Can Equalizer 2 Gun Down Mama Mia 2 at the Box Office?

Last weekend, Adam Sandler's Hotel Transylvania 3 managed to fight off Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in Skyscraper, which ultimately had to settle for third place, to take the top spot at the box office. This weekend, however, sees a trio of new sequels making their debut in the form of The Equalizer 2, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and Unfriended: Dark Web. This should totally reshape the top five and could make for a close race.

Both Mama Mia! Here We Go Again and The Equalizer 2 were tracking over/under $30 million, per early box office tracking numbers. It looks like Mama Mia 2 is going to have the edge this weekend and should be able to claim that top spot. It's easy to forget, but the first Mama Mia! made $609 million worldwide when it debuted in 2008. We're predicting the sequel will debut with around $35 million on its opening weekend.

As for The Equalizer 2, the Denzel Washington action flick might suffer a bit from a tiny bit of lingering competition in the form of Skyscraper. Not to mention the fact that people have already had a steady stream of big, action-heavy blockbusters this summer. Still, even with a little under $30 million in its first frame, that should be enough to justify the sequel's existence. This is actually the first time in his long career that Washington has starred in a sequel. The first Equalizer, also directed by Antoine Fuqua, debuted in 2014 and opened with a $34.1 million take. It will be a tight race for the two and three spot between The Equalizer 2 and Hotel Transylvania 3.

Unfriended: Dark Web probably won't even make the top five this weekend, unless it dramatically overperforms. Blumhouse didn't start promoting the sequel until relatively recently. Though, they did include it as a surprise screening at this year's SXSW. The sequel to 2014's Unfriended will be lucky to clear $8 million this weekend. That said, the movie was made on a minuscule production budget, so this should be another hit for Blumhouse even if it flies under the radar a bit.

Ant-man and the Wasp and Skyscraper should round out the top five this weekend, with Pixar's Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom falling a couple of spots. Next week sees the release of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which has been getting rave reviews and should easily be the new champion of the box office when it debuts. You can check out our full list of predictions for the weekend box office below and be sure to check back on Sunday for our full list of estimates. These numbers come to us courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

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