Horror flick A Quiet Place Part II and Disney’s live action origin story Cruella have joined forces this Memorial Day weekend for the best domestic haul at the box office since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The Hollywood Reporter projects that John Krasinski‘s aurally-sensitive suspense sequel will bring in $58.5 million. While that represents a four day gross, the first A Quiet Place actually brought in a little bit less ($50.8 million) during its April 2018 debut, and maintained strong numbers in the ensuring weeks.
Cruella, which is also available to stream on Disney + for a $30 premium, is projected to come in at $26.5 million.
Both films are rated PG-13, and received high marks from Cinemascore, which polls exiting ticket buyers. (AQPP2 got an A- and Cruella landed an A.) Critics were by-and-large positive on both movies, though differed from Cinemascore respondents. Cruella currently has a 73 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and A Quiet Place Part II boasts a 91 percent. (At Metacritic things are more restrained, with a 60 for Cruella and a 71 for A Quiet Place Part II.)
THR projects that, with ticket sales for other films thrown in the mix, the Memorial Day weekend’s domestic box office will cross the psychologically important $100 million threshold. “This is a giant leap forward from where the industry has been throughout the past year, and a table-setting weekend for what sustained recovery will look like throughout summer and beyond,” said industry analyst Shawn Robbins.
Memorial Day weekend in 2019 saw a different live action Disney film, Aladdin, fly its magic carpet to a $112.7 million dollar opening. This was followed by John Wick: Chapter 3 bringing in $31 million in its second week, and Avengers: Endgame, then in its fifth week, collecting another $20.3 million on its climb to the all-time top spot (only to slip just a tiny bit below Avatar during a recent re-release of James Cameron‘s blue movie.)
Theaters are still reducing the amount of seats sold in auditoriums, and encouraging other social distancing measures. However, the biggest chains, like AMC, Regal, and Cinemark, recently announced that they will no longer require mask-wearing from those who say that they have been vaccinated.
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