The weekend after Labor Day is usually the lowest point of the year for the North America box office. Kids are back in school, summer vacations are a thing of the past and, oh yeah, the new football season is underway.
However, that wasn’t the case this weekend as two low budget thrillers, Sony’s The Perfect Guy and Universal’s The Visit, each made a sizable splash at the multiplexes. The news wasn’t as good for the faith-based 90 Minutes in Heaven. That drama found few followers in its ninth place debut.
Overall, the box office was up 37% over last weekend and 12% over last year at this time.
The Perfect Guy may not have been a critical darling to the reviewers who wound up seeing it, but it still proved to be the film of choice this weekend for ticket buyers as the $12 million production opened to a solid $26.7 million from 2,221 theaters. Released through Sony’s ScreenGems’ division, The Perfect Guy became the third film in a row to occupy the number one spot that was largely marketed to African-Americans following Straight Outta Compton and War Room. Females were the driving force behind Perfect Guy’s opening numbers. They represented a whopping 70% of the film’s audience.
To say filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan has had a rough go over the past decade or so in Hollywood is putting it mildly. Not only were After Earth, The Last Airbender, The Happening and Lady in the Water financial disappointments, they were also all films despised by both critics and the public.
While The Visit won’t restore Shyamalan to the level of prominence he once had thanks to The Sixth Sense and Signs, it’s a step in the right direction. Produced by micro-budget horror maven Jason Blum for only $5 million, The Visit scared up a solid $25.7 million from 3,069 theaters. The film also managed to score some favorable notices. Of the 128 reviews accounted for on Rotten Tomatoes, 62% were positive.
In third place with $7.4 million was last weekend’s champ War Room, which added 121 screens in its third weekend to bring its overall theater count to 1,647. Off only 22%, the surprise hit has earned $39.1 million so far. War Room could work its way to $55-60 million by the end of its run.
The continuing popularity of War Room may have impacted the debut of another religious drama in the top ten, 90 Minutes in Heaven. Starring Hayden Christensen, Kate Bosworth and Dwight Yoakam, Heaven earned a damning 20% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and seemed to show just as little appeal to its target audience. Heaven opened Friday on 878 screens but could only muster a meek $2.1 million, which was good enough for a ninth place finish.
Broad Green Pictures’ comedy A Walk in the Woods landed in fourth place with an estimated $4.6 million from 2,139 theaters. Off 44% from its Labor Day weekend debut, the Robert Redford/Nick Nolte feature has earned $19.8 million so far and could finish its box office journey near the $30 million mark.
Rounding out the top five was Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation with $4.1 million from 2,649 theaters. Off 43%, the blockbuster hit has earned $188 million so far and is slowly working its way to the $200 million mark domestically. Rogue Nation became the only 2015-summer release to stay in the top five for seven weeks straight. Overseas, Rogue Nation soared to $425 million thanks to a huge $86 million opening week in China.
Outside the top five:
- Straight Outta Compton (Universal) $4 million (-53%); $155.7 million
- No Escape (Weinstein) $2.8 million (-47%); $24.1 million
- The Transporter Refueled (EuropaCorp) $2.7 million (-63%); $13.3 million
- Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos (PNT) $1.9 million (-44%); $6.6 million
Next weekend should see business continue to improve as Fox’s The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trails and Warner’s Black Mass both arrive on the scene. Watch for The Scorch Trials to become the new number one film in the country.
