‘The First Purge’ Enters the Weekend at Fourth Place But Enjoys a Strong Holiday Week

This was an insane week for entering the box office fray.  With the Fourth of July landing on Wednesday a few movies tried to soak in the the benefit of having a nice long holiday week.  Then we had an absolutely bonkers heatwave this weekend which would’ve certainly driven people to the comfort of an air conditioned theater.  On top of those factors you have two Disney titans battling for the top spot.  So a lot of varying factors that could either lead to a movie having a comfortable weekend or being utterly destroyed.

The big horror entry this week was “The First Purge”, the prequel entry into the “Purge” series that reveals how the very first night of the purge went down.  This is the fourth entry in the series so at this point it would be no surprise if sequel fatigue started to set in.  The film debuted on the Fourth of July so it enjoyed a nice holiday run, but it didn’t stand a chance of surviving this weekend. Premiering this weekend was “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the first Marvel film since “Infinity War” so there was probably a lot of general interest surrounding it.  It of course dominated the weekend pulling in $76 million.  However, if you couldn’t get in to see Ant-Man you probably went and saw either “The Incredibles 2” or “Jurassic World” which came in at second and third place respectively.

Finally, coming in at fourth place, was “The First Purge” earning $17 million.  However, since the film debuted on the Fourth of July it has earned a grand total of $31 million thus far.  So, even though it didn’t put up insane numbers, it still performed on par with the rest of the “Purge” films and considering the stiff competition it faced it did incredibly well. If you go back and look at what films the “Purge” movies have previously debuted against you’d see such hot hits as “The BFG”, “The Internship”, and “Planes: Fire and Rescue.”  No “Purge” movie has gone up against a big summer blockbuster like “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”  So the fact that it not only survived sequel fatigue and still put up its average numbers against harder competition is impressive for the franchise.

And “The First Purge” isn’t the only horror film still chugging along.  This “Hereditary” pulled in another million dollars bringing its grand total to nearly $42 million.

So what did you see this weekend? Let us know down below.

Source: Box Office Mojo