It was a three-way battle for the number one spot at the North America box office this weekend as IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle and newcomer American Made each earned over $17 million. IT returned to the top spot while the financial divide between Kingsman and American Made was a mere $16,000.
Despite the tight race for the top spot –final numbers will be released on Monday afternoon-; the box office was down 20% from the top ten one year ago. Those numbers should rebound nicely next weekend with the arrival of Warner’s Blade Runner 2049.
IT dipped 42% in its fourth round on 3,917 screens to earn an estimated $17.3 million. The domestic haul for the R-rated smash now stands at $291.1 million. The film should cross the $300 million milestone by Friday and should finish close to the $330 million mark. Overseas, Pennywise scared up $35 million this weekend to bring its foreign total up to $262 million. A final global tally of $650 million is looking like a possibility for the $35 million production.
After scoring $65 million overseas over the month, Universal’s Tom Cruise flick American Made touched down in America on Friday where it was met with critical support and audience indifference. The acclaimed Doug Liman feature earned an estimated $17.016 million from 3,024 screens.
The opening numbers for American Made were the lowest for a Cruise movie in five years. It is also the third box office misfire for the actor in the past twelve months following last fall’s Jack Reacher: Never Look Back and this past summer’s dud The Mummy.
Fox’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle dropped from first to third in its second week, the latest victim of the dreaded 2017 Franchise Fatigue Syndrome. The critically lambasted sequel lost 56% of its audience to earn an estimated $17 million from 4,038 screens. The 10-day total for The Golden Circle is $66.7 million. The Matthew Vaughn film should finish around $90-95 million. Overseas, the film has earned $126 million.
Fourth place went to Warner’s LEGO Ninjago Movie with an estimated $12 million from 4,047 screens. The ten-day total stands at $35.5 million. The animated comedy should limp its way to a disappointing $55 million before arriving on home video this fall.
Rounding out the top five was the latest remake no one was asking for, Sony’s Flatliners. The PG-13 update of the 1990 Joel Schumacher thriller arrived on 2,552 screens opened Friday with a dismal $6.7 million. In an effort to hold off the bad word-of-mouth as much as possible, Flatliners didn’t screen in advance for the press. Once they did see it, however, critics blessed the film with a whopping zero percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Battle of the Sexes (Fox Searchlight) $3.4 million; $4 million
- American Assassin (Lionsgate) $3.3 million (-47%); $31.8 million
- Home Again (Open Road) $1.7 million (-46%); $25.1 million
- Til Death Do Us Part (Novus) $1.6 million
- mother! (Paramount) $1.46 million (-56%); $16.3 million
Opening Thursday night, Blade Runner 2049 is currently pegged to open between $45-50 million. Advanced reviews have been quite strong for the Denis Villeneuve epic, which may help push those numbers a bit higher. The Mountain Between Us and the 900th remake of My Little Pony (seriously?) also open Friday, but neither will be no match for Blade Runner.
