Sunday, January 28, 2018

Maze Runner Ends It's Franchise With Solid Box Office, Hostiles And Padmaavat Exceeds Expectations

And so, the exit of the maze has been found. Maze Runner: The Death Cure ended the Maze Runner franchise on a solid note this weekend by grossing $23.5 million, down 27% from the opening weekend of the first Maze Runner film and down 22% from the opening weekend of the second Maze Runner movie. Despite being down from its predecessors, this is a fine debut for the final Maze Runner motion picture given the two-and-a-half-year gap between its predecessors (only a year separated the first two Maze Runner movies) and the difference between opening weekends of it's second and third installments were considerably better than the one seen by the second and third Divergent movies. That $62 million budget (which is much higher than it's predecessors, likely due to accounting for filming having to restart after the movies star, Dylan O'Brien, suffered a life-threatening accident on set) looms large, but thankfully, this series has always done well internationally. Looks like the Maze Runner movies are ending on a fine note that the Divergent movies would be green with envy over.



For the first time in a weekend in 2018, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle wasn't number one at the box office. Don't shed any tears for Dwayne Johnson and pals though, the massive hit grossed another $16.4 million, a tiny 16% dip, and good enough to be the fifth biggest sixth weekend in history. Jumanji has now grossed $338 million domestically and surpassed the domestic cumes to Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man 3 to become the third biggest movie in history for Sony/Columbia. There's no way this title doesn't end its domestic run in the vicinity of $380 million, which would make it big enough to be one of the top 168 most attended movies in the history of cinema domestically.

Surprisingly, Hostiles expanded into wide release to fine numbers this weekend, grossing $10.2 million. That's almost double the $5.2 million opening weekend of Scott Cooper & Christian Bale's last collaboration, Out of The Furnace. Despite doing only so-so business in limited release over the past month, Entertainment Studios poured millions into rampant TV advertising for Hostiles which was good enough to make Hostiles only the eighteenth Western in history to have a wide release opening weekend over $10 million. This is also the second movie Entertainment Studios has managed to get to open to over $10 million in the last seven months (following 47 Meters Down), a nice start for the newbie studio. The only question that remains is if they can get their next movie, The Hurrican Heist, to a $10+ million opening weekend.... #MakeItRain

The Greatest Showman continued to stun with its box office prowess as it grossed another $9.5 million, a miniscule 11% dip from last weekend, which brings it's domestic total to $126.4 million, making it the ninth biggest musical ever. Next, we come to the biggest grosser this weekend among this year's Best Picture nominees, The Post which dipped 24% to gross another $8.8 million for a domestic total of $58.5 million. In it's second weekend of release,  12 Strong grossed another $8.6 million, a 45% drop, for a ten-day domestic total of $29.7 million while Den of Thieves, also in its second weekend of release, dropped 45% to gross another $8.3 million for a current domestic total of $28.5 million.. The Shape of Water expanded into over 1,000 theaters for the first time hot off the news of it's 13 Oscar nominations and managed to gross $5.7 million from 1,854 theaters for a per-theater average of $3,074 and a domestic total of $37.6 million. And then there was Paddington 2, which dipped 30% (a better third-weekend hold than it's predecessor) and grossed another $5.5 million for a domestic total of $32 million.

Rounding out the top ten was the highly controversial (and do I mean controversial) Indian feature Padmaavat, which became yet another recent foreign film (like Dhoom 3 and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion) to crack the top ten at the domestic box office. This title grossed a phenomenal $4.2 million from just 324 theaters for a per-theater average of $13,188. If it doesn't sink like a stone in the weeks ahead, it's highly likely Padmaavat will end up becoming only the 32nd foreign language film in history to crack $10 million at the domestic box office.

Right outside the top ten was Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which eased 36% to gross another $4.1 million for a domestic total of $610.7 million. Forever My Girl grossed $1 million on Friday and that should put it on track for a $3.5 million or so second weekend that would put it about here at the domestic box office this weekend but Roadside Attractions hasn't reported second-weekend grosses for the title yet. Getting a major boost from it's Oscar recognition was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which went up 88% and grossed another $3.6 million from 1,457 theaters for a per-theater average of $2,471 and a domestic total of $37 million. The Commuter fell 48% in its third frame to gross another $3.4 million for a $31.4 million domestic total. Insidious: The Last Key continued to hold better than typical early January horror movies by easing 45% this weekend, good enough to gross another $3.2 million for a domestic total of $63.4 million.

I, Tonya continued it's strong run this frame as it went up 4% from last weekend to gross another $2.9 million for an $18.8 million domestic total. A surprise Best Picture nod couldn't stop Phantom Thread from decreasing from last weekend, albeit only a tiny 11%, meaning it grossed another $2.8 million for a domestic total of $10.6 million. Fellow Focus Features Best Picture nominee Darkest Hour eased 20% this weekend to add another $2.1 million to an impressive domestic haul that now stands at $45.1 million. Here comes yet another 2017 Best Picture nominee, this time it's Lady Bird, which went up 61% from last weekend to gross another $1.9 million from 1,172 theaters for a $1,642 per-theater average. Greta Gerwig's directorial debut has now grossed $41.6 million. For some reason, Sony Pictures Classics didn't expand newly minted Best Picture nominee Call Me By Your Name into anymore theaters this weekend, instead keeping it in just 815 locations. This meant the title only grossed $1.3 million (a 6% dip from last weekend), bringing its domestic total to $11.3 million. Get Out returned to theaters, 468 of them to be precise, but only grossed $170,000 for a per-theater average of $363. It's already grossed a little over $175.8 million domestically so Universal won't sweat that. Oh, and finally, it's interesting to note that though The Florida Project failed to garner a Best Picture nomination this week, this Sean Baker film was one of only 11 movies at the box office this weekend to increase in its grosses from last weekend. Despite losing 4 locations this weekend, The Florida Project grossed another $55,289 from 33 locations for a per-theater average of $1,675 and a domestic total of $5.65 million.

The Top 12 movies this weekend grossed a total of $108.7 million, a decent total for a late January weekend like this one.

No comments:

Post a Comment