Nothing strange about Doctor’s 2nd week hold.
For the second week running Marvels Doctor Strange leads the weekend pulling in 42,970,065 down 49.5% for 2 week total of 152,952,243. This should be considered a strong hold for Doctor Strange showing that audiences are reacting very positively to the Benedict Cumberbatch led film. The closest comparison is Thor: The Dark World which opened similarly with 85.737.841 but fell 57% second week to 36.586.016 for a total of 145,090,130 , showing that audiences are clearly more in favour of marvels latest effort.
Where does Strange go from here? It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that it will out gross Dark Worlds 206,360,018 total but by how much? With only Fantastic Beasts as direct competition until Star Wars: Rogue One opens in a few weeks Strange should continue to hold well, likely finishing in the 240,000,000 to 250,000,000 range.
Arrival “arrives” with big opening on modest screen count.
Out of the new openers Arrival finishes 3rd with a strong 24,074,041 opening off a surprisingly low 2300 screen count (Jack Reacher is still playing in more screens come 4th week). The Amy Adams led Sci-fi picture is garnering rave reviews and I can only imagine paramounts intention is to slowly increase the screen counts in the hope Arrival starts generating strong word of mouth and awards buzz.
It’s really hard to tell where Arrival ends up from here and we’ll probably need a few more weekends to get a fuller picture. Sci fi can be a tough sell to mainstream audiences even with stellar reviews films like Children Of Men (92% rotten tomatoes) ended with only 35,552,383 domestic total. With a reasonably modest 47,000,000 budget Arrival will be considered a success but it will either fizzle out if it fails to connect with audiences or turn into the sleeper hit of winter season. Really anything could happen here.
With dreadful reviews (0% rottentomatoes) and a lead star that really isn’t much of a box office draw Shut In was always going to struggle to make an impact
The other two openers pretty much fall in line with expectations Almost Christmas opens in 4th with roughly 15,000,000 looking to finish around the 40,000,000 mark. The Naomi watts led horror/thriller Shut In is a complete non starter at 7 with 3,700,000. With dreadful reviews (0% rottentomatoes) and a lead star that really isn’t much of a box office draw Shut In was always going to struggle to make an impact. Expect it to fall short of its reported 10,000,000 budget and be quickly forgotten.
The rest of the top ten is made up of strong holds. Trolls is at 2 with 35,000,000 falling only 25 %. Expect Trolls to continue to hold strong until Moana opens in a few weeks and takes its audience.
Hacksaw Ridge holds well, but does it hold well enough?
Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge falls 30% to 10,630,873 and a total of 32,120,194. Although this is a decent hold If Hacksaw Ridge was hoping to really breakout and become a major hit it really needed a drop below the 20% mark. Still with hardly any direct competition (except Ang Lee’s moderately reviewed Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) Ridge should continue to hold strong in the coming weeks likely ending around 70,000,000 mark and potentially more if it gets a big awards push.
The Accountant continues to hold strong and give its direct competitor Jack Reacher a beat down with 4,500,000 (-22% 77,700,000 total) likely finishing with a stronger than expected 90,000,000. Jack Reacher continues to disappoint with 3,325,000 (-39%) leading to a disappointing 54,586,711 total after 4 weeks. The problem with reacher is it seems like more of a passion project of cruises than a film audiences were really asking for. The first Reacher was a minor financial and critical success (80,000,000 total 62% rotten tomatoes) neither of which really suggest a sequel was in high demand. For Reacher to really break out it needed to be far better received from the first, but with a rotten rating of only 37% Reacher will limp past its production budget of 60,000,000 and probably put an end to the Cruise led franchise.
Finishing at ten is the Tom Hanks/Ron Howard Robert Langdon franchise ender Inferno. After a disappointing opening and 2 week hold inferno is down to 3,200,000 in its 3 week for a 31,500,000 total and I likely 40,000,000 finish. Still with a worldwide total already passed the 200,000,000 mark and a moderate budget 75,000,000 budget Inferno isn’t a complete disaster and will still see a profit somewhere. For Hank’s this really represents his first broad domestic flop in a long while. Films like Larry Crowne and A Hologram for the King can’t really be considered as they were far smaller films with a smaller audience appeal. Clint Eastwoods Sully earlier this year proved that Hank’s can still pull in a large audience, however it seems that American audiences are no longer interested in watching Hank’s as Robert Langdon likely ending this franchise at 3 films.
Weekend Top Ten
1) Doctor Strange
$42,970,065
-49.5%
$152,952,234
Week 2
2) Trolls
$34,979,577
-24.9%
$93,943,892
Week 2
3) Arrival
$24,074,047
New Opener
4) Almost Christmas
$15,134,234
New Opener
5) Hacksaw Ridge
$10,630,873
-30.0%
$32,120,194
Week 2
6) The Accountant
$4,412,248
-24.9%
$77,568,003
Week 5
7) Shut In
$3,613,567
New Opener
8) Boo! A Madea Halloween
$3,519,903
-54.5%
$70,377,982
Week 4
9) Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
$3,303,081
-39.4%
$54,564,792
Week 4
10) Inferno
$3,260,497
-47.1%
$31,592,512
Week 3
