After two bad Dan Brown movie adaptations, the people have spoken loudly via a terrible turnout for the third. When a week-old ‘Madea’ sequel can trump a new pricy Tom Hanks/Ron Howard film, that says a lot.
For the second week in a row, Tyler Perry’s ‘Boo! A Madea Halloween‘ easily locked in the top spot at the box office. Last week, it defeated a promising Tom Cruise movie. This week, it stomped on Tom Hanks’ latest. Perry has got to be ecstatic at this point. His movies typically suffer from heavy second-week fallout, but that wasn’t the case this time. Slipping only 41% in attendance, the film made another $16.6 million, bringing its ten-day total up to $52 million. Produced on a budget of $20 million, Perry and distributor Lionsgate are already profitable with this one.
Although it may be cleaning up in international markets, the latest adaptation of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series couldn’t fool North American moviegoers again. In 2006, ‘The Da Vinci Code‘ debuted to $77 million. The first sequel, ‘Angels & Demons‘, opened to $46.2 million in 2009. In contrast, ‘Inferno‘ failed to grasp one-third of what ‘Angels & Demons’ earned or one-fifth of what ‘Da Vinci Code’ pulled in. From 3,576 screens, ‘Inferno’ flamed out with a low $15 million debut.
Sony knew all along that ‘Inferno’ wouldn’t play as well as the previous two movies. The film’s production budget of $75 million was half of what ‘Angels & Demons’ cost to make. Nonetheless, the studio certainly didn’t see this coming. Heading into the weekend, the movie was predicted to hit in the $25 million range. Its actual $15 million opening must come as a very low blow.
Overseas, where it opened in advance of the North America release, moviegoers are still eating up the sub-par franchise. To date, ‘Inferno’ has pulled in $132.7 million internationally. If it can keep up that success, this just might be another franchise that’s kept alive purely by the international turnout.
Last week, ‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back‘ opened much stronger than 2012’s ‘Jack Reacher‘. However, while the original picture saw a light drop-off in the following weeks, ‘Never Go Back’ is tanking. Over its second week, it fell a brutal 58%. The $9.9 million second weekend brings its domestic ten-day total up $39.6 million. While not responding with ‘Inferno’ numbers, international moviegoers are showing up in greater masses than those in North America. To date, the movie has made $54.2 million overseas, giving this weekend’s #3 film a worldwide total of $93.8 million.
Ben Affleck’s ‘The Accountant‘ is staying strong and steady. In its third week, the thriller held onto the #4 spot by only slipping 38%. Its additional $8.4 million gross brings this $44 million picture’s domestic run up to $61.2 million. Only playing in ten markets, it’s international total sits at $10.9 million, for a $72.1 million worldwide total.
Last week’s ‘Ouija’ sequel fell from third place to fifth, but its drop-off was pretty mild for a horror film. With a 50% decline in attendance, ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil‘ managed to earn another $7 million. After ten days, the $9 million movie has grossed $24.6 million domestically. Overseas, it scared up $19.1 million, bringing its worldwide total to $43.7 million.
Unexpectedly sneaking into the Top 10 was an Indian film called ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil‘, a 160-minute music-filled romantic drama. From just 302 screens, it collected $2.1 million, which equates to a solid $7,070 per-screen average and a #10 finish.
One of the weekend’s two limited release rock-docs performed well, while the other did not. The Stooges bio ‘Gimme Danger‘ scored $44,025 and a per-screen average of $14,675 from three screens. Meanwhile, ‘Oasis: Supersonic‘ faltered with $16,559 and a per-screen average of $1,183 from 14 locations.
Top 10:
1. ‘Boo! A Madea Halloween’ (Lionsgate) – $16,675,000
2. ‘Inferno’ (Sony) – $15,000,000
3. ‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’ (Paramount) – $9,550,000
4. ‘The Accountant’ (Warner Bros.) – $8,475,000
5. ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil’ (Universal) – $7,070,000
6. ‘The Girl on the Train’ (Universal) – $4,270,000
7. ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ (Fox) – $3,975,000
8. ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ (Fox) – $3,375,000
9. ‘Storks’ (Warner Bros.) – $2,785,000
10. ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ (FIP) – $2,135,000
