Weekend projections: Ghostbusters hits big with $45.2-million opening

March 24, 2024

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is scaring up a very solid $45.2 million at the box office this weekend, according to Sony’s Sunday-morning projection. That’s a shade better than the $44 million earned by Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021, and, among the five films in the franchise, behind only 2016’s Ghostbusters in terms of opening weekend, when not adjusting for inflation. Also posting strong numbers this weekend are the horror movies Immaculate and Late Night with the Devil.

Here’s how the weekend numbers look as of Sunday morning (click on the image for the full chart of films reporting so far)…



For the record, the original Ghostbusters opened with $43.7 million when adjusting for ticket price inflation, and Ghostbusters II holds the franchise record with the equivalent of $79.6 million on its opening weekend in 1989. In fact Frozen Empire is technically the second-worst-performing of the films in the franchise in inflation-adjusted terms.

That’s a minor worry when the fifth installment in a franchise like this is still bringing in over $40 million on debut. That opening is virtually indistinguishable from the previous two installments on our franchise comparison chart, and points towards a domestic total of around $125 million–$130 million.

Internationally, Frozen Empire is starting out with $16.4 million from 25 markets this weekend, led by the UK with $5.3 million, Mexico with $2.7 million, Australia’s $2.0m, Germany’s $1.7m, and $1.3 million from Spain. It also had an excellent debut in Indonesia with about $600,000. All told, the studio reports that Frozen Empire is tracking about 15% ahead of Afterlife in the same markets at current exchange rates. This weekend’s performance is enough to take the franchise past $1 billion at the global box office.

Kung Fu Panda 4 dipped somewhat sharply in North America this weekend, but is having a good opening in China, with Universal expecting $25.7 million there. Its international weekend will be around $55.264 million for a total of $134.9 million, just a shade ahead of its current domestic total.

Likewise, Dune: Part Two is taking a dip domestically this weekend, but continues to hold well internationally. It will bring in another $30.7 million internationally this weekend for a total of $341 million overseas, and a global running total of $574.4 million. Its biggest markets are China, with $43.9 million; United Kingdom, $38.8 million; France, $31.8 million; Germany, $29.3m; Australia, $17.9m; and Korea with $15.5 million.

The other good news coming out of this weekend is the openings of Immaculate and Last Night with the Devil. Both are beating our model’s predictions by a fair margin, and, with Imaginary also still in the top 10, horror movies are drumming $11 million at the box office this weekend.

- Studio weekend projections
- All-time top-grossing movies in North America
- All-time top-grossing movies worldwide

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Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Ghostbusters