The second-to-last weekend of Summer was a miserable one at the box office, accumulating only $64 million overall. It’d be easy to blame Hurricane Harvey’s arrival in Texas, or even the Mayweather-McGregor boxing match on Saturday night (which will earn from PPV 10 times the entire weekend box office), but the real culprit this weekend was the lack of interesting or buzzworthy films, which is not always typical for late August releases (one of the best horror movies in recent memory, Don’t Breathe, opened with $26 million on this weekend last year).
There were several new releases this weekend, but none managed to topple last weekend’s number one film, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, which dropped over 50 percent from opening weekend to score around $10 million. It’s the lowest grossing number one film of 2017, so far (at least until next weekend). But good news for Ryan Reynolds/Sam Jackson starrer, however, because it’s now pushed its way to a $40 million total, which is $10 million more than its $30 million production budget.
Number two, Annabelle: Creation, was also another holdover. It earned $7.3 million to bring its three week total to $78 million. It’s now within striking distance of the original Annabelle’s box office run of $84 million, and on a $15 million budget, this one crossed into the black after its first weekend. Everything else — including the $100 million its put up at the worldwide box office — is gravy for New Line.
The first new entry of the weekend lands at number three. Leap! — a French-Canadian animated film that had been pushed back on several occasions — finally arrived in theaters, but it was met with little fanfare. It’s looking like a $5 million opening. Leap! is the first film from the Weinstein’s animated division, Mizchief, and while it is unlikely to turn a profit stateside, the film has already earned $58 million overseas on a $15 million budget. The good news is, among those who did see it (mostly school-aged females), it earned an A Cinemascore, so the film may find some life in the digital market over the holidays (critics weren’t as big on it, giving it a 37 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).
In fourth place, Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River — starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen — expanded from 600 to 2000 theaters, and it did OK for itself, earning around $4.4 million. Last year, Sheridan attempted with great success a similar rollout for Hell or High Water, but that movie eventually caught some awards buzz and coasted to a $27 million overall haul. Wind River, despite good reviews (85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), is not likely to catch the same awards drift.
Fifth place this weekend goes to Logan Lucky, the best box-office disappointment of the year. The well-reviewed Steven Soderbergh caper looks like it’ll end the weekend with $4.3 million and $14.6 million, overall. The second week drop of 45 percent was not precipitous, so hopefully Soderbergh’s $30 million flick can leg it out to $25 million domestic before turning a profit on digital downloads. It definitely deserves to be seen; I expect it will find a happy home on Amazon Prime in the fall. Maybe Whole Foods can do a little promotion for the film for Amazon, as the film and the grocer probably share a similar market.
Dunkirk lands in sixth place, as it has quietly gone over the $170 million mark. It may fall short of Interstellar’s $188 million domestic, but it crosses the $400 million mark worldwide this weekend, and on a $100 million budget, the movie is sitting pretty, profit-wise, even before it begins its digital life.
The weekend’s second new entry is Birth of a Dragon, the Bruce Lee inspired martial arts flick. It did not make much of a splash with $2.5 million. It also did not score well with critics (27 percent Rotten Tomatoes) or with audiences (B Cinemascore), but it’s a Blumhouse production, so it’s budget is probably no more than $5 million, so it’s not like anyone will take a bath in losses. Besides, Blumhouse can finance 30 of these films with the profits from one Insidious sequel.
Rounding out the top ten are three more holdovers: Spider-Man: Homecoming ($2.5 million; $318 million overall); Girls Trip ($2.3 million; $108 milion overall) and The Emoji Movie, which has now scored $76 million domestic and a $128 million worldwide on a $50 million budget. Guh.
There was one other new entry, as well. The faith-based All Saints was meant to go wider this weekend, but Sony pulled back to 846 theaters. The film struck out with only $1.5 million.
Next weekend sees the release of a movie that has been pushed back so many times that some aren’t even sure the movie actually exists. The Weinstein’s Tulip Fever — starring Alicia Vikander, Christoph Waltz, and Judi Dench — will finally hit theaters and, save for a re-release of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, it will get the weekend to itself. Of note, it also stars Dane DeHaan. If Tulip Fever strikes out as most suggest it will, it will be DeHaan’s third disappointing outing in a month, following Leap! and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
(Via Box Office Mojo / Deadline)
