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Why ‘Hotel Transylvania 3’ Will Probably Beat the Rock This Weekend

Audiences seem more interested in animated sequels than live-action heroics this summer.

by Jordan Obey
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Originally Published: 
Rock photo next to a photo from the ‘Hotel Transylvania 3’ film

In what looks like a trend of summer audiences preferring their blockbusters animated rather than live-action, early numbers are in showing that Hotel Transylvania 3 will leap over Skyscraper this weekend.

After last night’s preview shows, Sony Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 3 grossed $2.6 million and put the scare into Universal/ Legendary Entertainment’s miles high action movie Skyscraper which grossed $1.95 million.

According to industry estimates, the animated threequel will maintain its lead and gross somewhere between $38M and low $40Ms compared to the Dwyane ‘The Rock’ Johnson disaster movie collaboration with director Rawson Marshall Thurber, which is projected to earn $33M and $40M. If those numbers are accurate, it will be The Rock’s lowest opening since Baywatch.

This steps in tow with what happened last week between Incredibles 2 and Ant-Man and the Wasp. Though the Paul Rudd superhero movie opened at the top of the box office last weekend and moved Incredibles 2 down to second, it still hasn’t performed as well as the animated family hit. When Incredibles 2 came out, it decimated the box office with an opening of over $180M, which was well over Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp’s $75.8M opening.

Though Hotel Transylvania 3 shouldn’t expect to do as well as the highly anticipated Pixar sequel if last night was any indication, it can still expect to do well this weekend, even against a live-action adventure film. Considering Skyscraper stars the blockbuster juggernaut The Rock, who also starred in Moana which opened at $56.6M, that’s no small feat.

Both Skyscraper and Hotel Transylvania 3 open tonight.

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