“Disclosure Day,” director Steven Spielberg’s return to the subject of extraterrestrial life, opened with $44 million this weekend to lead all films in North America, according to industry estimates released Sunday.
It was a good but not spectacular opening for the big-budget film, which stars Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor as a TV weather reporter and a cybersecurity expert who investigate the government’s cover-up of alien life.
Spielberg scored two of his biggest critical and commercial hits with similar subject matter early in his career — 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and 1982’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
“Obsession,” 26-year-old YouTube comedian Curry Barker’s phenomenally successful low-budget horror film, claimed second place with $19 million in its fifth weekend in theaters and has now generated over $188 million, Rentrak reported.
“Scary Movie” was third with $14.5 million Friday through Sunday, one week after opening in first place with about $55 million.
“Backrooms” was fourth with $11.2 million in its third week, followed by “Masters of the Universe,” which grossed $8.6 million in its second weekend.
Sixth place went to “Star Wars: Mandalorian & Grogu,” which took in $4.7 million in its fourth weekend and has grossed $165 million domestically so far — an impressive total for most films but significantly below expectations for an installment of the “Star Wars” franchise.
Rounding out the top 10 releases were “Michael” ($4.1 million), “The Furious” ($2.7 million), “STOP! THAT! TRAIN!” ($2 million) and “The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act” ($1.7 million).
This weekend’s overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $120 million. The year-to-date total is $4.166 billion — up 13% from the figure at this time last year, according to Rentrak.