‘The Meg’ to Win Opening Weekend at the Box Office

The Meg will swim into the number one position at the box office in its opening weekend.

The Meg was projected to earn $20-22 million at the box office in its opening weekend, but will actually earn double that with $40 million from 4,118 locations. The film earned $16.5 million Friday alone.

The Meg stars Jason Statham in an underwater shark horror plot based on the 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The film has been in development for years but has not impressed critics, earning just a 50 percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The film also stars Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout drops down to second place after two weeks on top of the box office. The film will earn about $19 million from 3,888 locations in its third weekend. The film has earned $147 million domestic so far and $224 million overseas.

Christopher Robin, Disney’s live-action Winnie the Pooh film, will earn about $12 million from 3,602 locations for a third-place finish in its second weekend.

Sony’s horror movie Slender Man, based on the creepy internet meme character, will open in fourth place $11.8 million after earning $4.85 million on Friday from 2,358 locations.

Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman will open in fifth place with about $9.4 million from 1,512 locations. The film has seen strong critical reviews and has earned a 97 percent fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation will move into ninth place in its fifth weekend, earning $4.8 million and bringing its domestic box office total to $146.5 million.

In its sixth weekend at the box office, Marvel Studio’s latest film Ant-Man and the Wasp will round out the top 10. The film will earn another $3.9 million, bringing its domestic box office total to $203.3 million. The sequel has already surpassed the lifetime box office total of the original Ant-Man.

Keep reading to see how this weekend’s top 10 stacks up.

1. The Meg

Opening Weekend
Friday: $16.5 million
Weekend: $40 million

A massive creature attacks a deep-sea submersible, leaving it disabled and trapping the crew at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. With time running out, rescue diver Jonas Taylor must save the crew and the ocean itself from an unimaginable threat — a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark known as the Megalodon.

The Meg is directed by Jon Turteltaub from a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis.

2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Week Three
Friday: $5.3 million
Weekend: $18.9 million
Total: $160.8 million

Ethan Hunt and the IMF team join forces with CIA assassin August Walker to prevent a disaster of epic proportions. Arms dealer John Lark and a group of terrorists known as the Apostles plan to use three plutonium cores for a simultaneous nuclear attack on the Vatican, Jerusalem and Mecca, Saudi Arabia. When the weapons go missing, Ethan and his crew find themselves in a desperate race against time to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout stars Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett and Vanessa Kirby.

3. Christopher Robin

Week Three
Friday: $3.6 million
Weekend: $12.3 million
Total: $49.9

Christopher Robin — now a family man living in London — receives a surprise visit from his old childhood pal, Winnie-the-Pooh. With Christopher’s help, Pooh embarks on a journey to find his friends — Tigger, Eeyore, Owl, Piglet, Rabbit, Kanga and Roo. Once reunited, the lovable bear and the gang travel to the big city to help Christopher rediscover the joy of life.

Christopher Robin is a live-action film inspired by Disney’s Winnie the Pooh franchise. The film stars Ewan McGregor as the titular character alongside Hayley Atwell, as well as the voices of Jim Cummings and Brad Garrett.

4. Slender Man

Opening Weekend
Friday: $4.8 million
Weekend: $11.8 million

Small-town best friends Hallie, Chloe, Wren and Katie go online to try and conjure up the Slender Man — a tall, thin, horrifying figure whose face has no discernible features. Two weeks later, Katie mysteriously disappears during a class trip to a historic graveyard. Determined to find her, the girls soon suspect that the legend of the Slender Man may be all too real.

Slender Man is directed by Sylvain White and written by David Birke, based on the character created by Victor Surge. The film stars Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair and Annalise Basso, with Javier Botet.

5. BlacKkKlansman

Opening Weekend
Friday: $3.6 million
Weekend: $9.4 million

From visionary filmmaker Spike Lee comes the incredible true story of an American hero. It’s the early 1970s, and Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a name for himself, Stallworth bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. The young detective soon recruits a more seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), into the undercover investigation of a lifetime. Together, they team up to take down the extremist hate group as the organization aims to sanitize its violent rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream. Produced by the team behind the Academy-Award winning Get Out.

6. The Spy Who Dumped Me

Week Two
Friday: $1.86 million
Weekend: $5.8 million
Total: $23.7 million

The Spy Who Dumped Me tells the story of Audrey (Kunis) and Morgan (McKinnon), two best friends who unwittingly become entangled in an international conspiracy when one of the women discovers the boyfriend who dumped her was actually a spy.

The Spy Who Dumped Me is an action-comedy directed by Susanna Fogel and co-written by Fogel and David Iserson. The film stars Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, and Sam Heughan.

7. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Week Four
Friday: $1.7 million
Weekend: $5.4 million
Total: $103.4 million

In 1979 young Donna, Tanya and Rosie graduate from Oxford University — leaving Donna free to embark on a series of adventures throughout Europe. On her journeys, she makes the acquaintances of Harry, Bill and Sam — the latter whom she falls in love with, but he’s also the man who breaks her heart. In the present day, Donna’s pregnant daughter, Sophie, dreams of renovating a taverna while reuniting with her mother’s old friends and boyfriends on the Greek island of Kalokairi.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again stars Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, Andy García, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Cher, and Meryl Streep.

8. The Equalizer 2

Week Four
Friday: $1.4 million
Weekend: $5.1 million
Total: $89.2 million

If you have a problem and there is nowhere else to turn, the mysterious and elusive Robert McCall will deliver the vigilante justice you seek. This time, however, McCall’s past cuts especially close to home when thugs kill Susan Plummer — his best friend and former colleague. Now out for revenge, McCall must take on a crew of highly trained assassins who’ll stop at nothing to destroy him.

The Equalizer 2 is directed by Antoine Fuqua and is a sequel to 2014’s The Equalizer, which was based on the TV series of the same name. The film stars Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Melissa Leo, and Bill Pullman.

9. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Week Five
Friday: $1.4 million
Weekend: $4.8 million
Total: $146.5 million

In Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, join our favorite monster family as they embark on a vacation on a luxury monster cruise ship so Drac can take a summer vacation from providing everyone else’s vacation at the hotel. It’s smooth sailing for Drac’s Pack as the monsters indulge in all of the shipboard fun the cruise has to offer, from monster volleyball to exotic excursions, and catching up on their moon tans. But the dream vacation turns into a nightmare when Mavis realizes Drac has fallen for the mysterious captain of the ship, Ericka, who hides a dangerous secret that could destroy all of monsterkind.

10. Ant-Man and the Wasp

Week Six
Friday: $1.1 million
Weekend: $3.9 million
Total: $203.3 million

Scott Lang is grappling with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. Approached by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym, Lang must once again don the Ant-Man suit and fight alongside the Wasp. The urgent mission soon leads to secret revelations from the past as the dynamic duo finds itself in an epic battle against a powerful new enemy.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is directed by Peyton Reed and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and Paul Rudd, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari. The film stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip “T.I.” Harris, David Dastmalchian, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Fortson, Randall Park, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Douglas.