The Lionsgate reboot Jigsaw, the latest attempt to flog the dead horse known as the Saw franchise, killed rather softly at the North America box office this weekend. Joining Jigsaw in its box office misery were the awful starts for Universal’s Thank You for Your Service and Paramount’s Suburbicon.
With a dismal pre-Halloween frame capping off an October that can only be described as awful, Hollywood pins its hopes on a strong November and December to turn business around.
It’s been seven years since a Saw sequel has haunted multiplexes during Halloween, which of course made the series ripe for a resurrection. While Lionsgate certainly was craving more quick cash from low-budget torture porn, could the same be said about ticket buyers? Judging by the bloodless $16.2 million Jigsaw captured from 2,941 theaters this weekend, one would have to guess that the answer would be “not really.”
The opening for the $10 million production is the second lowest for the Lionsgate series after the $14 million earned by 2009’s Saw VI. Reviews were typical for a film of this genre: not very good. Jigsaw earned a 39% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and a 40/100 from Metacritic. Jigsaw fared a bit better with ticket buyers, who gave the sequel a “B” on CinemaScore.
Lionsgate also had the second most popular film in the country this weekend, Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween. Dropping 53% in its second go around on 2,388 theaters, Boo 2! made off with an estimated $10 million. The latest Madea madness has brought in $35.5 million so far and may finish around $50-55 million.
In third place was the costly Warner flop Geostorm with $5.67 million from 3,246 theaters. Down a steep 59% from its awful opening last weekend, the Gerard Butler disaster flick has only pocked $23.5 million so far. A $30 million finale is in the cards for the $120 million misfire. Overseas, the film has had better luck, scoring $113 million after three weeks of release.
Universal’s Happy Death Day scared 46% less viewers in its third weekend on 3,535 screens. The low-budget horror comedy earned an estimated $5.1 million in pre-Hallows Eve ticket sales to bring its total to $48.3 million. Happy Death Day should be happy finishing its run with approximately $60 million.
Rounding out the top five was Warner’s Blade Runner 2049 with $3.97 million from 2,421 theaters. Down 46%, the Denis Villeneuve sci-fi flick has brought in $81.3 million domestically and an additional $142 million from foreign markets.
- Thank You for Your Service (Universal) $3.7 million
Reviews were solid for the Jason Hall-written and directed Iraq war drama -77% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and a 68/100 from Metacritic-, but audiences simply weren’t interested. An ad campaign that made it look exactly like 2014’s American Sniper –which Hall wrote the screenplay for- probably didn’t help much.
- Only The Brave (Sony) $3.45 million (-43%); $12 million
- The Foreigner (STX) $3.2 million (-44%); $29 million
- Suburbicon (Paramount) $2.8 million
The latest directorial effort from George Clooney was an all-around bomb. The dark satire starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore scored a dismal 26% approval from Rotten Tomatoes, a 43/100 from Metacritic and a horrifying “D-“ from viewers on CinemaScore. Paramount purchased domestic rights to Suburbicon a year ago for $10 million. One has to guess that this was before anyone saw the finished product.
- IT (Warner/New Line) $2.47 million (-29%); $323 million
The year-end box office kicks off on Wednesday with A Bad Moms’ Christmas, followed a day later by Thor: Ragnarok. Thor kicked things off overseas this weekend, where it scored a terrific $108 million from approximately 51% of the foreign markets. Ragnarok is currently forecasted to open in North America with $125 million.
