Following weeks of typical summer blockbusters being at the top of the summer box office, a different kind of movie has taken the top spot. “Dunkirk” dethroned “War for the Planet of the Apes”, as the World War II action-thriller did much better than expected. Meanwhile, the costly and hyped “Valerian," a massive sci-fi undertaking, completely bombed at the box office.

'Dunkirk' captures the top spot at the box office

Christopher Nolan's latest film, “Dunkirk," has won the weekend box office and surpassed all expectations. The World War II movie, which centers around the 1940 Battle of Dunkirk, made a domestic total of $50.5 million from 3,720 theaters.

This amount was about 20% more than many studios and independent analysts had pegged the movie to take in. It started strong with a Friday opening of $19.7 million and was helped by recommendations on social media for people to see the movie.

Overseas, “Dunkirk” made $55.4 million, giving it a total opening weekend haul of $105.9 million against an estimated $150 million dollar production and marketing budget. The movie, which stars Tom Hardy and Harry Styles, has also drawn a ton of praise from critics and is even getting early Oscar buzz. On "Rotten Tomatoes," the film has a certified fresh rating of 92% from 252 critic reviews. It also has an 83% audience score from 34,300 user ratings. On moviegoer polling site 'CinemaScore," the film currently has an A- rating.

'Valerian' bombs hard at the box office

“Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," a film which director Luc Besson had called a passion project of his, bombed at the box office. The movie, which has an estimated production and marketing budget of almost $210 million, only made a total of $17 million dollars at the domestic box office from 3,553 theaters.

The film will now look towards the overseas markets to help hopefully pick up the slack.

The movie was destroyed by critics who cited its long 2 hour and 17-minute runtime and the seeming lack of on-screen chemistry between stars Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan. Also not helping its cause was that the movie was based on comic-book source material unknown to most Americans.

However, it was lauded for how visually stunning it was. It currently has a 54% rotten rating from critics on 135 reviews. Fans were only slightly more generous, giving the film an audience score rating of 59% on 16,912 user ratings. On "CinemaScore," the film currently has an B- rating.
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