OPENINGS: The studio-reported $28.5M weekend for Tim Burton’s MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (TSG/20th) is below the $29.7M opening for Burton’s flop Dark Shadows. Miss Peregrine cost less than Shadows, which will help (reportedly by about $40M), but this is still not much more than a breakeven proposition on a fairly large investment of $225M+. Overseas numbers are soft as well, with $36.5M in 59 territories (20 more follow next week, at which point it will be playing worldwide except Japan–and China, if that regime allows the supernatural-themed film a run).
Things are worse for DEEPWATER HORIZON (Participant/Lionsgate), which cost about the same as Miss Peregrine. The US weekend is $20.6M, and initial international results are dim, with just $12.4M in 52 markets. It’s hard to see how this one avoids drowning. The potentially good news for all concerned is that they’re back at bat almost immediately: Patriots Day, another Lionsgate/Peter Berg/Mark Wahlberg project (about the Boston Marathon bombing), opens in December.
MASTERMINDS (Relativity), arising from the grave of Relativity’s bankruptcy after a year, hardly grabbed any funnybones with a $6.6M weekend. Its costs were much lower than Miss Peregrine and Deepwater‘s, but that won’t help pay the bills.
QUEEN OF KATWE (Disney) expanded badly to 1242 theatres with a $2.6M weekend, giving it a per-theatre average that was even lower than Masterminds‘s, despite being in less than half as many theatres and earning vastly better reviews. Checkmate appears to be the operative word.
HOLDOVERS: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (Village Roadshow/MGM/Columbia/Sony) showed little staying power, down 55% to $15.7M in its 2d weekend. That compares to the 45% drop for The Equalizer, which cost $35M less to produce. Magnificent is unlikely to match Equalizer‘s $101.5M US total, and things are no better overseas, where Magnificent is at $46.5M after a dusty $14.8M weekend in 68 territories covering most of the world. Equalizer hit $90.8M internationally, a number Magnificent probably won’t see.
STORKS (RatPac/Warners Animation) held much better, down just 35% in its 2d weekend, but it started so low that this meant just a $13.8M weekend and $38.8M to date, probably meaning a $75M US total. It’s at a similarly uncolorful $38.8M overseas after a $14.6M weekend in 48 markets.
SULLY (RatPac/Warners) hit $105.4M in the US this weekend after a 38% drop to $8.4M, on its way to $125M or so. There’s less interest overseas, though, where the total is $46.5M after a $6.6M weekend in 46 territories. Still, a $200M ultimate worldwide total will make this a moderate success.
DON’T BREATHE (Screen Gems/Sony) is holding extraordinarily well for low-budget horror, down just 37% in its 6th weekend to $2.4M, giving it a US total of $84.7M, and it’s also at $44.5M overseas. It may well be the most profitable movie of the late summer/early fall season.
BRIDGET JONES’S BABY (Universal) needed a big performance overseas to make up for its wretched US results ($21M after a 50% weekend drop to $2.3M), and it’s getting one. The international total to date is $99.9M ($41.1M of it from the UK) after a $19M weekend in 50 markets. The US flop means that this still won’t reach high profits, but no one should lose any money, either.
LIMITED RELEASE: DENIAL (Bleecker Street) had an unexceptional start with a $20K per-theatre average at 5 NY/LA theatres, but it’s the kind of traditional “art film” that could play well into awards season. The per-theatre average for AMERICAN HONEY (A24) was comparable, $19K at 4, however the nearly plotless 142-minute impressionist saga needed to make a big splash for any likelihood of mainstream attention, and that didn’t happen. THE DRESSMAKER (Amazon/Broad Green) expanded to 159 theatres with a very mild $2300 average. A MAN CALLED OWE (Music Box) averaged $6800 at 9. A reminder of the different levels of appeal a project can have in the US and overseas: cricket biography M.S. DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY (Fox Intl) earned $1.2M at 256 theatres here, while notching $14.3M this weekend in India alone. Similarly, the Chinese I BELONGED TO YOU (China Lion) brought in $375K in the US on 50 screens, while earning $33.6M at home.
NEXT WEEKEND: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (Universal) is based on a best-selling novel and hopes to approach the box office of Gone Girl, but all media eyes will be on THE BIRTH OF A NATION (Fox Searchlight), which is getting a quasi-wide release and which faces dueling narratives of its Sundance triumph and its director’s past. Also opening: MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE (Lionsgate).
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