Weekend Box Office: ‘Ambulance’ Disappoints As ‘Everything Everywhere’ Nabs Gold Open

Universal's Ambulance stumbled out of the gate in the new release weekend box office news that isn't about Sonic the Hedgehog. Despite decent reviews and people claiming they want more star-driven, adult-skewing, non-franchise theatrical options, this Jake Gyllenhaal/Yahya Abdul-Mateen II/ Eiza Gonzalez thriller opened with $8.7 million. That is the lowest opening ever for a Michael Bay film, below the $12 million launch of The Island in 2005. This one is going to need a miracle to justify itself, even with a $40 million budget.

The audience that once showed up for this kind of movie now stays home and waits for streaming, a circumstance worsened in Covid times. On paper, this one had four of the five elements. It had a marquee director, an all-star cast, and solid reviews. Since Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys II, Bay has not been an action movie draw outside of Transformers. The Island bombed back in the good old days and 13 Hours stumbled.

Tony Scott was able to benefit from a third-act critical reevaluation as he was able to keep the adult-skewing actioner alive amid a slew of PG-13 fantasy franchise flicks. The cast is known but not a lot of people know that, and the bracing trailer almost did too good of a job in promising a relentless thrill ride. A plausible situational explanation is that Ambulance didn't look very fun.

The core premise almost assures audiences that it won't be an entirely happy ending for the sympathetic protagonists, as noted yesterday. I was reminded of Widows, a terrific underperformer whose trailers were so intense that they implied a bad time at the movies. The only hope for movies of this nature on the theatrical level is if Ambulance becomes incredibly popular on Peacock.

The $25 million multiverse fantasy Everything Everywhere All At Once was expanded by A 24 to 1,250 theaters. The comedy actioner earned $6.059 million over the weekend and earned over $2 million on Friday. The film has been in limited release for the last two frames in order to build buzz and coverage before its nationwide expansion.

The per-theater average isn't a record-breaker. The Green Knight had a production budget of over $6 million and was released in 2,790 theaters last summer. This one has made $8.44 million in 17 days. It will end with a more-than-good-enough $21 million domestic if it plays like that gem from here on out. That isn't a huge rate of return, but A 24 sold off their overseas distribution rights in late 2021.

It's too early to play Oscar prognosticator, but A 24 has a buzzy gem in its back pocket for the year. I would spend the money for that nomination. It was encouraging that it didn't drop dead on wide release and that it offered at least some optimistic notions of A) A 24 having something resembling a fanbase, B) Asian moviegoers answering the call and C) moviegoers of all demographic voting with their pocketbooks. It could nosedive next weekend, but I choose optimism.