Five new movies debuted in wide release this weekend and none of them fared all that well, meaning this was one of the more quiet weekends we’ve had in recent memory at the domestic box office. Sitting atop the box office for the second weekend in a row was The Fate Of The Furious, which took in another $38.6 million this weekend, a 61% drop from last weekend which is larger than the 59% drop of Furious 7. In ten days, it's grossed $163.5 million and is also already at $905 million worldwide, so this one should be cracking $1 billion any day now. So while this one’s gonna easily end up below the domestic cume of Furious and even Fast & Furious 6, the mammoth overseas numbers are keeping this franchise more than profitable.
Only one new release cracked $5 million this weekend and that honor goes to Born In China, Disney’s newest nature documentary that managed $4.47 million, a slight improvement on the opening weekends of the two most recent nature documentaries from the studio, Monkey Kingdom ($4.5 million) and Bears ($4.7 million). If it follows Monkey Kingdom's trajectory, Born In China will end its domestic run with $16.8 million exactly.
Next up we have two holdovers each in their third weekends of release. Bringing up the rear in the top five in fifth place was Going In Style, which held incredibly well this weekend going down only 22% (the second tiniest drop for any holdover film in the top 12 that wasn’t increasing from last weekend) to give the geriatric comedy another $4.9 million and bringing its domestic cume to $31.6 million. Meanwhile, Smurfs: The Lost Village took in $4.8 million, a 28% dip from last weekend, meaning this one’s grossed $33.3 million in 17 days of release, which is still behind what the first Smurfs movie grossed in its first weekend alone.
Newcomer thriller Unforgettable flopped this weekend, opening to only $4.7 million. Even on only a $12 million budget, this one’s a major miss though it won’t be an exceedingly costly one. Why did this one go so south financially? You can chalk that up to an ad campaign that couldn’t make the central gimmick (Rosario Dawsons is attacked by her new boyfriend's psychotic ex) something enticing, something that’s crucial when you’re marketing a thriller. Instead, the trailers and TV spots just seemed to be marketing Unforgettable as a big o’l' catfight making the movie look out of date more than anything else. Dismal reviews and the lack of big names in the cast (Rosario Dawson hasn’t had a ton of headline roles while Katherine Heigl has been absent from major movies for a few years now) sealed the deal for Unforgettable, which will try to end its domestic run as close to $15 million as possible.
Next up, Gifted's expansion into 1,986 theaters served it quite well in such an expansion, grossing $4.5 million for a per-theater average of $2,295. With its domestic run standing at $10.7 million right now, it’s highly likely this one ends up becoming the first limited release (a film that opens in less than 600 theaters and expands into more locations in later weeks) of 2017 to crack $20 million domestically.
Now we come to another new wide release that fumbled big time. The Promise, a high-budget drama (it cost $90 million and was apparently financed by one guy) that just couldn’t click with audiences as it grossed only $4 million this weekend despite being released in 2,251 theaters. The trailer for this one constantly popped up in my Facebook feed but that was the most promotion I ever saw for the movie. I don’t think I even saw the big names leading the cast (Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale) doing the rounds on American talk shows, which meant this one had minimal promotion to its name. Mixed reviews didn’t help its box office prospects. If The Promise is lucky, it’ll be able to barley crack $10 million in its domestic run.
Rounding out the top ten was The Lost City Of Z, which expanded into wide release and grossed a solid $2.1 million at 614 locations for a per-theater average of $3,497. With $2.2 million to its name after ten days of release, I’d imagine James Gray’s newest movie will further expand its theater count next weekend as it aims to become James Gray’s first movie since 2007’s We Own The Night to cross $10 million domestically.
Also debuting this weekend to dismal results was the found-footage horror movie Phoenix Forgotten, a $2.8 million budgeted feature from Cinelou Films (whose only prior release was the January 2015 Jennifer Aniston drama Cake) that bowed to $1.8 million, the second worst wide release opening weekend ever in the sci-fi horror subgenre, only coming in ahead of the $1.1 million debut of Videodrome and that one came out in 1983!
The worst new wide release opening weekend, though, could be found with Free Fire, with the Ben Wheatley crime thriller mustering only $994,431 million at 1,070 locations for a $929 per-theater average. Why did this title go awry? Honestly, it’s not too hard to discern. A24 didn’t put too much of a major marketing effort behind this one, with the rampant YouTube ads I saw for their arthouse fare like The Lobster and Green Room being far more than the meager marketing push given to Free Fire. To boot, they kept shoving the movie around the release slate (the first trailer made its theatrical debut on Jason Bourne back when it had no release date but was aiming for a later 2016 release) meaning it was hard for buzz to build up around such a smaller title. If this one manages to crack $2 million domestically, I’ll be shocked.
After last weekends blitz of arthouse fare, this was a far more quiet weekend for limited release fare. Continuing to expand its theater count was Colossal, which grossed $579,388 at 224 theaters for a per-theater average of $2,587, meaning it’s now grossed $1.3 million. Meanwhile, Their Finest also grew in its theater count, grossing $533,013 at 176 theaters for a $3,028 which brought its current domestic haul to $1.1 million. Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer added 13 locations and made $124,125 at 18 theaters for a per-theater average of $6,896 and a total 10-day domestic cume of $259,560. Bowing in limited release this weekend was Citizen Jane which grossed $31,450 at 2 theaters for a per-theater average of $15,726. Finally, also debuting in limited release was the documentary Jeremiah Tower which grossed $20,268 at 2 theaters for a per-theater average of $10,134.
The Top 12 movies this weekend (the sixteenth of 2017) grossed a total of $94.4 million, way down from this same weekend in past years. For instance, the sixteenth weekend of 2016 grossed 75% more with a $167.8 million haul.
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