Steven Spielberg has proved he is still the king of the blockbuster as Disclosure Day dominated the U.S. box office during its $44 million opening weekend.
The legendary filmmaker, 79, earned his best-ever opening for an original film at the domestic box office this weekend. The sci-fi thriller earned $92.9 million total worldwide in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Factoring in his hit franchise movies — like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) and Jurassic Park (1993) — Disclosure Day comes in as his fifth best opening weekend ever.
It even managed to skip an expected slump in ticket sales during the NBA finals Saturday night, with Universal distribution chief Jim Orr saying that there was no noticeable dip in box officers numbers during the game.
More than 50 years after Spielberg’s reign as the father of the modern blockbuster began with the summer release of Jaws in 1975, Disclosure Day also marks his first summer movie in a decade, with critics hailing it his “best film in 20 years.”
The film, which cost $115 million to produce and an additional $80 million to market, stars Emily Blunt as a meteorologist who works with a cyber security expert (played by Josh O’Connor) to expose government secrets about extraterrestrial life. The movie also stars Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo and Wyatt Russell.
Critic Clarisse Loughrey described the film in her review for The Independent as “an exquisitely entertaining ride,” writing: “Yes, this is exquisitely woven, capital ‘E’ entertainment, that’s funny and unabashedly sentimental in all the ways we expect Spielberg to be, with a particular action sequence primed to steal the breath out of your lungs.”
Elsewhere at the box office, Disclosure Day’s closest competition was indie horror hit Obsession, which completed its fourth consecutive weekend of ticket sales growth, bringing in $19 million. Its first weekend was already considered impressive with $17 million.
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The low-budget horror by YouTube comedian Curry Barker has made $188.3 million domestically and brought in $265 million globally, making it the highest-grossing release of all time for distributor Focus Features.
After Obsession, the sixth installment of the Scary Movie franchise dropped in numbers and brought $14.5 million in its second weekend.
Then 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons’ horror debut Backrooms is in the box office’s fourth spot with $11.26 million, making it just $5 million away from beating out recent disappointment Star Wars: Mandalorian and Grogu at the domestic box office.
