Mason Thames & Dave Franco's New Movie Crashes With Record Box Office Drop

Published Sep 8, 2026, 12:48 PM EDT

Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.

Idiots has hit a wall at the box office.

2026's Idiots, which was written and directed by Macon Blair, follows the chaos that ensues when two burnouts are hired to drive a teenager to rehab. Regretting You co-stars Mason Thames and Dave Franco reunited in the movie, taking starring roles alongside O'Shea Jackson Jr. opposite supporting performers including Peter Dinklage, Nicholas Braun, Kiernan Shipka, and Killer Mike. It debuted on August 28, premiering at No. 16 on the domestic chart behind fellow new releases Finding Emily (No. 15), Ghost: 2 Big to Rig (No. 11), Buddy (No. 6), The Dog Stars (No. 5), and Coyote vs. Acme (No. 2).

Idiots earned mixed to positive reviews from critics, earning it a 62% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Per Box Office Mojo, the sophomore weekend of Idiots saw the comedy taking in a 3-day total of $39,897. After its inauspicious debut, the movie has now dropped to No. 29 on the domestic chart (though it is No. 27 on the 4-day Labor Day weekend chart) with a gigantic week-on-week drop of 94.4%. This marks the second-worst sophomore drop of all time at the domestic box office, behind only the 2026 K-pop concert documentary Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience (-94.9%).

It is now the fourth movie to ever have a sophomore drop higher than 90% and the second narrative feature in its original run to do so, behind the Sydney Sweeney-led sports biopic Christy. Below, see the chart of the Top 5 biggest sophomore drops of all time prior to the premiere of Idiots:

Rank	Title	Domestic Debut	Sophomore Drop
#1	Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience (2026)	$5.7 million	-94.9%
#2	The Fast and the Furious (2026 re-release)	$3.2 million	-91.9%
#3	Christy (2025)	$1.3 million	-91.7%
#4	Over Your Dead Body (2026)	$1.4 million	-88.6%
#5	Collide (2017)	$1.5 million	-88.5%

Although this year has seen the debuts of a number of all-time hits, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day (which is currently the third highest-grossing movie ever), The Odyssey (the 14th highest-grossing movie ever), Michael (the highest-grossing biopic), Obsession (the second highest-grossing original horror movie), and Toy Story 5 (Pixar's third highest-grossing movie), Idiots now makes it so that four out of five of the biggest drops ever came from 2026, which is still months from being over.

One major reason for this drop is that Idiots is playing in considerably fewer theaters during its sophomore weekend. While the road trip buddy comedy opened on 1,110 screens, it only played in 200 over Labor Day weekend. This saw its theater number dropping a staggering 82%, which put it in a position where it would be almost impossible for it to have an average sophomore drop. However, its per-screen average also suffered, dropping 68.7%, from $637 to $199.

If 68.7% had been its official sophomore drop rather than 94.4%, Idiots still would have posted the 274th biggest week 2 drop of all time, tying with 2019's Brightburn and 2012's Total Recall.

While Idiots is a record-shattering bust during its sophomore weekend, its three stars should all find box office redemption sooner than later thanks to promising projects that are on their way. Thames is attached to return as Hiccup in the upcoming How to Train Your Dragon 2, the sequel to his hit 2025 live-action remake, while Franco is one of the leads of the upcoming DreamWorks animated movie Forgotten Island (out September 25) and Jackson Jr. is expected to return in the in-development heist sequel Den of Thieves 3.

Enjoy ScreenRant's box office coverage? Click below to sign up for my weekly box office newsletter (make sure to check "Box Office" in your preferences) and get exclusive analysis, predictions, and more:

Sign Up

Cast

• 

  Dave Franco

  Mark

• 

  O'Shea Jackson Jr.

  Davis

• 

  Mason Thames

  Sheridan

• 

  Irina