Box Office: ‘Crawl’ Slithers to $1 Million on Thursday Night

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“Crawl” has generated mostly positive reviews, scoring an 88% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Alexandre Aja directed from a script by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen. “Crawl,” which carries a modest $13 million budget, is produced by Craig Flores, Sam Raimi and Aja.

“Stuber,” Disney’s first R-rated release since 2013, centers on Kumail Nanjiani’s Uber driver unwittingly becoming part of an arrest operation with Dave Bautista portraying an aggressive LAPD officer. Forecasts have pegged the film for a range between $7 million and $10 million when it opens in 3,050 locations. Directed by Michael Dowse from a script b y Tripper Clancy, “Stuber” also stars Iko Uwais, Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Jimmy Tatro, Mira Sorvino and Karen Gillan.

Fox began developing “Stuber” in 2016 with Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley producing. It premiered in March at the SXSW Film Festival, shortly before Disney closed its acquisition of the Fox film assets. The movie has received mixed reviews with a current 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In his SXSW review, Variety’s Peter Debruge praised the performances of the leads: “The deliciously antagonistic chemistry between Bautista and Nanjiani — who come across as more likely to murder each other than to die at the hands of heavily armed drug dealers — fuels this breakneck buddy movie.”

The weekend arrives with the year-to-date North American box office continuing to lag as it reached $6.05 billion as of July 10, down 8.7% from the 2018 pace, according to Comscore. Summer has also trailed, sliding 4.7% to $2.57 billion in the wake of disappointments from several major titles including “Men In Black: International” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” Disney’s “The Lion King” is widely expected to jolt domestic business next weekend with as much as $150 million.

“As the summer season of 2019 continues its second half, the industry looks to a diverse weekend slate to jump-start the momentum that has been tough to maintain throughout what has been a confounding summer season that will likely keep observers scratching their heads in the weeks to come,” said Paul Dergaradian, senior media analyst with Comscore.