Inhumans IMAX Run Projected for Soft Box Office Opening

Marvel’s Inhumans could be heading for a less-than-impressive box office opening for Labor Day weekend, to close out the slowest box office summer in years.


In 2014, Marvel Studios announced Inhumans to be the final film in Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with a release date of July 2018. The date was later moved up to 2019, and eventually removed from its schedule, but was still expected to be developed at some point. The mythology of the Inhumans was introduced as a major plot point in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2. In November 2016, it was reported that the plans for the Inhumans movie had been scrapped in favor of a TV series. However, unlike Marvel’s other shows, the first two episodes of Inhumans were to be distributed only in IMAX theaters for two weeks, with the series premiering on TV at the end of the month on ABC ahead of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s return for its fifth season.

Inhumans will be playing in 393 theaters in the U.S. and the U.K. Deadline reports that the 75-minute pilot is estimated to make $2 million at the box office during the four-day Labor Day weekend, despite a lack of competition. All films scheduled to open this weekend have only limited releases, including Sony’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is actually a re-release of the Academy-Awarding science fiction classic from 1977.


It’s projected that the action-comedy Hitman’s Bodyguard will take the #1 spot for the third weekend in a row since its release on August 18. The film, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds, is expected to gross $10 million. Expected to take second place is Annabelle: Creation with around $7 million. Other competitors include Wind River, Christopher Nolan’s war epic Dunkirk, and the animated film Leap! It’s been suggested that studios hesitated to release any major films on Labor Day weekend to avoid competition from Stephen King’s IT, which will open on the following weekend.


Inhumans will have 2 weeks to air on IMAX. Fans who wait for it to air on TV will get to see an extended version of the pilot. Though some critics have been hard on the first two episodes and are already calling it the MCU’s first disaster, cast members of the show have been quick to defend it. It’s worth noting that Inhumans could prove to be extremely successful, due in part to the hype and press the show had received. Even if it fails to be a hit in IMAX theaters, it has the potential to thrive in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new Friday timeslot.

Inhumans is currently playing in IMAX theaters. It premieres on ABC on September 29.