Marvel Studios took a chance by tapping New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi to direct Thor: Ragnarok, and that gamble will pay off if the latest Thor opus, with its lighthearted approach and snappy visuals can avoid the “sequelitis” that has sunk so many expensive would-be blockbusters here in the North American market in 2017. We will have to wait until next week to find out, but so far so good, at least internationally, as the $180 million third Thor movie is running 2% ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 and 22% ahead of Doctor Strange (two MCU films with a similar international rollout). The top markets for Thor: Ragnarok so far are the U.K. ($15.8 million), South Korea ($15.5 million), Australia ($8.4 million), Brazil ($8.3 million), France ($7.4 million), and Indonesia ($5.5 million). Next weekend the film opens here as well as in China, Japan, and the rest of the world’s markets, so we will know its fate very quickly.
Back in North America, the Halloween weekend capped off a terrible October with one of the worst sessions of the year with the total of the top 12 films 48% behind last year when Tyler Perry’s Boo: A Madea Halloween debuted with $28.5 million. Jigsaw, the eighth installment in the “torture porn” Saw series, posted the seventh best debut in franchise history (the worst if you adjust for inflation), and could put a capstone on series, even though with just a $10 million cost, it is likely that Jigsaw will end up in the black. In fact many analysts expect that Jigsaw will avoid the typical 60% second week end horror film drop-off in large part because a good part of the potential audience for Jigsaw may have been watching the second season of Netflix’s Stanger Things.
Opening weekend audiences for Jigsaw were almost evenly divided between the genders (51% female) and definitely on the younger side with 52% of the crowd under 25. Jigsaw received a “B” CinemaScore, which is good for a horror film, and on par with the history of the franchise.
Second place went to another Lionsgate release, Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Medea Halloween, which dropped just 52.9% as it earned $10 million to bring its total to $35.5 million. With its $25 million production cost, Boo 2 still has quite a way to go to turn a profit.
Third place went to Warner Bros.’ disaster movie Geostorm, which dropped 58.6% from its disappointing opening as it brought in $5.7 million to bring its total to $23. 5 million, a disastrous showing for a movie that cost at least $120 million to produce. Warner Bros. can take some solace in the fact that Geostorm stomped Blade Runner 2049 in China, earning more in the Middle Kingdom, $34.1 million in one weekend, than it has in ten days in North America (too bad the studio’s share of earnings from Chinese theaters are half the 50% of ticket receipts earned here in the U.S.).
|
Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): October 27-29, 2017 |
||||||
|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
|
1 |
Jigsaw |
$16,250,000 |
2,941 |
$5,525 |
$16,250,000 |
1 |
|
2 |
Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween |
$10,000,000 |
2,388 |
$4,188 |
$35,521,643 |
2 |
|
3 |
Geostorm |
$5,675,000 |
3,246 |
$1,748 |
$23,553,368 |
2 |
|
4 |
Happy Death Day |
$5,099,000 |
3,535 |
$1,442 |
$48,393,525 |
3 |
|
5 |
Blade Runner 2049 |
$3,965,000 |
2,421 |
$1,638 |
$81,385,785 |
4 |
|
6 |
Thank You for Your Service |
$3,702,000 |
2,054 |
$1,802 |
$3,702,000 |
1 |
|
7 |
Only The Brave |
$3,450,000 |
2,577 |
$1,339 |
$11,940,057 |
2 |
|
8 |
The Foreigner |
$3,210,000 |
2,505 |
$1,281 |
$28,827,318 |
3 |
|
9 |
Suburbicon |
$2,800,000 |
2,046 |
$1,369 |
$2,800,000 |
1 |
|
10 |
It |
$2,465,000 |
2,560 |
$963 |
$323,730,202 |
8 |
Universal’s Blumhouse micro-budgeted horror film Happy Death Day dropped just 45.5% in its third frame as it earned $5 million to bring its domestic total to $48.4 million, a solid showing for an original horror movie that cost a mere $4.8 million to produce.
In its fourth weekend Dennis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 dropped 46.1% as it earned $4 million to bring its domestic total $81.4 million. In spite of bombing in China, earning just $7.6 million, the Blade Runner sequel has earned $142 million overseas for a $226 million global total, not bad for an visually-rich, adult science fiction drama, but not nearly enough for a film with a Marvel Studios-type $150 million budget.
The well-reviewed fire-fighting drama Only the Brave continues to struggle—the $38 million production has earned just $11.9 million in ten days, and that is the fate that apparently awaits the well-acted PTSD drama Thank You For Your Service, which debuted with just $3.7 million.
While Thank You For Your Service’s debut was disappointing, this week’s real bomb is George Clooney’s Suburbicon, which bombed, earning just $2.8 million from over 2,000 theaters, the worst opening ever for a Paramount film debuting in 2K venues, and the second worst showing for films starring Matt Damon, trailing only 2000’s All the Pretty Horses ($1.3 million).
Be sure to check back here next weekend to see if Thor: Ragnarok can avoid “sequelitis” and set the table for a November box office revival, and, if the seasonally-themed R-rated comedy, A Bad Mom’s Christmas, can avoid the dismal box office fate of most of 2017’s R-rated comedy efforts.
