Thanks to two big new releases, the box office at least saw somewhat of a revival this weekend, even if neither film did quite as well as anticipated.
Spectre opened to $73M in its domestic opening weekend. While that may sound like a good start, it’s honestly a bit disappointing. In comparison, Skyfall did $93.8M adjusted in its opening, which included around $2M from early Thursday IMAX shows, something that is now just included in the total weekend gross. In terms of ticket sales, it was down around 23%, which is a pretty alarming drop. In comparison, Quantum of Solace pulled in $78M in its opening weekend, which was a whopping $28M jump on the very well received Casino Royale. Skyfall was also very well liked, with a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score and 7.8/10 score on IMDb. While it would’ve been unreasonable to assume that Spectre could top Skyfall it at least seemed like it could get to $80M. A 23% drop is a pretty bad hold for any sequel, and considering the lack of competition and good will from its predecessor, its safe to say that this is a slight disappointment domestically. However, it still did great business overseas, where it is currently up to nearly $300M already (just $4M shy). While the film was originally reported as costing $300M, the official number has gone down to a more reasonable $245M. That’s still a massive price tag, especially since marketing added another $150M if not more. This is going to need a lot in order to break even, which it should be able to do thanks to the foreign audience.
The Peanuts Movie opened to a solid $45M this weekend. That’s a pretty good start, even if it is lower than Wreck-it Ralph and Big Hero 6. It makes sense given that Ralph and Big Hero 6 were both big action comedies, whereas Peanuts is much more low-stakes, seemingly just about kids being kids, something that was apparently more suited to television. Given that lack of a great and intriguing premise, that’s still a pretty solid start given that it was mostly appealing to the adult audiences, as the Peanuts license is not exactly a hot brand with younger kids.
Despite facing its first legitimate competition, The Martian somehow had its lowest drop yet. It dipped down just 21%, grossing $9.3M for a new domestic total of $197M. By next week it should easily top the double century mark, and can still probably get to around $220M. That would be enough to bump Cinderella for a higher spot on the top 10.
Goosebumps did pretty solid business as well, with $6.95M in its fourth weekend. That’s surprising given that it had direct competition from Peanuts and losing the advantage of Halloween. That brings its new domestic total to $66.4M, and a worldwide total of $92.2M.
Bridge of Spies dipped down 28% in its fourth weekend. Considering it received competition from an (admittedly very different) spy movie, grossing $6M. It’s up to nearly $55M domestic and can still probably gross another $10-$15M before the end of its run. Its holding extremely well for any kind of movie, as its already almost quadrupled its opening weekend in just a month.
In the limited release area, Spotlight, Trumbo and Brooklyn were all standouts. Each opening in five theaters, Spotlight was the highest with $302K, for an astounding per theater average of $60,455. Brooklyn was in second with $181K in its opening and $237K since its Wednesday start. That gives it a $47K average for the five day, which is a great start for something that was, at least from the advertising, a pretty basic love story. It happened to be helped up by its 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and excellent buzz. Trumbo was the lowest grossing but still very solid with a $15K average, and a $77K overall gross. THis seemed like something that would play better to mainstream audiences, so this comparatively lower debut makes sense as it wasn’t really trying to appeal to the arthouse crowd. If it can gain some more solid weekends and Oscar buzz than it should easily be able to gross $20M or more domestic.
Bombs and Blockbusters 