It was actually a pretty solid weekend at the box office for movies that weren’t brand new. If your movie was playing in its second, third, or even fourth week, you were fine. If your movie was a new release, you were in for a rough couple of days. While the The Martian, Goosebumps, and more showcased impressive legs, a huge batch of other movies faltered this weekend. At least five major releases fell flat on their faces.

FilmWeekendPer Screen
1The Martian$15,900,000 (-25.4%)$4,538$166,355,000
2Goosebumps$15,500,000 (-34.4%)$4,427$43,712,000
3Bridge of Spies$11,365,000 (-26.1%)$4,043$32,581,000
4The Last Witch Hunter$10,825,000$3,512$10,825,000
5Hotel Transylvania 2$9,000,000 (-28.8%)
$2,854$148,292,000
6Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension$8,200,000$4,952$8,200,000
7Steve Jobs$7,270,000 (+380.6%)$2,916$9,982,000
8Crimson Peak$5,560,000 (-57.7%)$1,859$22,450,000
9The Intern$8,855,000 (-29.2%)$1,870$64,702,000
10Sicario$2,950,000 (-35.3%)$2,037$39,385,000

 

Let’s just start with the two big disasters, both of which aren’t even on the chart because they opened outside of the top 10. The Bill Murray comedy Rock the Kasbah opened in 13th place, grossing only $1.5 million from 2,012 locations. That’s rough. Even rougher is the $1.3 million opening for Jem and the Holograms, putting it in 15th place. With a theater count of 2,413, that is the lowest opening for any film that opened on more than 2,400 screens. That’s, quite frankly, a disaster. The saving grace here is the film’s $5 million budget, but not even breaking even will wash the stink off of that opening. That’s rough stuff. And it may not even break even since it’s hard to imagine it even playing beyond next weekend, which will see an enormous drop-off.

Now let’s shift our focus to the top 10 itself and the bombs within. The best of the bunch is The Last Witch Hunter, which opened in fourth place with $10 million. Vin Diesel has always struggled to find box office success outside of the Fast and Furious franchise and this film is only going to make him redouble his efforts on Furious 8. Like Babylon A.D. before it, this is going to be a solo Diesel picture that is simply lost to the sands of time.

In sixth place, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension brought in a very poor $8 million, a far cry from the days when this franchise used to open to upwards of $30 million before grossing over $100 million. Some of the blame can be placed on a distribution plan that sees the film making the leap to VOD in less than 90 days, triggering the ire of theater owners (many of whom wouldn’t book the film). The rest of the blame can be placed on the fact that people are suffering from franchise fatigue with this one. Not enough people saw the pretty good Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones to wash the stink of Paranormal Activity 4 out of their mouths.

That brings us to seventh place and Steve Jobs, which finally expanded wide after doing killer business in limited release…and it only made $7 million, bringing its current total to $9 million. That’s a low blow to a film that was being eyed as a serious Oscar contender and whose critical raves were matched by generally enthusiastic audiences. What happened here?

With the exception of Crimson Peak (which took the expected big drop and will vanish entirely come November), the rest of the top 10 was surprisingly full of winners. There were the sleepers, like Sicario and The Intern, which have done slow-but-steady business for weeks, transforming mediocre openings into fantastic, if minor, grosses. Hotel Transylvania 2 continued its slow march toward $180 million or so. However, it is the top three that are the most interesting. The Martian re-claimed the top spot after taking a week off, barely edging out Goosebumps. At this point, the crowd-pleasing science fiction film will have no problem hitting $200 million in a few weeks, especially since this weekend only saw a 25 percent drop-off. Goosebumps also did exceptionally well, attracting the family audience looking for a good Halloween option. It may not have the legs for $100 million, but it’ll undoubtedly hit $75-80 million and that’s great for a movie like this.

And that brings us to Bridge of Spies, which only dropped 26 percent from last week. Like with The Intern and Sicario, older audiences who take their time getting to the cinema are going to make this one into a success. It’ll just take awhile.

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