Weekend Wrap-Up
Halloween and Hollywood Devastate Box Office
By John Hamann
November 1, 2015
Ninth is Crimson Peak, another of October's small disasters. This weekend, the Guillermo Del Toro flick earned only $3.1 million, off 45% compared to last weekend. After opening to $13.1 million a few weekends ago, this one has disappeared quickly. The $55 million film has earned $27.7 million stateside, and has a similar amount overseas.
Tenth is Steve Jobs, which receives the crushing blow this weekend. After going wide with an extremely disappointing $7.1 million last weekend, the wheels really fell off. Steve Jobs earned only $2.6 million and dropped 64%. That should put the fork in this one's Oscar hopes, despite being extremely well reviewed. Unless something odd happens, Steve Jobs is going to top out a little over $20 million and be a memory before you know it. So far, the Universal release has picked up $14.5 million.
Finishing outside of the top ten is Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, which certainly did not get the Walking Dead types out. Out to only 1,509 venues, Scouts could only manage $1.8 million, which is barely enough for the participation badge. Poorly made and poorly marketed, Scouts Guide will be on VOD in two weeks, where it will find its limited audience.
Truth, the Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett drama about the George Bush 60 Minutes scandal that saw Dan Rather lose his job, bottomed out this weekend despite being out to 1,122 venues this weekend. It earned only $900,000 from those screens, giving it a brutal average of $803. Reviews weren't good enough (58% fresh) so despite the casting, this one was doomed to failure.
Last weekend’s openers – the two that finished #4 and #5 on the worst openers of all-time list, are only worth mentioning for their continued failure. Rock the Kasbah could only muster $353,000, off 76% from last weekend's sad take. Jem and the Holograms did even worse, as it earned only $290,000, giving it a drop of 79%. While these aren’t the biggest drops of all-time, they both land in the top 30 worst, with Jem and the Holograms in the top 10.
As expected, the total for the top 12 films hit the skids this weekend, but it’s even worse than originally expected with Saturday being Halloween. The top 12 films could only find $62 million this weekend, an amount the opening of Spectre should easily overcome next weekend. A year ago, Halloween fell on a Friday, but the box office still managed to earn $80 million with Ouija on top and Nightcrawler debuting in second with $10 million. Next weekend will be the complete opposite of this frame. I expect Spectre to hit $80 million and would not be surprised if The Peanuts Movie did $45 million.
Top Ten for Weekend of October 30 - November 1, 2015
|
Rank |
Film |
Distributor |
Estimated Gross (in millions) |
Weekly Change |
Cumulative Gross ($) |
1
|
The Martian
|
20th Century Fox
|
11.4
|
-28%
|
182.8
|
2
|
Goosebumps
|
Sony Pictures
|
10.2
|
-34%
|
57.1
|
3
|
Bridge of Spies
|
Walt Disney
|
8.1
|
-29%
|
45.2
|
4
|
Hotel Transylvania 2
|
Sony Pictures
|
5.8
|
-34%
|
156.0
|
5
|
Burnt
|
Weinstein Co.
|
5.0
|
New
|
5.0
|
6
|
The Last Witch Hunter
|
Lionsgate
|
4.8
|
-56%
|
18.6
|
7
|
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
|
Paramount
|
3.5
|
-57%
|
13.6
|
8
|
Our Brand is Crisis
|
Warner Bros.
|
3.4
|
New
|
3.4
|
9
|
Crimson Peak
|
Universal
|
3.1
|
-45%
|
27.7
|
10
|
Steve Jobs
|
Universal
|
2.6
|
-64%
|
14.5
|
11
|
The Intern
|
Warner Bros.
|
2.4
|
-37%
|
68.5
|
12
|
Scouts Guide to the Apocalypse
|
Paramount
|
1.8
|
New
|
1.8
|
Continued:
1
2
3
|
|
|
|