Labor Day Weekend Box Office: As Expected…

Labor Day traditionally marks the end of the summer movie season. Even with that behind us, it’s likely that summer movies will dominate the box office for weeks to come – especially if the first batch of fall movies are so poor.

Please note that this post covers the three-day Labor Day weekend.

As expected, this weekend’s new wide releases couldn’t dethrone Marvel’s five-week-old ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ from the top spot. The comic book adaptation dropped less than 1% from last weekend. Its additional $17 million brought the highest grossing movie of 2014 up to $275.3 million domestically. There’s no doubt that ‘Guardians’ will be the first picture of the year to cross the $300 million mark. Overseas, it has now nabbed $273.1 million.

Second place, again, went to ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘. The Michael Bay-produced reboot grossed another $11.9 million, pushing its run up to $162.5 million. Overseas, it has pulled in $112.1 million.

If I Stay‘ remained in the #3 spot in its second weekend. Expected to drop off quickly after a front-loaded debut, the teen chick flick actually held over pretty well and only slipped 40% in attendance. The movie’s $9.3 million weekend gives it a ten-day total of $29.8 million.

The best that any of the new releases could do was fourth place, which is where ‘As Above So Below‘ landed. The R-rated subterranean horror flick drew $8.6 million from 2,640 locations, which is very poor. Although no budget has been announced, rumor has it that the movie was made with an exceptionally low budget, so its harsh debut probably isn’t as bad as you might assume.

Let’s Be Cops‘ came in fifth place and locked out ‘The November Man‘ from the Top 5. The R-rated comedy dropped a slight 23%, adding another $8.2 million to its $57.3 million run. Meanwhile, Pierce Brosnan’s new spy picture only managed to pull in a sad $7.8 million from 2,776 screens.

The 30th anniversary re-release of ‘Ghostbusters‘ pulled in almost the exact same amount as the reissue of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ in 2012, although the comparison isn’t exactly equivalent. ‘Raiders’ showed exclusively in IMAX theaters, which cost quite a bit more than standard screenings. ‘Ghostbusters’ earned $1.7 million from 784 screens. This one-week exclusive engagement is set to end on Thursday.

Last week’s flop ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For‘ completely dropped out of the competition this weekend. While it debuted in eighth place, the sequel fell 65% in attendance, slipped to the number 14 spot and only pulled in $2.2 million in its second weekend. After ten days, the stylized picture has only earned $10.8 million.

The debut numbers for indie flick ‘Last Weekend’ have yet to be announced.

Top 10

1. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (Buena Vista) – $17,077,000

2. ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ (Paramount) – $11,902,000

3. ‘If I Stay’ (Warner Bros.) – $9,300,000

4. ‘As Above So Below’ (Universal) – $8,606,000

5. ‘Let’s Be Cops’ (Fox) – $8,275,000

6. ‘The November Man’ (Relativity) – $7,880,000

7. ‘When the Game Stands Tall’ (TriStar) – $6,000,000

8. ‘The Giver’ (Weinstein) – $5,253,000

9. ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ (Buena Vista) – $4,809,000

10. ‘The Expendables 3’ (Lionsgate) – $3,606,000

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *