Crushing records along the way, ‘It’ debuted last weekend to a massive $123.4 million. With light competition this weekend, it was never in question as to whether the movie would retain the top spot at the box office.
\n<\/p>\n
Moviegoers are still eating ‘It<\/strong>‘ up. The R-rated horror film only dipped 51%, resulting in a $60 million sophomore weekend. After ten days, the Stephen King adaptation has grossed $218.7 million in North America. It’s playing just as well internationally. This weekend brought it into new markets that helped its international total climb up to $152.6 million. With a worldwide total of $371.3 million, the $35 million picture has already earned more than ten times its production budget in ten short days. Warner Bros. hasn’t announced when we’ll see Chapter 2, but with this much success, I imagine it’ll be sooner than later.<\/p>\n The weekend’s #2 picture was ‘American Assassin<\/strong>‘, which wasn’t exactly up to snuff for the attempted launch of a new franchise, but also wasn’t a complete failure. With a relatively unknown actor in the lead and Michael Keaton in a supporting role, the R-rated action movie opened to $14.8 million domestically and $6.2 million from 42 international markets. A $21 million worldwide opening is decent for a $33 million picture, but it’s not high enough to solidify the future of the franchise. We’ll have to wait and see where CBS Films takes it from here.<\/p>\n Darren Aronofsky’s ‘mother!<\/strong>‘ was the talk of the weekend, but not for good reasons. Disguised as a mainstream horror movie, the art house thriller finished in third place with a low $7.5 million debut. Although it was mostly liked by critics, the critics don’t add to the box office numbers. Moviegoers everywhere are hating the picture, which means that next weekend’s box office is likely to drop significantly. International markets may be the only hope for a bright future. From 16 markets, ‘mother!’ made $6 million, giving the $30 million film a $13.5 million start. Had Paramount gone the platform release route and slowly expanded it wide, I have to believe that the movie would have had a better chance.<\/p>\n Reese Witherspoon’s ‘Home Again<\/strong>‘ saw a light opening last week, but had a solid second week. Falling just 38%, it earned $5.3 million and finished in fourth place. The $12 million picture has a $17.1 million ten-day total and just might recoup production and marketing costs during its theatrical run.<\/p>\n Five-week-old ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard<\/strong>‘ rounded out the Top 5. It managed to fall a light 26% and added another $3.5 million to its domestic total, which is now up to $70.3 million. I’m still baffled as to how this terrible $30 million picture has grossed this much.<\/p>\n