Weekend Wrap-Up: Hitman Guards the Top of the Chart with $10.26 million

August 29, 2017

Leap!

Amazingly, the weekend box office was actually worse than expected, as every new release we talked about in our predictions missed the Mendoza Line*. This left The Hitman’s Bodyguard with an easy first place with $10.26 million during its second weekend of release, just avoiding the bottom ten worst number one films of the 21st century. It could break the record next weekend, as there are no new wide releases looking to take top spot. Overall, the box office plummeted 28% to just $69 million. This is in the bottom ten smallest domestic weekends of the 21st century, 13th worst including the year 2000. (Interestingly, the year 2000 produced 5 of the worst 7 weekends in that time frame and September 2000 alone has 4 of the 5 worst weekends.) Again, since there are no new wide releases next weekend, we could see this record fall. The $69 million weekend total is 41% lower than the same weekend last year, which is a decline you normally only see when there is a misalignment in holidays. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a similar decline several times in recent weeks. Year-to-date, 2017 has pulled in $7.32 billion, which is $490 million or 6.2% less than 2016’s pace. We really need 2017 to put up some wins soon, or we simply won’t be able to turn around the deficit before the end of the year.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard added $10.26 million during its second weekend of release, lifting its total to $39.83 million. This is already more than the film cost to make, so the studio should be happy with this result. They will also be happy if the film breaks the record for worst number one film of the 21st century next weekend, because that means the film will have earned first place at the box office three weeks in a row.

Annabelle: Creation was second with $7.68 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $78.21 million. The film will get close to $100 million, but it will lose a lot of its theaters when It comes out in two weeks. I think that will prevent it from hitting the century mark.

Leap! opened in third place with $4.73 million during its opening weekend. This is actually better than our prediction, by a tiny margin, but still low enough that it missed the Mendoza Line. If you average the reviews under its two names, then its Tomatometer Score is just over 50% positive, while it earned an A from CinemaScore. This suggests reasonable legs. However, its opening theater average suggest a lot of theater owners will drop it as soon as they are contractually able to.

Wind River did better than expected this past weekend with $4.60 million over the weekend for a total of $10.03 million, including its limited release run. The reviews are great, but its theater average is not that much more than $2,000, so theater owners won’t be itching to keep this film around once real competition starts coming out.

Logan Lucky rounded out the top five with $4.24 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $14.91 million. There’s no real competition coming out this week, so it could hold onto the vast majority of its theater count on Friday. However, when It comes out, Logan Lucky will all but disappear.

Birth of the Dragon managed eighth place, which is better than expected, but mainly because the competition was so much weaker than expected. It only manged $2.70 million in 1,600 screens over the weekend, which is below the Mendoza Line. This means theater owners will be looking to drop it ASAP. Furthermore, its reviews are awful and it only managed a B from CinemaScore, so its legs will be short.

Mayweather vs. McGregor was a single-show event that earned $2.6 million in 532 theaters. This is very impressive for an event like this and I can see this happening again in the future.

All Saints missed the top ten by a large margin earning only $1.51 million in 846 theaters over the weekend. The film earned 90% positive reviews, but that won’t matter, as its theater average is below the Mendoza Line, so theater owners will drop it in a couple of weeks.

* Mendoza line - when a movie makes less than $2,000/theater

- Weekend Box Office Chart

- Leap! Comparisons
- All Saints Comparisons
- Birth of the Dragon Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Preview, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Birth of the Dragon, Annabelle: Creation, Ballerina, Wind River, Logan Lucky, All Saints, Mayweather vs. McGregor