Despite three new Hollywood releases making their way into theaters over the long Labor Day holiday weekend, Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" outshined them all at the box office. Indeed, the blockbuster classic was re-released by Universal Pictures as part of the studio's ongoing celebration of the movie's 50-year anniversary. As it turns out, people still really love this film, so much so that it was the number
two title overall this past weekend.
Overall, "Jaws" earned an estimated $9.8 million over the Friday to Monday holiday frame, including $8.1 million from Friday to Sunday. That was good enough for the number two spot on the charts behind "Weapons" ($12.4 million), which returned to number one after briefly surrendering the crown to Netflix's "KPop Demon Hunters" the prior weekend. However, none of the weekend's new releases were able to challenge Spielberg for the silver medal spot, which is both impressive and telling.
The weekend's newcomers included the Austin Butler-starring crime flick "Caught Stealing" ($9.5 million), Focus Features' star-studded dark rom-com "The Roses" ($8 million), and director Macon Blair's long awaited remake of "The Toxic Avenger" ($2.2 million). At various points in recent years, it's been easy to criticize Hollywood for not releasing enough movies and essentially starving theaters to death. But all three of these films arrived targeting very different audiences, delivering a reasonable amount of volume. It's just that none of them resonated enough to bring people out en masse.
Instead, folks were content to roll with the familiar, in this case "Jaws." The movie's running total has now climbed past $491 million. "Jaws" literally birthed the summer blockbuster as we know it, so it's fitting to see it help cap off the summer season 50 years later. In a vacuum, that's nice to see. The problem is that three new releases couldn't compete well enough to clear the $10 million mark on a holiday weekend.
Read more: The 10 Best Movies Of All Time, According To IMDb
Caught Stealing, The Roses, And The Toxic Avenger Didn't Do The Trick
Labor Day has not historically been a killer weekend at the box office. It signals the end of summer and the beginning of fall for the industry at large. Even so, there are smaller weekends, and then there's what happened here. It was a dreadfully slow frame that helped bring an uneven summer season to a close. Despite all the hope amongst theater owners and studios, 2025's summer box office won't eclipse the $4 billion mark. In fact, it won't even come close.
In the days of yesteryear, a well-reviewed crime caper like "Caught Stealing" (especially one directed by an acclaimed filmmaker like Darren Aronofsky) wouldn't have had any issue making a name for itself on a quiet weekend like this. Same with "The Roses," which has also earned very solid reviews in addition to starring Benedict Cumberbatch ("Doctor Strange") and Olivia Colman ("The Favourite"). Again, by post-pandemic standards, an $8 million opening isn't bad for a movie like this, it's just a far cry from what these sorts of films used to make.
As for "The Toxic Avenger," the unrated remake of the 1984 Troma classic was stuck on the shelf for nearly two years after debuting at Fantastic Fest in 2023. Finally, the folks at Cineverse gave it a wide release after having success with "Terrifier 2" and "Terrifier 3." Unfortunately, despite having a stacked cast and a clever marketing campaign, this one just didn't catch on. Cineverse even launched an initiative to help clear medical debt based on the movie's box office. That was very well meaning, but the campaign just couldn't get this film onto enough people's radar.
It would be one thing if just one or two of these movies failed to break out in any meaningful way. But on a slow weekend with no stiff competition, all three of them did okay at best while also failing to fight off "Jaws."
Can The Fall Bring Greener Pastures At The Box Office?
This weekend is a sobering reminder that audience habits have changed greatly over the past few years. People are happier than ever to stay home and stream something. They can wait between 30 and 45 days to rent any of these new movies on VOD. Yet, the appeal of seeing something familiar like "Jaws" on the big screen, perhaps for the first time, still works. It leaves the industry with difficult questions to answer for the future, as the box office may well never return to pre-pandemic levels.
When Marvel's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" opened to a record $90 million over Labor Day weekend in 2021, it felt like this might become a new prime release date for the right movie. Sad to say, that hasn't panned out, but even "The Equalizer 3" opening to $34.6 million in 2023 gave us a number one movie with a respectable number. The fact that "Weapons" won the day with less than $13 million over a four-day weekend is dismal.
On a longer timeline, Hollywood needs to figure out how to get people to turn up more regularly for $40 million, mid-budget movies like "Caught Stealing." In the immediate future, both theater owners and studios are hoping that the fall will bring greener pastures with it. Luckily, things are looking good for "The Conjuring: Last Rites," which could kick the season off with a bang. From there, things get a little dicey once again.
Will "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale" bring out the film's intended audience? Can the Stephen King adaptation "The Long Walk" become another genre breakout hit? Will original movies like "HIM" or "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" fare better than "The Roses" did on its opening weekend? These are the big questions that will need answering through September and much of October.
You can grab "Jaws" on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.