Weekend Wrap-Up

By David Mumpower and Kim Hollis

August 23, 2015

I love period pieces.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
Rogue Nation earned $11.7 million this weekend, bringing its domestic total to $157.8 million. While it won’t match Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’s $209.4 million, it has certainly maintained the strength of one of the highest quality franchises going today. Rogue Nation has earned an additional $280.8 million internationally, giving it a worldwide take of $438.6 million.

We finally get to the first of our new openers in third place. Sinister 2, the horror sequel to the 2012 Blumhouse success, debuted with only $10.6 million. That’s 41% less than the first film earned during its first weekend, as the original was able to take advantage of decent reviews and Ethan Hawke’s name to earn $18 million during its October release weekend. The sequel had no such advantages. Its Rotten Tomatoes score was a pathetic 12%, while the biggest star was Shannyn Sossamon, whom we like a lot but hasn’t been a draw since, well, ever.

The good news for Focus Features is that Sinister 2 was put together on a fairly small budget, although at $10 million, production costs were higher than most Blumhouse projects. Still, with more than $10 million in the bank already, it should be a profitable venture, even if it has to wait for home video revenue to get there.

If you have been clamoring for a movie reboot of the Hitman videogame franchise, well, you’re in the company of about one million other people in North America. Hitman: Agent 47 earned $8.2 million, putting to rest the notion that anyone was ever that excited about a film adaptation of a game that had its last console version in 2012. The 2007 version of Hitman, which starred Justified’s Timothy Olyphant, wasn’t a big hit in the first place, opening with $13.2 million before going on to earn less than $40 million domestically.




Advertisement



Hitman: Agent 47 had a terrible Rotten Tomatoes score of just 7%, and its word-of-mouth is looking to be average at best, as its Cinemascore came in at a B. Agent 47 had an estimated budget around $35 million, and given the results from the original film, you have to wonder who at Fox thought it would be a good idea to distribute it in the first place. At least they don’t seem to have spent much in marketing.

In its second weekend, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. falls 45% to $7.4 million. It was unfortunate for Warner Bros. and the people behind this project that Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation moved back to late July, as U.N.C.L.E. seemed to cower in its shadow. Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer may eventually be able to draw audiences, but their time has not yet arrived (unless Cavill is wearing the Superman suit). So far, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. has a domestic total of $26.6 million, which means it’s going to have to hope for a solid overseas performance if it’s going to make any sort of profit.

Sixth place goes to our final new release, American Ultra. A sort of weird combination of Pineapple Express and maybe the Bourne Identity, this Jesse Eisenberg/Kristen Stewart film couldn’t really strike a chord with movie-goers, earning just $5.5 million from a somewhat subdued venue count of 2,778. That’s not even as much as their last collaboration, Adventureland, made in its first weekend. And if you’re wondering, Adventureland is not what anyone would consider a hit, although it is fondly remembered as an underappreciated gem. That’s probably not going to be the case for American Ultra, as it’s dealing with a 45% score at Rotten Tomatoes and a B- Cinemascore. At least the budget was pretty small.


Continued:       1       2       3

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.