It was a quiet weekend in North American cinemas, dominated again from Sony's “The Garfield Movie,” Warner Bros.' ” Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ” and numerous leftovers. Flipping the script from their openings on Memorial WeekendThe animated orange cat sneaked in front of the wasteland warrior in his second appearance.

” The Garfield Movie “” grossed $14 million in ticket sales, while “Furiosa” tied for third place in a neck-and-neck race with “IF,” in line with studio estimates Sunday. Both “IF” and “Furiosa” have grossed an estimated $10.8 million, with “IF” narrowly ahead.

“Garfield” lost just 42% in its second weekend in North America. It also topped the box office worldwide, earning $27 million in international territories, bringing its worldwide total to $152.2 million. The animated film, voiced by Chris Pratt, will essentially hold the market to itself until “Inside Out 2” hits theaters on June 14.

“Furiosa,” however, lost 59% from its first weekend and grossed slightly below $10.8 million from 3,864 locations within the U.S. and Canada. This brings the overall domestic revenue to $49.7 million and worldwide revenue to $114.4 million, against a production budget of $168 million.

This weekend, several latest releases were shown in over 1,000 theaters: Sony/Crunchyroll's anime “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” IFC's horror film “In a Violent Nature,” Roadside Attractions' comedy “Summer Camp” starring Diane Keaton, Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates, and Bleecker Street's father-son drama “Ezra.” None of the movies made the highest five, nonetheless.

Disney also released the well-reviewed “ Young woman and the sea”, with Daisy Ridley as the primary woman to swim the English Channel, but no information on ticket sales. Likewise, Richard Linklater’s “ HitMan “” is currently playing in select theaters across the country before becoming available on streaming next week, but Netflix is ​​not releasing box office numbers.

Second place went to Paramount’s “ IF”, with $10.8 million in its third weekend. John Krasinski's fantasy about imaginary friends starring Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming has now grossed over $80.4 million domestically and $138 million worldwide. Disney/twentieth Century Studios' ” Planet of the Apes: Kingdom ” landed at number four in its fourth weekend with $8.8 million. It has now grossed $140 million domestically and $337.1 million worldwide.

And the action comedy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt” The Colt for all occasions, “,” currently on sale domestically, rounded out the highest five with $4.2 million for a domestic total of $80.3 million. Worldwide, the Universal release has grossed $157.9 million.

“Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” based on the Japanese highschool volleyball series, grossed an estimated $3.5 million from 1,119 theaters. Slasher “In a Violent Nature” opened with $2.2 million from 1,426 theaters (an enormous hit for IFC Films and Shudder). And “Ezra,” a couple of humorist (Bobby Cannavale) and his autistic son, grossed $1.2 million from 1,320 theaters.

According to data from Comscore, the 2024 box office is weak each in comparison with last yr (down 23.9%) and in comparison with pre-pandemic standards (down 42.2% from 2019 and 46.4% from 2018). Last yr, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opened to $120.7 million this weekend, while The Little Mermaid still grossed over $41.4 million in its second weekend. No film has grossed over $100 million domestically this yr.

Although “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” had not yet hit theaters presently last yr, there had already been several major hits, including “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.36 billion worldwide), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($845.5 million) and “Fast X” ($704.7 million).

“Given how this year has panned out, it should come as no surprise that we're so far behind,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “I understand why people are concerned about how this year will pan out, but it's never too late to get things back on track.”

“It's a dynamic business,” he added. “Attention is now focused on which big movie will steer the summer in the right direction.”

The great summer film could are available in the shape of “Inside Out 2,” which early projections suggest could gross over $85 million, outpacing other huge hits like “Despicable Me 4” (July 3) and “Deadpool & Wolverine” (July 26).

Dergarabedian also noted that within the absence of a significant superhero movie, family-oriented movies have been gaining traction recently. They may not get the most important audience numbers, but as “IF” and “The Gafield Movie” have proven, they’ve endurance.

The highest-grossing film of this yr stays “ Dune – Part Two”, which Warner Bros. released in early March and grossed over $711 million worldwide. Its domestic revenue of $282.1 million represents 10.5% of the overall box office receipts for 2024.

The director of “Dune”, Denis Villeneuve, said on the weekend that he was “disappointed to still be number one”, while Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto where he received an award.

“I hope that there will soon be further successes at the box office,” Villeneuve said, as Yahoo reported“I hope that sooner rather than later this summer the box office will be much better.”

1. “Garfield: The Movie,” $14 million.
2. “IF,” $10.8 million.
3. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” $10.8 million.
4. “Planet of the Apes: Kingdom of the Apes,” $8.8 million.
5. “The Fall Guy,” $4.2 million.
6. “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” $3.6 million.
7. “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” $3.5 million.
8. “In a Violent Nature,” $2.1 million.
9. “Ezra,” $1.2 million.
10. “Sight,” $1.1 million.

BRENTWOOD – Doreen Pierce Forlow remembers the unmistakable smell of flicks from years passed by – the freshly made popcorn dripping with real butter, the chocolate candies and even the marginally chemical smell of the large film reels.

Forlow grew up within the Art Deco Delta Theater in downtown Brentwood, which her family bought in 1955 and owned and operated for nearly twenty years. She has seen all of the classics – “The Ten Commandments,” “Ben-Hur,” “Hercules” and lots of more – and is happy to reopen the nearly 100-year-old theater after a four-year closure.

“There's a huge difference between a 50-inch screen in your home and a screen in a movie theater — a huge difference,” said Forlow, now museum archivist on the East Contra Costa Historical Society. “When I see people watching movies on their phones, I say, 'Why don't you just watch it on a postage stamp?' The bigger the screen, the better for me.”

Forlow's wish will soon come true, as Sean McCauley and his partner Ron Harrison and their team are working feverishly to revive the 1937 theater at 641 First Street for a late May opening. Despite competition from other theaters, reminiscent of the 14-screen theater on the Streets of Brentwood mall several miles away, local developers imagine the restored, iconic two-screen theater will likely be a significant draw.

“We didn't really want to buy it, but the previous owners didn't want to put a lot of money into that particular building,” McCauley said of his 2019 purchase. “We knew it was the anchor of downtown Brentwood, and that's the only building that brings 1,000 people downtown every day on a weekend.”

But McCauley, who has bought and renovated about 10 downtown buildings alone and with Harrison, said renovating and reopening the theater made sense “to maintain the momentum” of the “thriving businesses there.”

With the arrival of chain stores and other retail stores, downtown Brentwood was “more of a ghost town” until it began transforming into “a more social neighborhood” in 2016, starting with the opening of upscale restaurants like Zephyr's Grill and Bar in a constructing he renovated, he says.

“The downtown area is now a social district, and we see a lot of downtown areas like Martinez and even San Francisco, Antioch and now Brentwood moving in that direction,” he said. “When I was a kid, this was more about retail.”

However, McCauley acknowledged that the timing proved difficult, because the COVID-19 pandemic broke out shortly after he purchased the theater, then called Cinelux Delta Cinema, which was forced to shut in 2020.

“We were hit by this perfect storm of evil,” he said. “We had to do a massive remodel, and because of COVID, the city locked down and the operator pulled out.”

McCauley said the pandemic modified moviegoing and the previous operator has since been “instrumental in getting us back open.” Despite this, McCauley and his partner decided to operate the brand new theater themselves, but hired someone to administer day-to-day operations.

“Netflix, Prime Video and streaming have ruined cinema after COVID,” he said. “The film industry is very different than it is today. The cinema business is definitely not what it used to be.”

However, McCauley is optimistic that things will likely be different in Brentwood, as he has received quite a lot of support from residents thus far.

“The difference is we try to keep our prices low. There's all the charm of Brentwood and the old town charm of this particular theater,” McCauley said. “We've had really insane support from the residents of Brentwood.”

Ticket prices would range from $8 to $12, depending on seating and whether there are student or senior discounts, and Tuesday will even be reserved for bargain-priced movies, as prior to now, he said.

As for the renovations, McCauley said he tried to preserve “the old-fashioned feel of this special cinema,” although they installed a wide range of recent, high-quality vinyl reclining seats in addition to non-reclining seats, romantic duet seats for couples, recent screens, a state-of-the-art digital sound system and brand recent digital equipment. They even took over the space of an adjoining former candy store so as to add “beautiful, new, modern bathrooms,” he said.

“We did a lot of research into what it was like, but then we incorporated the really cool amenities that we have in theaters today,” McCauley said of the venue, which now seats 200.

Perhaps the pièce de résistance, nevertheless, is the foyer renovation, which restored the open-air design and restored the cover and green “Delta” plaque to their 1937 glory with neon pink lights. That work alone cost greater than $100,000 and required the detailed work of various contractors, the owner said.

“Our biggest concern was what it looked like when we were kids when I came here in 1970,” McCauley said. “I just wanted it to look more like the way it was originally built, so we removed the front door area that they put in in the '90s and opened it back up to make it look more original.”

Josh Caudle, who oversees the theater's day-to-day operations, said he was impressed by McCauley's dedication to restoring the Art Deco theater to its original Nineteen Thirties look.

“If we had done it differently (with an enclosed foyer), I would have had more space in the foyer; I could have made more money per square foot,” Caudle said, noting that McCauley was more excited by an authentic restoration. “I love that that was the first thing he prioritized.”

“In terms of the overall experience, there will be some nice aesthetic touches that you don’t see anywhere else,” Caudle said.

In addition, gold curtains have been installed on the theater's stage, which will even be available for fundraisers, comedy shows, theater events and lectures by local film stars, he said.

“Well, just try a lot of different things,” Caudle said. “Basically, it's not just movies anymore.”

In the early days, that was the case, too, Forlow said. Her mother, Rose Pierce, a Spanish speaker, made sure to supply Mexican movies and entertainment. She remembers mariachi groups and other Mexican entertainers performing within the Delta, including the wildly popular movie star Cantinflas and the exotic dancer Tongolele (Yolanda Montes).

“We had a lot of farm workers back then and we provided entertainment for them,” she said.

In the Nineteen Fifties, the Great Toussaint, a master hypnotist and magician, performed there. Forlow claimed that her father needed to call him back from Stockton after a show when, at the tip of the night, he found a girl still hypnotized behind the dark theater.

Although no magic or hypnosis shows are planned for the brand new Delta Theater, theatergoers might feel like they’re stepping back in time as they watch among the decades-old cartoons Caudle has planned, including the unique Superman series, before the flicks and through Saturday's farmers market.

And then there's the food, which could have a contemporary twist, with dishes like homemade pizza, panini sandwiches, pretzels and at the very least a handful of gourmet items on the menu, McCauley said. Anthony Roost of Attraversiamo, a farm-to-table restaurant in Brentwood, is designing the menu with locally sourced ingredients, he said. Wine and beer — all locally sourced — will even be served, he said.

Of course, there will likely be popcorn. Caudle said it would be made in a high-end popcorn machine with a pitcher that evenly coats the kernels with hot butter and can are available a wide range of flavors, including piping hot ghost pepper popcorn.

“We really didn’t skimp on anything there,” McCauley said of the $15,000 popcorn machine.