Weekend Wrap-Up
by Tim Briody
April 8, 2017
BoxOfficeProphets.com
A Quiet Place is the top film of the weekend, coming nearly out of nowhere to earn an estimated $50 million on the weekend. Written and directed by John Krasinski (yes, Jim Halpert from The Office), who costars with his wife Emily Blunt, the horror entry is 97% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes (after sitting at 100% for much of the week). Weirdly, just a bit over a year ago we saw a widely acclaimed horror film by a first time director more well known for a tv show open big. Coincidence, I’m sure. While Get Out started with just $33 million, it declined just 15% the following weekend, on its way to $176 million and some Oscar nominations.
While I’m getting way ahead of myself (and A Quiet Place doesn’t have the social commentary that likely helped Get Out along in both the box office and awards departments), this is a big win for Paramount, which had several high profile misses in 2017 and not that many hits in 2016 either. Costing just $17 million to make, it’s already solidly profitable.
Ready Player One holds a bit better than expected, dropping 40% from last weekend to $25 million, giving it a total of $96.9 million after two weekends. It’ll hit $100 million with Monday’s box office, which is just fine, and keeping the drop under 50% in the second weekend was key to the long term here (where the long term is roughly two more weekends before Infinity War’s release). The nostalgia fest is probably headed to $150 million at its current pace, and it’s doing gangbusters overseas, so Warner Bros. has to be very happy with this so far, despite the underwhelming start domestically.
In another big upset this weekend, sex comedy Blockers not only takes third place on the weekend with $21.4 million, but it also finished with 83% at Rotten Tomatoes, which is something I don’t think anybody saw coming. Starring Leslie Mann and John Cena (which despite the film’s success, you won’t hear one mention of the R-rated comedy during WrestleMania), the raunch-fest was helped along by its reviews, which is one of the times they absolutely matter when it comes to box office. The price on this one was just $21 million so it’ll also end up as a solid win for Universal, and will also eventually become the biggest movie of John Cena’s career (in a lead role, anyway).
Black Panther makes history one last time in fourth place as it adds $8.4 million on the weekend (down just 27%), and $665.3 million in eight weekends. With Saturday’s box office, Black Panther passed Titanic to take over the #3 spot in all-time domestic box office. The question now is if there’s enough left in the tank to become the third $700 million film ever. It’s starting to run out of time as it begins to lose screens and again. We’re just two more weekends away from Infinity War taking the superhero spotlight. It’s going to be extremely close, but we’ll be sure to continue to keep an eye on it.
The best box office story of the year (non-Black Panther division) continues as I Can Only Imagine holds to fourth place with another $8.3 million, down just 20% from last weekend. After four weekends, it has earned $69 million on just a $7 million budget. While it seemed like Easter weekend would be the last hurrah for a faith-based entry that’s performing well at the box office, that didn’t seem to be the case here. The wheels have yet to fall off I Can Only Imagine (its worst weekend decline was 23%) and $100 million is still in the conversation, which would be remarkable.
Tyler Perry’s Acrimony (by Tyler Perry) drops 53% from last weekend to $8 million and giving it $31.3 million after two weekends. Perry’s films tend to not hold well, but it’s going to end up one of his more successful non-Madea movies. Made for just $20 million, Perry has always kept the budgets on his films low, and that’s why he keeps making them.
A third new release places seventh as Chappaquiddick opens with $6.2 million. An adaptation of an incident involving Ted Kennedy in the late '60s that derailed his political career (he was considered likely to run for President and win in 1972 if the event had never occurred), the timing on this film is very strange as it’s not really relevant to the current era and Kennedy died in 2009. Decently reviewed, (it’s being released way too early for him to actually get a nomination, but expect someone to make a case for Jason Clarke’s performance as Kennedy as worthy) the Entertainment Studios release was only in 1,560 theaters, so this performance is fine.
Sherlock Gnomes drops only 20% from last weekend with $5.6 million, and $33.8 million in three weekends. The very good hold is probably because there aren't too many other options in theaters right now for younger viewers (sorry kids, we can’t go see John Cena in Blockers, maybe when you’re older!), but it’s got a long way to go to reach its reported budget of $59 million.
Pacific Rim: Uprising continues to crater, dropping 48% in its third weekend to $4.9 million. It has earned just $54.9 million in three weekends. It’s hemorrhaging screens as well and will be a distant memory by next weekend. It did okay overseas, but the reported $150 million budget is an albatross for Universal once you factor in marketing costs.
Tenth place goes to the still expanding Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson. Adding 389 screens to 554 theaters this weekend, Isle of Dogs earned $4.6 million (up 56%) and has a total of $12 million after three weekends in limited release. A stop-motion animated film with voice acting by plenty of Anderson regulars, including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Angelica Huston, Tilda Swinton and others, Isle of Dogs has done very well so far and is expanding into wide release next weekend.
Carried big time by A Quiet Place, this weekend’s top 12 films earned $149.9 million, a nice bump up from last year’s $111.3 million when The Boss Baby’s second weekend led the way with $26.3 million.
Next weekend brings another video game adaptation in Rampage, starring The Rock, Blumhouse horror entry Truth or Dare, and a wide expansion of Isle of Dogs.