Weekend Forecast for October 30 - November 1, 2015
By Reagen Sulewski
October 30, 2015
And now we move from “I see why you thought that would work” to “what in the hell were you thinking?” with Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, a horror comedy from the writer of the Paranormal Activity films along with the writers of College Road Trip. I presume they're using Terrence Howard's math here to get 1x1=2, because the mix appears to be toxic and insane. It's a kitchen sink approach to film-making and with a dime-store budget, delivering a result that looks pretty abhorrent to just about everyone with taste.
The basic plot is this: a trio of high school boy scouts (do they exist still?) discover during a hiking trip that the zombie apocalypse has finally broken out. Then, a whole bunch of sex and gore jokes happen, occasionally at the same time. A truly amateurish looking film, it's trying very hard to be Superbad and/or Zombieland, but lacks the edge or wit of either, and with an R rating has actually aged itself out of its target audience. While the Halloween release weekend seems like it might help, it's actually the worst one for horror films, with Oct 31st being given over to parties and trick or treating instead of theaters. On a release slate of only 1,500 venues or so, I'd look for just $3 million this weekend.
After one weekend out of first, The Martian recaptured the top spot last weekend thanks to the utter failure of everything last weekend. With a little under $16 million, it's reached the $170 million mark domestically, and should pull in another $10 million to win its fourth weekend out of five in release. You usually only see this kind of thing in September, but the extreme weakness of this month has led to this.
Goosebumps should be close behind – noting, as above, that its core audience is out getting candy this weekend, with around $90 million as a final target for this film. Bridge of Spies should pull in about $7 million for its third weekend, and should be aiming for about $60 million domestic, unless awards season gives it a push (an outside bet at best). It's one of the lower grossing movies in Spielberg's career, but that was expected at the outset. Lastly, we have The Last Witch Hunter, which will prove to be an accurate title. Starting with a little under $11 million, its bad word-of-mouth should see it fall to about $5 million this weekend, and maybe get it to $30 million domestic.
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Forecast: Weekend of October 30-November 1, 2015
|
Rank |
Film |
Number of
Sites |
Changes in Sites
from Last |
Estimated
Gross ($) |
|
1
|
The Martian
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
10.8
|
|
2
|
Goosebumps
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
9.9
|
|
3
|
Bridge of Spies
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
7.5
|
|
4
|
Our Brand Is Crisis
|
2,202
|
New
|
7.0
|
|
5
|
Burnt
|
3,003
|
New
|
6.3
|
|
6
|
The Last Witch Hunter
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
5.3
|
|
7
|
Hotel Transylvania 2
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
5.0
|
|
8
|
Steve Jobs
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
4.4
|
|
9
|
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
3.8
|
|
10
|
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
|
1,509
|
New
|
3.1
|
Continued:
1
2
|
|
|
|
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