September 2017 became the biggest September ever at the domestic box office. Ruling the box office for the third time as the month winded down was It, which grossed another $17.3 million this frame, a 42% drop from last weekend, for a $291.1 million domestic cume. It appears Pennywise is heading for a domestic total between $330 and $340 million, which is nearly ten times the movies $35 million budget. Add in its tremendous foreign grosses that have pushed the feature past $500 million worldwide and it's no wonder this thing's one of the most profitablle movies of 2017.
Meanwhile, the highest grossing of this weekend's new releases was American Made, which grossed $17 million That's....fine. It's actually a weird opening weekend because it's not really all that great, especially on a $50 million budget, but for an R-rated adult drama not based on incredibly well-known source material and only having one big name in its cast, it's also not an awful debut. They're probably gonna make $85 million-ish internationally on this one and probably around $45 million domestically, so it should do 2.5 times its budget worldwide, which would be, again, fine. American Made likely woulda made more if the marketing had emphasized Tom Cruise's character as having a more rootable reason for doing his criminal acts or had more big names in its supporting cast, but the trailers were distinctive enough and Tom Cruise still has enough star power to get this one to OK numbers.
In its second weekend, Kingsman: The Golden Circle fell 56%, about average in terms of second-weekend drops for blockbuster fare, and grossed another $17 million. That's a 7% larger second-weekend drop than its predecessor and is also below the second-weekend haul of the first movie. In ten days, Kingsman has grossed $66.7 million domestically. Also in its second weekend was The LEGO Ninjago Movie which fell 41% in its second weekend, a larger second-weekend drop than either of the two previous LEGO movies and also larger the second-weekend drops of past September animated movies like Storks and the Hotel Transylvania films. Ninjago took in another $12 million this weekend and has now grossed $35.5 million domestically. It looks like this one is headed for a domestic gross between $60 and $65 million which would be beneath the opening weekend of the very first LEGO movie.
Rounding out the top five was Flatliners, which bombed with only $6.7 million. On a $19 million budget, this one's an obvious box office dud and it's not hard to see why thanks to a marketing campaign that was shockingly light on even intended scares given that it's a horror movie. Chalk this one up as yet another dud in Sony/Columbia's recent trend of trying to exploit any and all notable titles in their library by way of remaking said notable titles in their library and serving as yet another dud for the studio whose only two bright spots in 2017 thus far are Baby Driver and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Also disappointing at the box office this weekend was Battle Of The Sexes, which bowed to $3.4 million in its first weekend of wide release at 1,213 for a per-theater average of only $2,803. Given the positive reviews this one and decent marketing this one received, it's hard to exactly why Battle Of The Sexes underwhelmed this. Maybe the marketing so heavily emphasizing Steve Carell's Bobby Riggs character wasn't a smart move since people already have to deal with a sexist white dude in the White House so paying money to see the same thing on the big screen may not have been all that enticing. Looks like this one will close out its domestic run just a little bit over $10 million given that it's only grossed $4 million.
Grossing another $3.3 million this weekend was American Assassin, a 47% drop from last weekend, which brought its domestic gross up to $31.8 million. Right behind it was fellow September 2017 holdover Home Again, which grossed another $1.7 million, a 46% drop from last weekend, which brought its domestic cume to $25.1 million. Newbie release Til Death Do Us Part came in at ninth place this weekend grossing $1.5 million and Mother! was right behind it with a $1.46 million third weekend gross, a 56% drop from last weekend, bringing its domestic gross to $16.3 million. Right outside the top ten was A Question Of Faith, a new Christian movie that bowed to only $1 million.
Victoria & Abdul cracked $1 million this weekend as it expanded into 77 theaters for a fantastic per-theater average of $13,390. This drama has now grossed $1.2 million. Meanwhile, Stronger also went into its second weekend and went down 39% despite adding 72 theaters as it grossed another $986,560 for a disappointing domestic total so far of only $3.2 million. Friend Request plummeted 60% in its second weekend as it grossed another $800,000 for a domestic haul of only $3.4 million. Judwaa 2 debuted this weekend to solid domestic numbers as it grossed $605,000 this frame.
Meanwhile, it was a more quiet weekend in terms of limited release bows as the highest grossing movie this weekend to debut in under 10 theaters was Pearl Jam- Let's Play Two which grossed $55,274 at 5 locations for a $11,055 per-theater average. The second biggest of these kinds of releases was the Harry Dean Stanton starrer Lucky which grossed $46,000 at 5 locations for a per-theater average of $9,200, the fourth biggest opening weekend for Magnolia Pictures in the last 12 months (they've released 25 movies in that span of time). Finally, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down The White House had a lackluster debut as it grossed only $35,318 from 5 locations for a per-theater average of only $7,028. That's one of Liam Neeson's worst limited release opening weekends ever and doesn't bode well for the features box office prospects as it expands its theater count over the next month.
The top 12 highest-grossing movies this weekend grossed a total of $83.5 million this weekend, which is actually middle-of-the-road as far as top 12 grosses for this time of the year in the past. But after one record-breaking weekend after another for three weeks straight, Hollywood will withstand one average weekend, especially when October 2017 has a number of movies (most notably, Happy Death Day) with some real breakout potential at the box office.
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