Weekend Wrap-Up

Halloween and Hollywood Devastate Box Office

By John Hamann

November 1, 2015

Matt Damon's not the only one who went to Mars, dammit!

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Moving up a spot from fifth the last two weekends, Hotel Transylvania 2 rises to fourth. The animated Adam Sandler flick earned another $5.8 million in its sixth weekend, falling 34%. Weekend six for the original Hotel Transylvania took place in early November, when it earned $4.4 million after it fell 53%. At that point in its run, the original had earned $137.5 million. The sequel has already outgrossed the entire original with $156 million in the domestic kitty so far. The original picked up $210 million overseas, and currently the sequel has $167.5 million, but it opened in China last Tuesday and debuts in few more markets this weekend.

That puts our first opener in fifth, and it's Burnt (which is the title of the movie, not the box office result). The Bradley Cooper cooking movie opened at 3,003 locations, and despite the large venue count, it has an opening weekend of only $5 million. For a film debuting on more than 3,000 screens, Burnt joins the top five worst openers ever, as the fifth worst is What's Your Number? with Anna Faris and Chris Evans, which debuted to $5.4 million from 3,002 screens in September 2011. The budget for the Weinstein release was luckily only $20 million, so if it can manage $15 million stateside and $40 million overseas, the producers will do okay. The problem it has is that it's 29% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes and earned a B- Cinemascore. This is another example of Oscar bait that failed to sell, because audiences caught the burning smell before buying a ticket.

Vin Diesel's The Last Witch Hunter falls to sixth. After debuting last weekend to $10.8 million, audiences abandoned Witch Hunter this frame. It earned only $4.8 million, off 56%. This one cost $70 million to make, but we hear that Lionsgate sold off foreign territories to reduce their financial risk. Good thing - it looks like Witch Hunter will top out with less than $30 million. So far, The Last Witch Hunter has rung up $18.6 million stateside, and about twice that overseas.




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Seventh is Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension. After debuting with a disappointing $8.1 million last weekend, Halloween does not help The Ghost Dimension. The sequel earned only $3.5 million in its second weekend and declined 57%. It $10 million to make and will only stay in theaters for 17 days before moving to VOD. As discussed last weekend - and the same will apply to Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse - both of these films will be long since dead at the box office by their 17th day, which makes the release strategy more of a money grab than a new release strategy. The Ghost Dimension has earned $13.6 million domestically and has about $38 million from overseas venues.

Way down in eighth is Our Brand is Crisis, the Sandra Bullock starrer with George Clooney in the producer's chair. This is a movie that looks great on paper, but the result is a disaster, resulting in the lowest opening gross in Sandra Bullock's career. Our Brand is Crisis earned only $3.4 million this weekend from 2,202 venues. While it doesn't join the biggest losers of all-time list like last weekend's Jem and the Holograms and Rock the Kasbah, it is in the top 40 worst openers of all time. Our Brand is Crisis came in at 33% fresh and earned the death knell Cinemascore of a B-. Made for $28 million, this is another flop that was likely imagined as an Oscar contender. Social media saves the day again.


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