This week’s box office race is too close to call, but Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It is currently leading, and it would be only fitting if the film that single-handedly reversed the summer box office slump and led the way to a record September found its way back to #1 in its fourth weekend.  After a strong month of double-digit year-over-year weekends, September ended on a bit of a down note with box office receipts down about 13% from the same frame a year ago when the remake of the western The Magnificent Seven topped the charts with $34.7 million.

But this final frame hardly defines September, which set a new record with box office receipts of $694.7 million, nearly $70 million above the previous record of $626.4 million set in September of 2015.  On September 1st after a disastrous stretch in late summer, the 2017 box office was running 6.3% behind 2016, but after a strong month, 2017 is now trailing by just 4.6%.  One film is primarily responsible for this turnaround.  It, which added $17.3 million to bring its domestic total to $291.2 million, has accounted for over 40% of all September ticket sales.

It will soon surpass The Sixth Sense ($292 million in 1999) to become the #1 horror movie in the domestic market not named “Jurassic” something (and not adjusted for inflation—The Sixth Sense would have around $511 million adjusted).  It is also doing well overseas where it opened in Germany this weekend with a record (for a horror film) $11.6 million.  So far It has earned $262 million overseas for global tally of $553.1 million—not bad for a film that cost just $35 million to produce.

Currently in second place is the Tom Cruise-starring American Made, which debuted to an estimated $17.02 million.  With Kingsman: The Golden Circle also pegged at $17 million the real box office champ won’t be known until final figures are in tomorrow.  American Made’s debut is about $2 million better than that of the modestly budgeted Jack Reacher, which also starred Cruise, and while $17 million might appear to be a small number for a mega-star like Cruise, American Made is basically a biographical film about an airline pilot who got heavily involved in the drug trade, not a slam bang action film, and not one based on a popular property like Mission Impossible—so Cruise is basically carrying this film on his own.

Critics loved the R-rated American Made, which has an 87% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences, who might have been expecting a more conventional Cruise vehicle, were less enthusiastic, giving the film just an OK “B+” CinemaScore.   The audience for American Made skewed male (55%) and older with 56% over the age of 30.   Produced for $50 million, American Made will likely end up with around $60 million domestic, so its financial fate will likely be settled overseas where Cruise’s popularity should allow the film to eke out a small profit.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): September 29-October 1, 2017

Film

Weekend Gross

Screens

Avg./Screen

Total Gross

Wk#

1

It

$17,310,000

3,917

$4,419

$291,182,790

4

2

American Made

$17,016,000

3,024

$5,627

$17,016,000

1

3

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

$17,000,000

4,038

$4,210

$66,701,588

2

4

The LEGO Ninjago Movie

$12,000,000

4,047

$2,965

$35,556,065

2

5

Flatliners

$6,700,000

2,552

$2,625

$6,700,000

1

6

Battle of the Sexes

$3,400,000

1,213

$2,803

$4,073,158

2

7

American Assassin

$3,325,000

3,020

$1,101

$31,873,581

3

8

Home Again

$1,756,372

2,370

$741

$25,181,947

4

9

Til Death Do Us Part

$1,567,966

562

$2,790

$1,567,966

1

10

mother!

$1,460,000

1,840

$793

$16,320,846

3

The comic book-based Kingsman: The Golden Circle dropped 56.4% in its second frame, not a bad decline for an action comedy.  After a strong start The Golden Circle, which has earned $66.7 million so far, has now fallen behind the pace of the leggy first Kingsman film, The Secret Service—and given the heavy competition for the adult audience in the coming weeks, The Golden Circle will certainly finish up well behind The Secret Service here in the domestic market, though it should more than make up any deficit overseas, where it is doing better than its predecessor.

Fourth place went to the disappointing LEGO Ninjago Movie, which has earned $35.6 million in ten days, a disappointing result for an animated film from a major studio (Warner Bros.).

Debuting at #5 was a remake of the 1990 film Flatliners, which earned just $6.7 million from over 2,500 theaters for a poor $2,625 average.  So far Flatliners has a 0% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences, which skewed slightly female (51%), gave the film a poor “B-“ CinemaScore, which likely seals its fate.

Expanding to over 1,200 theaters, The Battle of the Sexes, a film based on the tennis match between Billie Jean King and professional blowhard Bobby Riggs, landed in sixth place.  The critics loved this well-acted (by Emma Stone and Steve Carrell) historical recreation, and those who saw the film gave it an “A” CinemaScore, but with a poor $2,803 per theater average, the mainstream public appears to be little interested, at least at this point.  Perhaps some award nominations will help this film gain some traction, but for now it is generating very little heat.

Another new film, the thriller Til Death Do Us Part, opened in 562 theaters, and also failed to generate much excitement, earning just $1.6 million, but at least it finished in the top ten---the religiously-themed A Question of Faith debuted in 661 theaters and ended up earning just $1 million as it finished at #11.

Be sure and check back here next week to see what happens when a trio of new widely released films, including the science fiction sequel Blade Runner 2049, the survival film The Mountain Between Us, and the animated My Little Pony: The Movie endeavor to change the box office landscape.