Weekend Predictions: Winchester Takes Aim at the Competition
February 1, 2018
It’s Super Bowl weekend and the only film attempting to compete with the sporting event is Winchester. Unfortunately, its nearly noon on Thursday and there are still no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. This means Maze Runner: The Death Cure and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle will be in a race for first place over the weekend, while Winchester will have to settle for third place. This weekend last year, Rings was the biggest new release of the week. It wasn’t a hit, but it was bigger than any film this week will be, preventing 2018 from winning the year-over-year competition.
It looks like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is going to regain first place over the weekend with just over $11 million. The film has been practically unstoppable and I’m starting to wonder if it will catch up with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 on the 2017 chart.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure will likely drop just over 50% to around $11 million this weekend. Its reviews are mixed and it only earned a B plus from CinemaScore, so it likely won’t have good legs here. On the other hand, it is doing well enough internationally that its domestic numbers really won’t matter.
Winchester is loosely inspired by the real-life story of Sarah Winchester, played by Helen Mirren. Sarah is the heir to the Winchester fortune, but she thought she was haunted by the ghosts of all the people killed by Winchester guns over the years, so she built a massive mansion to hold them all. I’m really intrigued by this movie, but there are still no reviews, so I’m not bullish about its box office chances. I don’t think it will bomb, but I’m predicting third place with between $8 million and $9 million.
The Greatest Showman has been almost permanently stuck in fourth place since it was released and this week will likely be the same earning about $7 million.
The Post and Hostiles look like they will be in a two-way tie for fifth place with $6 million each.
Filed under: Weekend Preview, The Greatest Showman, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Winchester, The Post, Hostiles, Helen Mirren