Weekend Wrap-up: Madea Treats Herself to $28.50 Million

October 25, 2016

Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween

2016 finally has a real reason to celebrate this weekend. Not every film topped expectations, but the top did enough to overcome any weakness at the bottom. The biggest hit of the week was Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween, which beat expectations with $28.50 million. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back had to settle for second place with $22.87 million, which is still better than most were predicting. Ouija: Origin of Evil did well for a movie that cost just $9 million to make, but the less said about the other two new releases, the better. Overall, the box office rose 26% from last week, reaching $124 million. More importantly, the box office was 18% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2016 extended its lead over 2015 at $8.93 billion to $8.53 billion. Having a $400 million cushion this late in the year is good news, even with The Force Awakens looming in the future.

Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween opened with $28.50 million over the weekend and it did this despite missing expectations on Thursday. In fact, the film got stronger as the weekend went on beating studio estimates by nearly $1 million. On the downside, the reviews are bad. On the plus side, its CinemaScore was a solid A. Back to the downside, Madea tend to have really short legs and even getting to $60 million will be tough. Back to the plus side, even getting to $50 million will likely result in a profit early in the film’s home market run.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back landed in second place with $22.87 million, which is a little better than our prediction. It is also close to what The Accountant and The Girl on the Train opened with the past two weekends. Unfortunately, Never Go Back cost more to make than both of those films combined. The reviews are weak and the CinemaScore was a middling B+, so don’t expect long legs.

Ouija: Origin of Evil cost a mere $9 million, so its third-place, $14.07 million opening is very good, even if it is a little below our prediction. The film also had the best reviews of the wide releases this past weekend, although its CinemaScore was a mere C. Halloween is next week, so the film should hold on better than most horror movies do and if it can get close to $40 million domestically, it will likely break even during its initial push into the home market.

The Accountant fell from first to fourth place with $13.64 million over the weekend for a total of $47.54 million after two weeks of release. It has now earned more domestically than it cost to make. It is still too soon to tell where the film will finish internationally, but if it merely matches its domestic box office internationally, then it will break even before its home market run.

The Girl on the Train rounded out the top five with $7.17 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $58.80 million. The film has already made $100 million worldwide, so its entire production budget is paid for and so is a significant portion of its advertising budget. It will break even, it is just a matter of when.

Keeping Up with the Joneses only managed seventh place with $5.46 million in just over 3,000 theaters. The Mendoza Line* has lost some of its sting, because digital distribution makes it cheaper to gets films into theaters, while VOD has become more important than theatrical numbers for most limited releases. However, earning a per theater average of less than $2,000 is still devastating for a wide release. Add in terrible reviews and a B- CinemaScore and the film will likely crash next weekend.

I’m Not Ashamed did even worse landing in 15th place with $927,000. It too missed the Mendoza Line and it will disappear from theaters as soon as theater owners are contractually able to.

As for the sophomore class, Kevin Hart: What Now led the way with $4.12 million over the weekend for a total of $18.95 million after ten days of release. It is doing well enough to break even, but not as well as Kevin Hart’s previous stand-up comedy concert film. I think this is because Let Me Explain came out before Kevin Hart exploded as a movie star, so fans of his didn’t have several movies they could watch instead of the concert movie. Meanwhile, Max Steel crashed and burned with just $680,000 over the weekend for a total of $3.43 million after two weeks of release. It will disappear before reaching $5 million, meaning it will do worse than many limited releases released this year.

- Weekend Box Office Chart

- Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Comparisons
- Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween Comparisons
- Ouija: Origin of Evil Comparisons
- Keeping Up with the Joneses Comparisons
- I’m Not Ashamed Comparisons

*Mendoza Line: $2,000 per theater

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Ouija: Origin of Evil, The Accountant, Keeping Up with the Joneses, Kevin Hart: What Now?, The Girl on the Train, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Max Steel, Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween, I’m Not Ashamed, Madea, Kevin Hart