Disney is putting the pedal to the metal with its Cars franchise for a third time this weekend, as the Pixar series enters a crowded theatrical arena rife with strong holdovers and a handful of newcomers alike. Wonder Woman is still performing well above expectations (midweek numbers are holding strong between $6 million and $9 million after a slight 43 percent drop from week one to week two), but Cars 3 should still lay on the gas enough for a No.
1 finish. Check out EW’s June 16-18 box office predictions below.Let’s face it: Cars, while far from being on its last legs as a franchise, doesn’t carry the same box office girth as its Disney/Pixar brethren, and it lacks the glowing critical reviews of fellow Pixar releases like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Inside Out. With each of its iterations bowing in the summer, Cars is basically Pixar’s answer to the traditional seasonal spectacle, often landing a little lighter on the quality side, but consistently delivering easily digestible, harmless family-friendly entertainment.
What Cars does have on its side as it races into 4,256 theaters this Friday, however, is a lack of competition. The last major animated title to open wide in North America was Fox’s Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, which made a so-so $23.9 million at the start of June, but other than that, families are hungry for a hit aimed squarely at them, and by all accounts (reviews aren’t awful thus far), Cars 3 delivers.
Still, now 11 years after the first film sped to $244 million total in the U.S. and Canada, franchise fatigue is likely setting in on Cars and company. The third film’s forerunners didn’t exactly break box office records, either, finishing their respective release windows between $60 million and $66 million.
That puts Cars 3 on track to gross approximately $56-$60 million through Sunday.After dipping an unprecedented 43 percent after its record-breaking $103 million opening weekend at the top of the month, Wonder Woman is poised to charge onward, shedding as little ticket buyers as possible in the process. Superhero tentpoles tend to drop big across their sophomore outing (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice lost 69 percent of its first weekend audience, while Suicide Squad similarly saw 67 percent of moviegoers jumping ship in its second week) and level off for round three. With superb word of mouth fueling the film’s already impressive grosses ($453 million worldwide and counting), expect Wonder Woman to continue its light descent down the domestic chart to the tune of $30-$35 million in the days ahead.
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