Family movies usually have an edge at the box office thanks to the fact that they are typically being attended by both children and their guardians, but The Emoji Movie had some forces working against it.
Specifically, it’s going down as one of the worst-reviewed movies of 2017, currently sporting an 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Critical backlash rarely factors in when it comes to kids seeing films, but it’s hard not to suggest a correlation between the negative write-ups and the unfortunate box office numbers.
Dunkirk’s biggest competition this weekend came in the form of Sony Pictures Animation’s The Emoji Movie – and while it looked like the race would be neck-and-neck by the end of Friday, there wound up being a $2.5 million gap between them when the dust settled.