The Hitman's Bodyguard Tops Box Office Again As Trio Of Newcomers Bomb In One Of The Worst Box Office Weekends Of The 21st Century

Well, this was one of the worst box office weekends in recent memory, with this being the worst box office weekend in sixteen years, not exactly the kind of news you want to hear. Leading the anemic pack was The Hitman's Bodyguard, which grossed $10 million, a 53% drop from opening weekend that brings the action/comedy's ten-day cume to $37 million. That second-weekend dip is on par with the one experienced by fellow recent mid-August Lionsgate R-rated action movie The Expendables 2 If The Hitman's Bodyguard continues to play that Expendables movie, it would end up grossing $64 million domestically, actually a solid haul for this $30 million budgeted feature. In second place was Annabelle: Creation, which grossed another $7.3 million, a 53% drop from last weekend. This new horror film has now grossed $77.8 million and should be headed for a domestic total around $90 million.



The biggest of this weekend's meek crop of newcomers was Leap!, which grossed only $5 million, a disastrous bow for an animated family film opening in over 2,500 theaters (its per-theater average was just below $2,000). Among other computer animated family movie bombs, that's 5% below the opening weekend of Strange Magic and only 5% ahead of the opening weekend of Ratchet & Clank and only 22% ahead of the $4.1 million bow of prior Weinstein Company animated movie dud Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil. It's not exactly a surprise Leap! flopped given the meager and generic marketing campaign it received that couldn't make it look all that enticing or exciting for either younger or older viewers. It appears that new Weinstein Company animated movie label Mizchief that Leap! kicked off is not off to the most auspicious start.

Wind River grossed another $4.4 million as it expanded into 2,095 theaters, bringing its domestic gross to $9.8 million. I'd imagine this one ends its domestic run in between $20 and $25 million. Rounding out the top five was Logan Lucky, which went down 42% to gross another $4.3 million for a 10-day domestic gross of only $15 million. Dunkirk dropped another 40% to gross an additional $3.9 million, meaning this one's now grossed a fantastic $172.4 million. For the third weekend in a row, Spider-Man: Homecoming had the smallest weekend-to-weekend drop in the entire top 12, this time going down 36%  to add another $2.7 million to its domestic cume that now stands at $318.8 million.

With $2.5 million, Birth Of The Dragon secured the fourth biggest opening weekend ever for tiny studio BH Tilt, though it's still not all that impressive of an opening given that it got a slightly bigger than average theater count for one of this studios features (it debuted in only 1,618 theaters, the third widest opening weekend theater count ever for BH Tilt), leaving it with a weak $1,546 per-theater average. Even with Labor Day weekend next weekend, it's doubtful Birth Of The Dragon makes more than $7 million in its short theatrical run.

The Emoji Movie went down another 47% this weekend, grossing another $2.3 million that brings its domestic haul up to $76.4 million. Rounding out the top ten was Girls Trip, which added another $2.2 million (a 42% drop) that means it's now grossed a tremendous $108 million domestically. Right outside the top ten was The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature, which, in its third weekend, grossed $2.2 million, a 56% plummet that is quite high for a weekend-to-weekend drop for typical family movies. In 17 days, this new Surly Squirrel adventure has grossed only $22.4 million and is unlikely to gross over $30 million. Oh and Wonder Woman went back into 2,210 theaters (including numerous IMAX 3D locations) and grossed another $1.6 million for a per-theater average of $762, meaning it's now grossed a phenomenal $406.2 million. This one will soon surpass the domestic cumes of both Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 3 to become a bigger domestic grosser than all but two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

I saw many in the industry of writing about box office content on the internet this week ponder if All Saints would end up being a sleeper hit like numerous Christian movies in the past like God's Not Dead or the last motion picture from Sony's Affirm Films that also premiered on the pre-Labor Day frame two years ago, War Room. Course, among Christian movies, for every War Room there is a The Identical waiting in the wings to bomb and All Saints (which opened all the way down in fifteenth place) debuted to an anemic $1.55 million, giving it only a $1,832 per theater average at 846 locations. Among general Christian movie fare, this opening puts it just behind a cluster of Christian movies that opened to $1.5 million including Last Ounce Of Courage and Megiddo: The Omega Code II. It'd be shocking if All Saints crossed $5 million in its domestic run and even on what I assume was a tiny budget, that's a pretty underwhelming box office performance.

Like Wonder Woman, Baby Driver also returned to numerous movie theaters this weekend as it raced back into 1,757 locations and grossed $1.1 million (a $655 per-theater average). Baby Driver has now grossed a terrific $103.2 million. A pair of August 2017 indie titles went into wide release this weekend to disastrous box office result. The highest grossing of the two was Ingrid Goes West, which amassed $781,000 at 647 theaters for a disappointing per-theater average of only $1,208. Ingrid Goes West has now grossed $1.22 million domestically. Faring even worse was Good Time, which grossed $610,000 at 721 theaters for an awful $847 per theater average. Good Time has grossed just over $1 million after 17 days of release and is yet another misfire for A24 in a rough year for the indie studio.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day 3D, a 3D re-issue of the 1991 James Cameron movie, opened in theaters this weekend, did you know that? I believe it was exclusive to just 386 AMC theaters, a poor move if you ask me since a beloved action movie like this one coulda made big bucks simply by being around in more theaters in a marketplace as desolate as this one. Anywho, T2: 3D grossed only $582,000 at 386 locations for a per-theater average of only $1,509. Patti Cake$ failed to gain traction in its theatrical expansion, grossing only $105,000 at 59 locations for a per-theater average of $1,780 while Beach Rats debuted to $45,008 at 3 locations for a per-theater average of $15,003.

The Top 12 movies this weekend grossed a total of only $48.8 million. This is the first time that the combined gross of the top 12 came in under $50 million since the third weekend of September 2001 when the Keanu Reeves sports drama Hardball topped the box office in its second weekend. This is only the seventh time in the 21st a weekend's top 12 gross came in under $50 million; five of those times happened in 2000, one of them happened in 2001 and then one of them was this past weekend. To boot, this is one of the worst late August weekends on record and the entire month of August 2017 has grossed $605 million. Barring a massive overperformer in the remaining four days of August, this will likely be the lowest grossing August since 1996.