Jigsaw

Weekend Box Office: I Saw What You Did There

Box office returns have been absolutely wretched since the release of ‘It’ in early September. A mix of lazy movies and competition from streaming original content (like the new season of ‘Stranger Things’) are probably to blame. This weekend was no exception.

It’s been seven years since the ‘Saw’ franchise was last on the big screen. The opening of the new sequel ‘Jigsaw‘ shows that no one really missed it. The $10 million horror movie’s $16.2 million debut may seem good enough, but when compared to the other entries in this franchise, it’s nothing impressive. The opening of ‘Jigsaw’ ranks as #7 of the eight ‘Saw’ pictures, suggesting that there wasn’t much of an appetite for a revival. International moviegoers gave it more of a chance. From 46 markets, only three of which were large, it made $9.5 million, for a $25.7 million worldwide start.

Last weekend, ‘Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween‘ debuted $5 million below the original. This weekend, the sequel dropped 53%. Finishing in second place, it added $10 million to its domestic run, which now sits at $35.5 million. Compared to the ten-day total of the first, ‘Boo 2!’ is already $17 million behind. With a $25 million budget and few people likely to see it after Halloween on Tuesday, this is not the sequel that Tyler Perry was hoping it would be.

Geostorm‘ took an even harder hit in its second week. Falling 58%, it finished in third place with $5.6 million. With a $120 million production budget, the CG-heavy picture has a domestic ten-day total of just $23.5 million. International moviegoers, however, are getting sucked into the vortex. The foreign box office is currently up to $113.4 million, bringing its global total to $136.9 million.

Last weekend, horror fatigue appeared to kick in with the second-week performance of ‘Happy Death Day‘. However, competition from ‘Jigsaw’ didn’t make much of a dent in its third week performance. The $4.8 million scary movie finished at #4 with $5 million. Now at $20.2 million in international ticket sales and $48.3 million in domestic returns, the film has grossed an impressive $68.5 million worldwide.

Thanks to low turnout for all movies, ‘Blade Runner 2049‘ managed to stay in the Top 5, even if just rounding it out. A 46% drop in attendance yielded $3.9 million, bringing its domestic total to $81.3 million. If any international market was going to boost the box office, it might have been China. Unfortunately, this weekend’s China opening only brought in $7.6 million. The foreign box office is at $142 million, giving ‘2049’ a $223.3 million worldwide total.

The new PTSD war drama ‘Thank You for Your Service‘ opened outside the Top 5. From 2,054 screens, it made a low $3.7 million ($1,802 per screen) and finished at #6. The $20 million picture has yet to open overseas.

Debuting even worse was the George Clooney-directed ‘Suburbicon‘. Despite its great credentials (including Matt Damon in the lead role), the film opened at #9. Playing on 2,046 screens and budgeted at $25 million, the crime comedy only took $2.8 million ($1,369 per screen).

But the worst-performing of the weekend’s notable new releases was Marc Forster’s drama ‘All I See Is You‘, starring Blake Lively. From 283 screens, it did just $135,504 and a per-screen average of $479. Budget at $30 million, Open Road is likely to take a massive hit from this one.

Top 10:

1. ‘Jigsaw’ (Lionsgate) – $16,250,000

2. ‘Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween’ (Lionsgate) – $10,000,000

3. ‘Georstorm’ (Warner Bros.) – $5,675,000

4. ‘Happy Death Day’ (Universal) – $5,099,000

5. ‘Blade Runner 2049’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,965,000

6. ‘Thank You for Your Service’ (Universal) – $3,702,000

7. ‘Only the Brave’ (Sony) – $3,450,000

8. ‘The Foreigner’ (STX) – $3,210,000

9. ‘Suburbicon’ (Paramount) – $2,800,000

10. ‘It’ (Warner Bros.) – $2,465,000

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