Weekend Wrap-Up: Abominable Leads Small Box Office
October 1, 2019
Abominable led the way at the box office this weekend, but there wasn’t a lot to celebrate. That film merely did okay for this time of year, while there were no other new releases to boost the box office. This led to a 25% drop-off from last weekend, down to a mere $92 million. Worse still, this is 13% lower than the same weekend last year when Night School and Smallfoot were a strong one-two box office punch. We’ve had a couple of winning weeks in a row, so this loss doesn’t hurt 2019’s chances too much and the deficit is practically the same as it was last week at 5.6% or $490 million at $8.28 billion to $8.77 billion.
Abominable opened with $20.61 million over the weekend, which is good, for this time of year, but nothing special. Its reviews and its A-rating from CinemaScore do suggest long legs, but it does have direct competition opening in a couple of weeks. The film should end up as a midlevel hit, but nothing more.
Downton Abbey fell 54% during its sophomore stint earning $14.34 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $58.35 million. This sharper than expected decline is a little troubling, but since the movie reportedly cost $20 million or less to make, it is already enough to be considered a financial success. It will break even before it reaches the home market, unless its advertising budget was unreasonably large.
Hustlers rose to third place with $11.39 million over the weekend for a running tally of $80.55 million after just three weeks of release. The film will get to $100 million and won’t even need a boost by the studio to get there. In fact, given this decline, it is not impossible that it will become STX Entertainment’s biggest hit of all time.
It: Chapter Two remained in fourth place with $10.25 million over the weekend for a total of $193.77 million after four weeks of release. It will get to $200 million, likely during the upcoming weekend.
Ad Astra fell from second to fifth with $10.01 million during its second weekend of release, pushing its running total to $35.40 million. This is a good hold, but the film started out slow enough and it cost so much to make that it is too little, too late to save its financial future.
Rambo: Last Blood missed the top five with $8.60 million, down 54% from its opening weekend. The film has earned $33.17 million so far and it will get to $50 million in total. That’s not enough to be a major hit, but it is likely enough to break even sometime during its home market run.
Judy was next with $2.91 million despite only playing in 461 theaters. The film’s reviews suggest the word-of-mouth will be a major asset, while it had the best theater average in the top 40 films and it has room to grow. It just needs some major Awards Season buzz and it will be in for a long run in theaters.
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Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Abominable, Ad Astra, It: Chapter Two, Judy, Hustlers, Downton Abbey, Rambo: Last Blood