Friday Box Office: 'Good Boys' Impresses with $8.3 Million Launch - Collider.com

In a bit of a surprising development, the R-rated comedy Good Boys is performing well above expectations at the box office, pulling in an impressive $8.3 million on Friday. Projections have the Universal Pictures film topping over $20 million for the weekend, which is well above the $11 million to $12 million range most expected. That’s much higher than the $6 million opening for the critically acclaimed Booksmart, $8 million for the Dave Bautista–Kumail Nanjiani comedy Stuber, and even higher than the $15 million opening for Little earlier this year. 2019 has been plagued with underperforming comedies, but it appears that Universal has a genuine breakout with Good Boys.

The extremely R-rated film boasts Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as producers, with The Office alums Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky in the director’s chair and an ensemble of pre-teen boys led by Jacob Tremblay. The trailers were funny, the marketing was solid, but as we’ve seen time and again this year that that doesn’t necessarily guarantee people will show up. So for whatever reason, something about Good Boys (and perhaps the lackluster offerings in August) sparked folks to turn out for Good Boys.

Image via Universal Pictures

Elsewhere for new releases, however, the news is dismal. The Angry Birds Movie 2 pulled in just $2.7 million on Friday and is projected to earn just $8 million for the weekend. Despite far better reviews this time around, that’s bad news for the animated sequel. The indie shark sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged pulled in $3.1 million on Friday and is heading for a weekend debut near $7 million.

New Line’s terrific feel-good film Blinded by the Light—which debuted to positive reviews at Sundance earlier this year—pulled in just $1.3 million on Friday and is heading for a weekend total near $4 million. Ditto to Richard Linklater’s long-delayed Where’d You Go Bernadette, which pulled in just $1.2 million on Friday after receiving mostly negative or mixed reviews. I can’t speak for Bernadette, but I wholeheartedly recommend seeing Blinded by the Light in the theater. It’s pretty much guaranteed to make your day better.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark added $3 million on Friday, and hopefully audiences find this one as the Guillermo del Toro-produced adaptation is a delightful fright fest and future Halloween classic.

Look for full weekend estimates tomorrow. For now, check out the Friday box office estimates below.

Rank	Title	Friday	Domestic Total
1.	Good Boys	$8,310,000	$8,310,000
2.	Hobbs & Shaw	$3,810,000	$123,411,600
3.	The Lion King	$3,200,000	$487,407,985
4.	47 Meters Down: Uncaged	$3,150,000	$3,150,000
5.	Scary Stories	$3,000,000	$33,166,784