The British didn’t win the battle of Dunkirk in 1940. But thanks in part to the ingenuity of some regular-but-heroic folks determined to help rescue Allied soldiers trapped on that French beach, most of them survived.
Dunkirk, the movie, meanwhile needed no rescuing whatsoever. The latest effort from acclaimed British director Christopher Nolan—perhaps best known for his much loved Dark Knight trilogy, as well as the ambitious films Interstellar and Inception—brought all of his storytelling prowess to bear on this project. Dunkirk sailed to an estimated $50.5 million at the domestic box office. Box Office Mojo notes that Nolan’s PG-13 war film was the first non-franchise movie to top the box office chart since March.
The raunchy female comedy Girls Trip hit the bullseye with its intended demographic to nab the No. 2 spot with a strong $30.4 million opening frame. Not surprisingly for a film with four black actresses (Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish), audiences were reportedly 79% female and 59% African American. Viewers apparently adored the film’s nonstop gaggle of graphic sex gags, giving the flick a rare A+ CinemaScore rating after seeing it.
Spider-Man: Homecoming, meanwhile, may have dropped another 50% during its third weekend in theaters, but it was still good for $22.0 million. And if you’re tempted to shed a tear for Peter Parker’s precipitous plunge from his first-week perch atop the cinematic pinnacle, well, don’t: In 17 days, Spidey’s webs have pulled in whopping $571.1 million total—another smash hit for Marvel and Disney, and one that’ll rope in a lot more than that before it’s all said and done.
Despite strong critical reviews, War for the Planet of the Apes was off a steep 64% in its second weekend in theaters, good enough for No. 4.
Rounding out the top five at the box office this week was French director Luc Besson’s personal passion project, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. This frenetic sci-fi explosion of action and color managed a meager $17.0 million—which would have been a great haul for a low-budget indie movie, but which likely dooms Valerian to a spot on the all-time epic bomb list given its galaxy-sized price tag.
The film, which is the most expensive ever from a French studio and the most expensive ever made outside of the United States, reportedly cost $205 million. Industry insiders have said it’ll need to nab $400 million just to break even. And while big-budget eye candy—and there’s a lot of it here, with a truly eye-popping 2,355 special effects—often does better in overseas markets, Valerian might just need theaters on another planet to help its director earn enough Euros to keep studio EuropaCorp in business.
In other box office news, Wonder Woman‘s modest $4.6 million take in its eighth weekend was good enough to propel Diana Prince’s pic past Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for the title of biggest film of the summer. (Beauty and the Beast remains No. 1 overall for 2017.) Wonder Woman has lassoed $389.0 million domestically and $727.4 total with international markets added in (and that’s without Japan, where the film will open August 25). The film’s sequel was announced at Comic-Con in San Diego over the weekend.
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