Considering how both audiences and critics didn't seem to give much of a hoot about the first Annabelle, you'd think a sequel would be a disaster in the making. But Warner Bros./New Line Cinema was smart in positioning this one as a distinctly different movie from the first film, with an all-new cast and a storyline that promised the origin story for this evil doll. It didn't hurt that it's been nearly six months since the last horror movie, Get Out, to open to more than $10 million domestically, so clearly people were hungry for some frightening content. As for its final domestic total, I'd wager Annabelle: Creation makes at least $80 million, though it could go higher if the lack of competition in the next three weeks works to its advantage.
Continuing to hold well was the movie in second place at the domestic box office this weekend, Dunkirk. Going down a small 33% to gross another $11.4 million, this Christopher Nolan helmed war movie has now grossed $153.7 million. This one's been holding quite well in the weeks after its release and has already more than tripled its opening weekend in only 24 days. It looks like it's heading for a final domestic haul in the vicinity of $180-185 million, an impressive sum.
Audiences just weren't in the mood for The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature, which opened to only $8.7 million, a 54% plunge from the $19.4 million opening weekend of its predecessor. While some underperforming sequels this summer were unexpected, The Nut Job 2 sure isn't one of them. The first movie only became a small box office hit because it opened in January 2014 when there hadn't been any big new family films since Frozen in Thanksgiving 2013. Audiences didn't seem crazy for it, they weren't clamoring for a follow-up and a marketing campaign that didn't bring much new material to the table ensured the movies doom. Quick fun fact about this one before we move on: The Nut Job 2 premiered in 4,003 theaters, making it the 92nd movie ever to open in more than 4,000 theaters. I could be mistaken, but I believe this makes it both the first movie to open in 4,000 North American theaters and open to less than $20 million domestically and also the first movie to open in 4,000 North American theaters and open to less than $10 million domestically. Not exactly the kind of record struggling mini-studio Open Road Films was hoping for with this title.
Plummeting 59% this frame was The Dark Tower, which grossed $7.8 million this weekend for a ten-day domestic total of only $34.3 million, an anemic cume for the would-be blockbuster. Rounding out the top five was The Emoji Movie, which took in another $6.5 million (a 45% drop from last weekend) for a 17-day domestic total of $63.5 million. Next up was Girls Trip, which took in another $6.5 million (a 43% drop from last weekend) for a current domestic gross of $97.1 million. Having the smallest weekend-to-weekend decline in the entire top twelve was Spider-Man: Homecoming, which went down a tiny 31% to gross another $6.1 million, bringing its domestic gross up to $306.4 million. This Jon Watts feature crossed $300 million domestically back on Thursday and is now the ninth movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to have made over $300 million domestically. Oh, and Kidnap went down 48% to gross $5.2 million for a 10-day domesitc gross of $19.3 million, not bad for a low-budget thriller.
Getting off to a $4.8 million start this weekend was the drama The Glass Castle, which opened to a per-theater average of $3,337 at 1,461 theaters. Apparently, the original plan was to expand this title further over the next few weeks, but with a decent but not amazing opening like this, I doubt that transpires. The memoir this movie is based on apparently has a fanbase big enough to generate numbers that avoid the territory of a "box office bomb" but Lionsgate's marketing never really got The Glass Castle to resonate with people beyond fans of the memoir. I'd wager The Glass Castle ends its domestic run with $12-15 million.
Rounding out the top ten was Atomic Blonde, which took in an additional $4.5 million (a 44% drop from last weekend) and has now grossed $42.8 million. It appears this one should become only the ninth movie ever from Focus Features to gross over $50 million domestically. War For The Planet Of The Apes went down another 40% to gross $3.7 million for a $137.3 million domestic total. Fellow mid-summer tentpole Despicable Me 3 fell 43% for a $3 million seventh weekend and a domestic haul of $247.6 million. Plummeting in its second frame was Detroit, which could only muster another $3 million, a 58% drop from last weekend, for an underwhelming ten day domestic total of only $13.4 million. Conversely, holding really well this weekend was The Big Sick, despite another major drop in its theater count. Now playing in only 709 locations, it went down only 29% (its smallest weekend-to-weekend drop yet) to gross another $1.5 million, bringing its domestic total up to a strong $36.4 million. Oh, and a little movie called Baby Driver grossed $1.4 million this weekend (a 42% drop from last weekend) that brought its domestic cume to $100 million, making it the first ever Edgar Wright directed movie to cross that mark domestically. On only a $34 million budget, Baby Driver is one of the most impressive box office performers of the summer and is the tenth movie of the summer to cross $100 million domestically (Girls Trip will soon become the eleventh).
And now we move on to the limited releases. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power disappointed in its expansion to 556 theaters, grossing only $800,000 (for a $1,439 per-theater average), a 17% drop from last weekend despite adding 376 theaters. Having grossed only $2.2 million so far, it looks like this film is a box office dud even by the standards of political documentaries. The Indian romantic-comedy Toilet: Ek Prem Katha bowed to $709,420 at 175 locations for a per-theater average of $4,054. Showing impressive strength in its expansion to 45 locations was Wind River, which grossed another $642,067 for a per-theater average of $14,268 and a 10-day domestic total of $870,285. Meanwhile, the Chinese box office phenomenon Wolf Warriors 2 took in another $420,000 domestically from 52 locations for a per-theater average of $8,077 and a domestic total of $1.9 million. The South Korean movie A Taxi Driver bowed to $332,000 at 41 locations for a per-theater average of $8,098 while the documentary Step struggled in its expansion to 185 locations as it grossed $278,000 for a per-theater average of only $1,503 and a domestic total that only stands at $478,366 in ten days.
The biggest of this weekend's new limited releases was Ingrid Goes West, which debuted to a strong $139,800 from just three locations for a $46,600 per-theater average, the fourth best per-theater average for any movie this year. Could newbie indie studio Neon have their first real hit on their hands here? We shall see in the weeks to come. Also getting off to a solid start this weekend was Good Time, which grossed $137,000 at 4 theaters for a per-theater average of $34,250. A24 is looking to expand this crime thriller into nationwide release on August 25th and it'll be interesting to see if it makes even half as much as last August's arthouse crime movie cross-over hit Hell Or High Water. No word yet on how the new Marc Webb movie, The Only Living Boy In New York, performed in its opening weekend in 15 locations while The Trip To Spain did $45,306 at 3 locations for an OK per-theater average of $15,102. Oh, and finally, Columbus grossed another $44,460 at 7 locations for a per-theater average of $6,351 and a domestic total that now stands at $86,537.
The Top 12 movies this weekend grossed a total of $103.8 million, which makes this the third lowest grossing 32nd weekend of any given year. 13 days into August 2017, the month has grossed about $345.8 million and, unless Logan Lucky or The Hitman's Bodyguard or Leap! become a Guardians Of The Galaxy level box office bonanza, there's no way this month hits the box office heights of recent Augusts. Heck, it'll be lucky to crack $800 million at this rate which would make it one of the worst Augusts in the 21st-century box office-wise. With only three weeks to go, the Summer 2017 box office currently stands at $3.4 billion and is unlikely to crack $4 billion, which would make it the first summer box office season in 11 years to make under $4 billion.
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