The Hitman's Bodyguard

Weekend Box Office: Another Labored Victory

After several weeks of low attendance, this Labor Day improved on last week’s performance, but still ended up being the worst Labor Day holiday since 2000. Giving weight to how bad it was, ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ retained the top spot at the box office for the third consecutive week.

Meanwhile, the ‘Close Encounters’ re-release and Marvel’s TV debut on IMAX couldn’t crack the Top 10, and the only new wide release couldn’t even make it out of the Top 20.

It always makes me chuckle when the competition is so bad that a terrible movie can proudly wave the “#1 Movie in America” flag for more than one week. Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson’s ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard‘ can do so once again. Attendance was up 3% over the three-day weekend, resulting in an additional $10.5 million. Over the four-day holiday weekend, the movie grossed $13.3 million, bringing its domestic total up to $58 million. The $30 million buddy movie has yet to open overseas.

Dropping only 2%, ‘Annabelle: Creation‘ also retained its #2 rank in the Top 10. The ‘Conjuring’ spinoff made $7.5 million over the three-day weekend and $9.3 million over the four days. With a domestic total of $90.9 million, the $15 million R-rated horror movie is bound to cross the $100 million milestone before long. Overseas, it has also scared up to $164.4 million, giving it a $255.3 million worldwide total.

The Weinstein Company pushed out its only hope for Oscar nominations this year, ‘Wind River‘, to an additional 504 screens, placing it on a total of 2,602. The platform release strategy has been a huge success. The film jumped into third place with $6.2 million from the three-day weekend and $7.9 million from the four-day. The $11 million murder drama has pulled $20.3 million domestically and has yet to open overseas.

Over the three-day weekend, Weinstein’s animated kids’ movie ‘Leap!‘ saw a 3% boost in attendance over its low opening last week. Finishing at #4, it collected $4.8 million over the three-day weekend and $6.5 million over the four-day. The acquired French title now has $13 million domestically.

Logan Lucky‘ once again rounded out the Top 5. The Steven Soderbergh caper comedy snatched $4.4 million over the three-day and $5.6 million over the four-day weekend. The $29 million movie has grossed $22.6 million domestically and $3.1 million from 17 international markets (only two of which are large).

Ahead of its 4K UHD release, the 40th anniversary remastered edition of ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind‘ made $1.7 million over the three-day weekend (a #13 finish with $1,959 per screen) and $2.3 million over the four days (#14 finish with $2,553 per screen).

Marvel’s television division released the pilot episode of its latest series ‘Inhumans‘ on 393 IMAX screens, nearly one month ahead of its ABC debut. Four-day stats have yet to be announced, but it ended the three-day weekend in the #18 spot with $1.5 million and a $3,817 per-screen average. Knowing how bad the production value is on Marvel’s TV shows and how bad bad television can look on the big screen, you couldn’t pay me to see ‘Inhumans’ in IMAX.

It isn’t until the mid-20s ranks that we find the weekend’s solitary wide release, ‘Tulip Fever‘. The long-delayed Weinstein film opened at 765 locations, finishing the three-day weekend in the #24 spot with $1.1 million. It closed the four-day weekend at #23 spot with $1.4 million. The period piece drama has yet to open overseas, but it’s likely to wilt there too.

Two box office feats worth noting over this slow weekend belong to ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘Wonder Woman’. ‘Dunkirk‘ opened in China to $30 million and is on track to be the second-largest region (behind the U.S.) in box office sales. ‘Wonder Woman‘ was pushed back into theaters for a second run that boosted its domestic total up to $408.9 million, making it the fifth-highest grossing superhero film of all time.

3-Day Top 10:

1. ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ (Lionsgate) – $10,530,000

2. ‘Annabelle: Creation’ (Warner Bros.) – $7,500,000

3. ‘Wind River’ (Weinstein) – $6,240,517

4. ‘Leap!’ (Weinstein) – $4,850,064

5. ‘Logan Lucky’ (Bleecker Street) – $4,456,456

6. ‘Dunkirk’ (Warner Bros.) – $4,365,000

7. ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (Sony) – $3,650,000

8. ‘Despicable Me 3’ (Universal) – $2,455,150

9. ‘The Emoji Movie’ (Sony) – $2,425,000

10. ‘Girls Trip’ (Universal) – $2,314,815

4-Day Top 10:

1. ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ (Lionsgate) – $13,375,000

2. ‘Annabelle: Creation’ (Warner Bros.) -$9,305,000

3. ‘Wind River’ (Weinstein) – $7,950,517

4. ‘Leap!’ (Weinstein) – $6,585,064

5. ‘Logan Lucky’ (Bleecker Street) – $5,649,651

6. ‘Dunkirk’ (Warner Bros.) – $5,625,000

7. ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (Sony) – $4,715,000

8. ‘The Emoji Movie’ (Sony) – $3,350,000

9. ‘Despicable Me 3’ (Universal) – $3,307,950

10. ‘The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature’ (Open Road) – $2,902,179

1 comment

  1. I got to see Terminator 2 3D Thursday night. There were exactly 5 of us in the theater. Still, it was an AWESOME experience – my only complaint is that I play the movie twice as loud at home

Leave a Reply

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