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Still, I think Fox will be ecstatic if Kingsman 2 even approaches the $400 million mark. This is an expensive, star-studded film from the UK, and given a guest star lineup that includes Elton John, one might think you could market the hell out of this one overseas. Even so, $400 million is a tough task for any film.

The next film in the franchise has already been announced as going forward, but I think the real decision is still coming. - it will depend on how the foreign gross turns out. If the domestic gross can crack $100 million, I think we will see another Kingsman film from Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, X-Men: First Class) a director who certainly can take an interesting, over-the-top, spin on things. His Kingsman films resemble the Roger Moore James Bond films, which seemed to live in a different world of physics. If Flatliners and Tom Cruise’s American Made make the grade next weekend, there may be significant pressure on Kingsman 2's second weekend. Reviews for American Made have been solid thus far, but given the fact that Cruise is the star, it has to be considered a wild card.

Second this weekend is Warner Bros. and New Line’s It, which had another powerful weekend, earning another $30 million. It fell 50% compared to its second weekend gross, a strong figure considering the genre and the high box office numbers it has been pulling in. It became the highest grossing horror film this weekend, taking over from The Exorcist, and has climbed to a powerful $266.3 million. Overseas, It has also crossed the $200 million mark, pulling up to $211 million for a worldwide figure of $478 million. Remember, It cost only $34 million to make, so WB is whistling all the way to the bank on this one.

Our second new release this weekend, The LEGO Ninjago Movie, is third, but the blossom is coming off of the Lego franchise, or at least off of its choices of content. TLNM did not come close to the levels of the earlier LEGO releases, earning only $30 million over its first three days, compared to $69.1 million for The LEGO Movie and $53 million for The LEGO Batman movie. The choice of Ninjago likely limited the audience beyond where WB and LEGO wanted to go, but The LEGO Movie 2, due in February 2019, will likely get this franchise back to its winning ways. Made for $70 million, this one is going to have to stretch out some legs both home and abroad (it has $10.5 million over there to date) in order to save any face whatsoever.

American Assassin drops hard from a $15 million second place finish, to fourth this weekend. AA earned only $6.3 million with Kingsman clogging up the screen, and drops 58% compared to its opening frame. At a cost of $33 million, Lionsgate wrote off any expenses for this one through overseas sales, so a domestic take to date of $26.2 million will at least help with marketing and distribution costs. The Michael Keaton/Dylan O’Brien film will likely exit the domestic box office with less than $40 million.

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