Ridley Scott’s “hard sci-fi” saga The Martian returned to the top spot in its fourth weekend in theaters (it had been #1 for its first two weeks, before losing out to Goosebumps, which debuted last week). The space epic dropped just 25.4% as it brought in $15.9 million. So far The Martian has earned $166.4 million, just $11.4 million short of the highest-grossing film in Scott’s oeuvre. The Martian, which cost $108 million to produce, is also doing well overseas where it dominated this weekend, and has already earned $218 million for a worldwide total of $384. 4 million.
Just a shade behind The Martian was the Jack Black-starring adaptation of the popular kids horror novel series Goosebumps, which dropped 34.4% and earned an estimated $15.5 million, bringing its 10-day total to $47.7 million.
Third place went to Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, which declined just 26.1% in its second weekend in theaters, as it earned $11.4 million to bring its 10-day total to $32.6 million. This strong hold was predicted by the movie’s “A” CinemaScore, but it remains to be seen how Bridge of Spies will hold up, since it is currently underperforming versus previous collaborations between Spielberg and Hanks.
The weak debut of The Last Witch Hunter, which stars Vin Diesel, certainly puts Diesel’s box office draw outside of the Fast and Furious franchise, in serious doubt with its $10.8 million debut. The $90 million production was expected to win the weekend, and debuted well below expectations, with some analysts, undoubtedly swayed by Diesel’s 95 million Facebook friends, predicting an opening north of $20 million. A poor “B-“ CinemaScore doesn’t provide much hope for the domestic future of The Last Witch Hunter.
The fifth spot went to Sony’s leggy animated hit Hotel Transylvania 2, which dropped just 28.8% as it earned $9 million to bring its domestic total to a potent $148.3 million.
Another newbie, Paramount’s Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension posted the worst debut in franchise history, just $8.2 million. The film is only playing in 1,656 theaters, largely because many theater owners refused to run the film because Paramount made them agree to allow Video On Demand for The Ghost Dimension, whenever the number of theaters carrying the film slipped below 300. Well, that could come a lot quicker now, and while Video on Demand is growing, it is difficult to see how it could make up for The Ghost Dimension’s poor theatrical performance (versus previous films in the franchise). But, even though The Ghost Dimension is the most expensive film in the franchise yet, its production cost is only in the mid-teens, which means Paramount and Blumhouse won’t be sweating this one so much. On the other hand, the audience for The Ghost Dimension skewed male, with 66% under 25, but they gave the film a wretched “C” CinemaScore, which means this one should drop like a stone in the weeks to come.
The other two newbies, Barry Levinson’s Rock the Kasbah, and the comic book/cartoon-based Jem and the Holograms, couldn’t even break into the top ten in spite of opening in over 2000 theaters. While The Last Witch Hunter and The Ghost Dimension seriously underperformed, Rock the Kasbah and Jem and the Holograms are two of the biggest bombs of all time.
Rock the Kasbah, which stars Bill Murray, has only an 8% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It earned just $1.5 million from over 2,000 theaters for a tiny $750 per venue average—the fifth worst opening of all time for a film opening in more than 2000 theaters. This film is definitely DOA.
But Jon M. Chu’s Jem and the Holograms fared even worse, earning just $1.3 million from 2,413 theaters, the fourth worst opening for a movie that opened in at least 2,000 theaters, and the absolute worst ever for a film that opened in 2,400 or more theaters. Evidently not all 1980s cartoons can be transformed into profitable movie franchises.
But new movies weren’t the only disappoints this week. The Aaron Sorkin/Danny Boyle biopic Steve Jobs, went wide (from 60 to 2493 theaters), but earned just $7.2 million, when many analysts thought this film would earn as much as $20 million when it expanded. Again Steve Jobs, which cost $30 million to produce, is one of those adult-skewing titles that should have a long life in theaters, but, while it appears that the film will be successful, it does appear that Steve Jobs won’t be a hit on the magnitude of Sorkin and David Fincher’s The Social Network.
Be sure to check back here next week to see if the culinary drama Burnt starring Bradley Cooper, or the Sandra Bullock political drama Our Brand Is Crisis can make an impact on the box office, and if Paramount’s Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, which like this weekend’s The Ghost Dimension comes with the studio-mandated 300 theater/Video on Demand deal, can fare any better than The Ghost Dimension.
