Weekend Wrap-Up: Predator Tops Chart, Simple a Success
September 18, 2018
The Predator earned top spot on the weekend box office chart with $24.63 million. However, the best new release was arguably A Simple Favor with $16.01 million, as it is the only film that will match its production budget at the domestic box office. On the other hand, White Boy Rick struggled and will likely not pay for its $30 million price-tag any time soon, while Unbroken: Path to Redemption bombed. Overall, the weekend box office was $107 million, 12% lower than last weekend. It was also down from this weekend last year, but only by 3.5%. That’s better than expected at the beginning of the month and that’s great news for 2018. Granted, its lead over 2017 went down, but it still has a 9.6% / $740 million lead with $8.50 billion compared to $7.76 billion in 2017. It would take something incredible to happen to lose this entire lead by the end of the year.
The Predator opened with $24.63 million, which was more than enough to earn first place, but lower than anticipated. Additionally, neither its reviews nor its C plus from CinemaScore will help its legs. This is bad news, as the film cost $88 million to make, so it needed to do better than this during its opening weekend. Its early international numbers are not any better, so it looks like Fox will lose money on this one.
The Nun fell 66% to $18.24 million for a two-week total of $85.11 million. A 66% drop-off is rather sharp, but hardly unheard of, especially for a horror film. Furthermore, it is rapidly approaching $100 million and will surpass the franchise average shortly after that. There’s no way Warner Bros. isn’t happy with this result and it could get a direct sequel, if they can find time to release a film in-between the other sequels in the franchise.
A Simple Favor opened with $16.01 million, earning a solid third place finish along the way. Its reviews are over 80% positive, but it only managed B plus from CinemaScore, so I don’t expect extremely long legs. That said, it only cost $20 million to make, so it will match its production budget in about a week. If it can find any audience internationally, then it will break even early in its home market run. Even if it can’t, it will still likely break even by the time it hits streaming services.
White Boy Rick landed in fourth place with $8.86 million. This is within a rounding error of expectations, but it was the only new release on this list to top expectations, so that’s something. The film feels like Oscar-bait, but it barely managed overall positive reviews and its CinemaScore is just a B, so I don’t expect great legs. Its budget is just $30 million, so it could still break even, but it will need a lot of help internationally / on the home market.
Crazy Rich Asians rounded out the top five with $8.69 million over the weekend for a total of $149.54 million after a month of release. It became Warner Bros.’ first $150 million hit of 2018 on Monday.
Unbroken: Path to Redemption barely opened in the top ten with just $2.24 million in 1,620 theaters. It opened well below the Mendoza Line, so its reviews and word-of-mouth won’t matter, as theater owners will be looking to drop it A.S.A.P.
Looking in on the sophomore class, Peppermint fell 55% to $6.00 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $24.18 million. This is about what it cost to make. It will still need help internationally / on the home market to break even, but even if it doesn’t get it, it shouldn’t lose a lot of money. On the other hand, God Bless the Broken Road plummeted 69% to just $432,000 over the weekend for a two-week total of $2.40 million. Its theater average is just $360, so I would be amazed if it is still playing in more than a couple of hundred theaters on Friday.
- The Predator Comparisons
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- A Simple Favor Comparisons
- White Boy Rick Comparisons
- Unbroken: Path to Redemption Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, White Boy Rick, The Predator, God Bless the Broken Road, The Nun, Crazy Rich Asians, Unbroken: Path to Redemption, A Simple Favor, Peppermint, The Conjuring