Box Office: Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ Opens to $44 Million, ‘Masters of the Universe’ Suffers 71% Drop, ‘Obsession’ Keeps Shattering Expectations
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- Disclosure Day opened to $44M from 3,824 theaters, beating $35M estimates but falling short of the $50M rival studios argued it needed; the $115M-budget, $80M-marketing film needs roughly $300M globally to break even and has collected $92.9M worldwide so far
- Masters of the Universe plunged 71% to $8.6M in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to just $45.7M and worldwide to $70M against a nearly $200M budget, with the steep drop signaling it failed to expand beyond its core older-male fanbase
- Obsession, directed by YouTube creator Curry Barker, earned $19M in its fifth weekend (a 25% drop) and became Focus Features' highest-grossing release ever at $188.3M domestic and $265M global — four consecutive weekends larger than its $17M debut
- Backrooms, from YouTube phenom Kane Parsons, captured No. 4 with $12M in its third weekend, reaching $160M domestic and overtaking 'Marty Supreme' as A24's highest-grossing film of all time
- Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu took in just $4.7M from 2,680 venues in its fourth weekend, shaping up as a major theatrical dud with $165M domestic and $315M global against a $165M budget
- The domestic box office is 13.2% ahead of last year, with the summer season pacing just 3% behind pre-pandemic 2019, and 'Toy Story 5' next weekend is expected to launch above $100M
Why it matters: The weekend crystallizes a striking box-office inversion: two micro-budget horror films from YouTube creators have each surpassed $160M domestically, while a ~$200M 'Masters of the Universe' and a $165M 'Mandalorian and Grogu' limp toward write-downs. Studios are paying record sums for established IP while audiences reward first-time filmmakers with no IP at all.
