LOS ANGELES, July 23 (Variety.com) -- "Dunkirk" and "Girls Trip" are opening above expectations at the domestic box office, while "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" looks like a huge flop.
But let's start with the good. Christopher Nolan's World War II film from Warner Bros. is flying past earlier projections to a $50.5 million opening weekend from 3,720 locations. $11.7 million of that total came from Imax screens alone — that's 23% of the total market share from 402 locations. That $50.5 million number is a good one considering it is expected to have a large multiple, and continue to play well through August. The movie's production budget was reportedly just under $100 million, although earlier reports speculated that it was much higher.
Critics have fallen in love with Nolan's depiction of the real-life Battle of Dunkirk. Their reviews have earned the movie a 92%, and chatter has already started about its award season potential. But audiences have responded as well, perhaps surprisingly, to what many have described as an atypical war movie. It holds an impressive A- CinemaScore.
"We're thrilled with the numbers, and we're thrilled with the partnership," said Imax Entertainment CEO Greg Foster. "The one-two punch of Chris' vision and the Imax experience has once again proven to be irresistible to moviegoers in theaters."
Meanwhile "Valerian," Luc Besson's big-budget adaptation of the French comic series from his own EuropaCorp, and distributed in the U.S. by STX Films, looks like a real clunker. The sci-fi epic should land in fifth this weekend with about $17 million from 3,553 locations.
In its second week, "War for the Planet of the Apes" should earn $20.4 million this weekend, landing it in third after a 64% drop. "Spider-Man: Homecoming" looks to land in fourth with $22 million domestically, a 50% decline from its second to third weekends in theaters.
To end on a positive note, "Wonder Woman" is officially the highest-grossed movie of the summer, as of this weekend, with over $389 million. That puts Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot's acclaimed film ahead of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2." The stat is exciting news for those who have hope for more female-led projects in the future.
"Dunkirk" and "Wonder Woman" this week pushed Warner Bros. past the $1 billion mark at the domestic box office for 2017 — the seventeenth consecutive year that the studio has done so.
