to be the highest grossing film in North America in its release year, when it is all said and done. That’s one prediction that I’ve been thinking about lately. Disney will be fine, though, because Avengers is taking everything. How much? EVERYTHING! Jurassic World will probably also do really well, even though public opinion has started to worsen for the Pratt-led reboot. But I don’t see how it could top Avengers.
In other news, I think Black Panther is going to be a box office phenomenon, and I think the opening weekend will reflect that. The only first solo film in the MCU to have opened to more than $100 million is Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Black Panther should be joining that small club.
NORTH AMERICAN OPENING WEEKEND PREDICTIONS – January 2018:
- Insidious: The Last Key – Universal – January 5th, 2018 – $14 million
- The Commuter – Lionsgate – January 12th, 2018 – $16 million
- Maze Runner: The Death Cure – Fox – January 26th, 2018 – $18 million
Two sequels to franchises that seem to have run their course, or, at the very least, gotten out of the public eye. Or so it seems to me. Insidious used to be a pretty interesting horror franchise, to me, but Maze Runner never get ahold of me. I think I might’ve seen thirty minutes of the first one. I don’t see how either of them could get above $20m at the most.
The Commuter is another — yes, another — Liam Neeson action movie. I love Liam Neeson, but these are the types of roles I am growing tired of. Go back to your Oscar-baity flicks, please. Although Non-Stop did fairly well, A Walk Among the Tombstones didn’t, and I’m thinking this one will only fare a little bit better than Tombstones.
THE BILLION DOLLAR CLUB:
- Beauty and the Beast — Disney — $1,263 billion
- The Fate of the Furious — Universal — $1,235 billion
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Disney — $1,090 billion
- Despicable Me 3 — Universal — $1,033 billion
Box office totals as of January 3rd, 2018, according to Box Office Mojo.
And there you have it, folks! That is the 2017 billion dollar club! Now, we should keep in mind that Star Wars: The Last Jedi will probably keep rolling in a lot of money in the beginning of 2018, so it definitely should be able to get very close to both Beauty and the Beast and the Fate of the Furious.
Will it jump ahead of both of them? It is possible — it is a Star Wars movie after all — but some people aren’t head over heels in love with this movie like I, many esteemed critics, and some fans are. But this was a pretty good year for Disney and Universal, huh?
– Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen
I'm Jeffrey Rex 