Like Tom & Jerry, Mortal Kombat and Spiral, Cruella is a qualified “win” for theaters by performing about as well as it would have had it disappointed in conventional times.
A Quiet Place part II was the top movie at the domestic box office, but it wasn’t the only big opener on Memorial Day weekend. Walt Disney’s Cruella opened nationwide. The somewhat well-reviewed flick stars Emma Stone as a young Cruella de Vil and Emma Thompson as her fashion mentor and eventual rival. The $100 million flick (most of which is absolutely on the screen) earned $21.3 million over the Fri-Sun frame and $26.5 million over the Fri-Mon holiday weekend. Is that good? No, but A) it’s concurrently available on Disney+ for $30 and B) Disney plans on a leggy run ( Raya and the Last Dragon has earned nearly 6x its $8.7 million debut for a $51 million cume) and C) Cruella may not have broken out even in non-Covid times. Like Tom & Jerry, Mortal Kombat and Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Cruella is a qualified “win” for theaters by performing about as well as it would have had it disappointed in conventional times. Say it with me now, “successful disappointment.” Presuming Cruella plays like a normal Memorial Day opener, we’re looking at a multiplier between 2x (think X-Men: Days of Future Past, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and X-Men: Apocalypse) and 3x ( Aladdin) with 2.5x ( Men in Black III) as the “happy medium.” So, Cruella will likely earn between $52 million and $78 million domestic (the latter on par with Alice Through the Looking Glass in 2016). Even in non-Covid times, the campy melodrama, with an emphasis on fashion and music over action and romance, was never going to play like Aladdin or even Maleficent or Cinderella.
