Box office: R-rated sports drama, PG-rated faith-based music biopic lead a soft pre-summer weekend

Challengers and Unsung Hero were the top two films in North America despite making only $15 million and $7.8 million, respectively.

For King & Country’s Joel Smallbone (centre) plays his dad, David Smallbone, in Unsung Hero.

The last weekend of the pre-summer season was a quiet one at the box office.

The top two films were an R-rated sports drama and a PG-rated “faith-based” biopic, both of which did well enough for films of their type in the current movie climate but wouldn’t have been anything to write home about in pre-Covid times:

• Challengers, starring Zendaya as a tennis player in a love triangle, topped the chart with an estimated $15 million. That’s one of the better openings for an R-rated drama this decade, and it’s also the best opening for a Zendaya film that isn’t animated or part of a franchise… but that’s partly because she’s been in almost nothing but franchise or animated films outside of her TV work.

• Meanwhile, Unsung Hero—which stars For King & Country’s Joel Smallbone as his own dad, an Australian concert promoter who moved his family to America and struggled for a while until the kids, including Joel’s sister Rebecca St. James, started to become Christian music stars—grossed an estimated $7.8 million. That’s the third-best opening of any “faith-based” film since the pandemic (behind Jesus Revolution and The Chosen’s Season 3 premiere), but it’s also behind the pre-Covid openings for “faith-based” biopics like I Can Only Imagine and I Still Believe (the latter of which came out mere days before the lockdowns began).

One notable difference between the two films: Challengers reportedly cost $55 million to make, whereas Unsung Hero cost only $6 million, or barely more than a tenth of the Zendaya film. So the “faith-based” film would seem to have a much quicker path to profitability. And who knows, it may sell some soundtracks, too.

Meanwhile, some key milestones were reached this week:

• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Kung Fu Panda 4 both crossed the $500 million mark worldwide.

  • Kung Fu Panda 4 is also now the 10th-highest-grossing film (co-)directed by a woman in North America, and the Kung Fu Panda films are now the 2nd-biggest DreamWorks franchise worldwide behind the Shrek movies.

• Dune: Part Two crossed the $700 million mark worldwide.

This was also a week for anniversary re-releases:

• Ridley Scott’s Alien, which got a 45th-anniversary re-release this week, just might crack the Top 10 once the final figures are in.

• The Mummy also made an extra million bucks just ahead of its 25th anniversary.

• And Shrek 2 spent a third week in theatres for its 20th anniversary.

And now, a few more stats and facts re: this week’s top ten, title by title: