Weekend Box Office: Divine Intervention

The always-soft Labor Day holiday weekend offered a few surprises at the box office this year, none bigger than the movie that hit the top of the charts.

Note: The follow box office report is based on the long four-day Labor Day weekend. The three-day box office numbers can also be found at the bottom of the page.

Last week’s left-field second-place debut ‘War Room‘ knocked ‘Straight Outta Compton’ straight outta first place. Sony’s faith-based drama earned an additional $12.5 million, giving the $3 million flick a solid 11-day total of $27.8 million.

For the first time during its four-week run, ‘Straight Outta Compton‘ didn’t hit the top spot. Easing 14% and adding $11.2 million to its haul, the Universal picture has now accrued $150.2 million domestically, which is fantastic for a $28 million film.

The Robert Redford/Nick Nolte comedy ‘A Walk in the Woods‘ finished third. The hiking movie (which opened on Wednesday) grossed $2 million during its pre-weekend head start and added $10.5 million during the long weekend. Appealing to older audiences, the $8 million flick has accumulated $12.6 million after six days.

Just like ‘Straight Outta Compton’, ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation‘ eased 14% over the holiday weekend. The film grossed $9.3 million and now sits with a domestic total of $182.5 million. With an international gross of $328.7 million, the six-week-old sequel has crossed the global $500 million mark.

The second wide release of the weekend, ‘The Transporter Refueled‘, rounded out the Top 5. From more than 3,400 locations, the Statham-less franchise installment only scored $9 million, equating to a low $2,621 per-screen average. Unless the studio can get Jason Statham to return to the series, don’t expect to see another ‘Transporter’ on the big screen.

Without much notice, Pixar’s ‘Inside Out‘ was re-released on nearly 3,000 screens and climbed back into the Top 10, finishing the weekend in seventh place with $4.5 million. Domestically, the animated hit has now pulled $349.6 million. Combined with the $386.2 million from overseas, the movie now has a worldwide total of $735.8 million in the bank.

Also noteworthy is the unexpected success of the Mexican 3D animated family film ‘Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos‘ (‘A Rooster with Many Eggs’). Earning $4.4 million from 395 locations, the picture finished in ninth place. Its $11,190 per-screen average was the highest (by nearly $3,000) of all the titles in the Top 10.

The theatrical release of Chris Evans’ directorial debut ‘Before We Go‘ didn’t do very well, but I don’t expect distributor Radius to lick its wounds just yet. The film has already seen great success via VOD. On 21 screens, the romantic dramedy grossed $23,330, for a per-screen average of $1,111.

Finally, ‘Jurassic World‘ has crossed $1 billion internationally, making it the fourth movie to ever do so behind ‘Titanic’, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Furious 7’.

4-Day Weekend Top 10:

1. ‘War Room’ (TriStar) – $12,550,000

2. ‘Straight Outta Compton’ (Universal) – $11,278,000

3. ‘A Walk in the Woods’ (Broad Green) – $10,550,000

4. ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ (Paramount) – $9,300,000

5. ‘The Transporter Refueled’ (EuropaCorp) – $9,000,000

6. ‘No Escape’ (Weinstein) – $7,032,000

7. ‘Inside Out’ (Buena Vista) – $4,544,000

8. ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ (Warner Bros.) – $4,445,000

9. ‘Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos’ (Pantelion) – $4,420,000

10. ‘Sinister 2’ (Focus) – $4,252,000

3-Day Weekend Top 10:

1. ‘War Room’ (TriStar) – $9,450,000

2. ‘Straight Outta Compton’ (Univeral) – $8,850,000

3. ‘A Walk in the Woods’ (Broad Green) – $8,250,000

4. ‘The Transporter Refueler’ (Europa Corp) – $7,220,000

5. ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ (Paramount) – $7,180,000

6. ‘No Escape’ (Weinstein) – $5,448,000

7. ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,445,000

8. ‘Sinister 2’ (Focus) – $3,432,000

9. ‘Un Gall con Muchos Huevos’ (Pantelion) – $3,421,000

10. ‘Inside Out’ (Buena Vista) – $3,226,000

8 comments

  1. William Henley

    Huh. I was expecting War Room to hang on pretty well in its second week, but even I didn’t expect that. In its second week, it still had a per screen average over the three day weekend of $6200, which is pretty good (note that the movie did ADD about 400 additional theaters). I am assuming this is because of positive word-of-mouth – I know MANY people who saw it this last weekend who were on the fence about it the previous weekend.

    I was looking at this page:
    http://www.boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=faithsuccess.htm

    And had to snicker. Scroll down to the bottom and look at the chart rankings for Opening Weeks for Heaven Is For Real

    • William Henley

      Disney does this a LOT. It is just to try to grab more money at the box office. They will do like a big summer release, then it will slowly trickle out of the theaters, then like 4 months later, when things are slow at the box office, Disney will do a rerelease with a new marketing campaign, mainly during Children’s programming. Then kids are like “I want to see it again!”, parents give in, another $5-10 million or so for Disney. I think the first movie they did that with was Lion King back in the 90s, and they have done it with practically every big movie every since.

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