Weekend Box Office: Not Enough Happy Thoughts

Last week’s reigning champions continued their successful runs. Meanwhile, no amount of pixie dust could save this weekend’s two biggest new movies.

Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian‘ dominated the box office for the second consecutive week. Audiences once again turned out in droves, causing the sci-fi survival flick to drop a mere 32% in week-over-week attendance and pull in $37 million. Ten days into its run, ‘The Martian’ has earned back its $108 million production budget. Still only playing in some international markets, the film’s overseas total now sits at $119.1 million, giving it a $227.8 million worldwide total.

Warner Bros. and Joe Wright weren’t thinking enough happy thoughts this weekend. Sony’s family feature ‘Hotel Transylvania 2‘ played strong enough to hold off ‘Pan‘. ‘Transylvania’ added $20.3 million in its third week, bringing its 17-day total up to $116.8 million. Although predictions placed the ‘Pan’ debut in that same area, it fell very short with $15.5 million. Overseas, the Peter Pan prequel opened stronger to $25 million – but with a production budget of $150 million, this comes as quite a blow for Warner Brothers.

Four place went to three-week-old ‘The Intern‘. With a surprisingly low 26% drop in attendance, the Nancy Meyers film added $8.6 million to its growing $49.5 million domestic run. The slow-and-steady success from the Anne Hathaway/Robert De Niro vehicle must help ease the ‘Pan’ pain that Warner execs are feeling right now.

Lionsgate’s ‘Sicario‘ rounded out the Top 5 with $7.3 million. The $30 million drug-busting drama has now grossed $26.7 million domestically.

Robert Zemeckis’ ‘The Walk‘ had an ever worse wide opening than the soft IMAX-exclusive debut that it saw last week. From 2,509 locations, the true story high-wire act finished its first nationwide weekend in seventh place with $3.6 million and a terrible $1,455 per-screen average. It now sits with a domestic total of $6.3 million. Luckily, it only cost $35 million to produce – but it’s still bad news for Sony during this depressing year.

Lionsgate’s Mexican comedy ‘Ladrones‘ had a decent little weekend on 375 screens. Starring a pair of Mexico’s biggest stars, the movie pulled $1.3 million and a $3,560 per-screen average.

99 Homes‘ tried making some noise on 691 screens, but ended up with one of the worst openings of the year. The Michael Shannon/Andrew Garfield picture only collected $630,857, for a painful per-screen average of $913.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Danny Boyle’s ‘Steve Jobs‘ saw the best limited per-screen opening this year. From just four locations in New York and L.A., it earned $521,000 and a massive per-screen average of $130,250. The film will expand to 60 screens this Friday, leading up to next Friday’s wide release.

Top 10:

1. ‘The Martian’ (Fox) – $37,000,000

2. ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ (Sony) – $20,300,000

3. ‘Pan’ (Warner Bros.) – $15,530,000

4. ‘The Intern’ (Warner Bros.) – $8,660,000

5. ‘Sicario’ (Lionsgate) – $7,350,000

6. ‘Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials’ (Fox) – $5,250,000

7. ‘The Walk’ (TriStar) – $3,650,000

8. ‘Black Mass’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,130,000

9. ‘Everest’ (Universal) – $3,030,000

10. ‘The Visit’ (Universal) – $2,420,000

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