July 4 Box Office Results Show Major Improvement From Last Year's Numbers

KEY POINTS

This year's July 4 ticket sales peaked at $71 million
It's a major increase, given that last year's earnings barely reached $1.5 million
Ticket sales are expected to further climb with next week's "Black Widow" release

There has been a favorable improvement in this year's Fourth of July box office results, with Sunday's top three movie hits coming from just one move studio: Universal Pictures.

USA Today named the top three movies for July 4: "F9," "Boss Baby: Family Business" and "The Forever Purge." According to its report, it was the first time for Universal Pictures to clinch the top three spots in the charts since 1989 with the movies "Sea of Love," Parenthood" and "Uncle Buck." It was also the first time for any studio to have sealed such spots since 2005.

On its second week of release, the "Fast & Furious" sequel "F9" maintained its strong presence in the box office in North American theaters. The film's total ticket sales grossed at $24 million over the weekend. It is also projected to earn a total of $32.7 million by July 5, bringing its total domestic total to $125.8 million. Moreover, the title may surpass the $500 million target today.

Meanwhile, the animated film "Boss Baby: Family Business" occupied the second spot with $17.36 million ticket sales on its first three days in the theaters and is expected to reach $23.07 million by Monday. The movie features the voice of actor Alec Baldwin in the role of the scheming toddler. The voices of James Marsden and Amy Sedaris are also used in this movie which, according to Variety, was produced for $82 million.

As for the horror movie "The Forever Purge," it earned $12.8 million over the weekend and is expected to hit $15.9 million in revenues Monday.

Although 20% of U.S. theaters remain shut, this past weekend's ticket sales still managed to peak at $71 million. This is already a major improvement from last year's number, which barely reached $1.5 million due to the closure of movie theaters in various locations across the nation.

However, the current figure is still a minuscule amount in comparison to the historic movie ticket sales that could easily reach around $150 to $200 million prior to the pandemic, Variety added.

Insiders hope that ticket sales will continue to climb with the release of Disney and Marvel's "Black Widow" next week.

The said title, which is the first Marvel movie in almost two years, will also be available on Disney Plus.