The last time Halloween fell on a Saturday, in 2009, Hollywood mostly stayed away. (The concert movie This Is It opened the previous Wednesday.) This year, two studios tried to counterprogram the holiday with problematic star vehicles, and based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the results weren’t pretty.
BURNT (Weinstein) has been conspicuous for its studio’s hesitancy concerning everything about it, despite a cast headed by Bradley Cooper: it had already run through several prior titles and opening dates before settling on these. The fears were justified, as reviews were lousy and the audience didn’t show up: with the expected low grosses on Saturday, its $2M Friday will probably translate into $5M or so for the weekend, a very thinning diet for a film that won’t get near to earning back its moderate budget.
OUR BRAND IS CRISIS (RatPac-Dune/Participant/Warners) fared even worse. At $1.2M on Friday, the political dramedy’s weekend will likely be no more than $3M, the worst wide opening of Sandra Bullock’s career. These two openings come just 1-2 years after the biggest hits of their stars’ respective careers, American Sniper and Gravity, and instruct us yet again that the star system as it once existed is gone.
Also opening was SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (Paramount), the second half of its studio’s gambit to accept a lower theatre count in exchange for a faster video window. If Scout is going to make any money, it will be at home, since it earned less than $1M on Friday and won’t hit $2M for the weekend.
Last week’s flops didn’t smell any sweeter this week. Any hope that word of mouth would save STEVE JOBS (Legendary/Universal) disappeared, as its Friday-to-Friday drop was a disastrous 64% (down below $900K), and it will only total $2.5M for the weekend, on track for a US total that might not hit $25M. Its Oscar hopes are decimated, if not gone.
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (Summit/Lionsgate) and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION (Blumhouse/Paramount) were also down 60-65% from their opening days, respectively to $1.5M and $1.2M, and will be at $3-4M for the weekend. This is much worse news for Witch Hunter, which cost tens of millions more than the relatively cheap Paranormal. And yet even those two were in better shape than JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS (Blumhouse/Universal) and ROCK THE KASBAH (Open Road), neither of which cracked $200K on Friday nor will reach $500K for the weekend.
This all left plenty of room for the longer runs. THE MARTIAN (TSG/20th) led the way once again, down about 25% from last Friday to $3.3M, and heading for a weekend upwards of $10M, which will put a $200M US total firmly in its grasp. GOOSEBUMPS (Columbia/Sony) and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 (Columbia/Sony) were also each down about 25% Friday-to-Friday (to $2.9M/$1.7M), on their ways to respective $8.5M and $5M weekends. Goosebumps should reach $75M in the US, and Transylvania 2 could get above $165M. BRIDGE OF SPIES (DreamWorks/20th/Disney) slipped about 30% from last Friday to $2.4M, which should give it a $7.5M weekend and plenty of momentum for a run into awards season.
The arthouses weren’t stirring much, either, as SUFFRAGETTE (Focus/Universal) expanded to 23 theatres for what looks to be an undistinguished $6-7K per theatre weekend average.
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