Weekend Estimates: Annabelle to the Rescue

August 13, 2017

Annabelle: Creation

After a series of lackluster weekends at the box office, Annabelle: Creation is doing its bit to clear away the end-of-Summertime blues with a $35 million opening this weekend. That’s right in line with the $37 million Annabelle opened with three years ago, which is an impressive performance for a horror franchise. It’s also the best opening for a horror movie since Split’s $40 million start back in January. The first film in the franchise fell away quite rapidly, and ended up with $84 million in total, so a final total of over $100 million is far from assured, but with a production budget of only $15 million, and probably not much more than $20 million in marketing, this should be a highly profitable movie for Warner Bros., especially since the franchise is popular globally.

Warner Bros. has been on a bit of a roll recently, with this hit coming on the heals of Wonder Woman and Dunkirk (with, to be fair, The House landing with a thud in between). The studio is now in third place for the year behind Disney and Universal, and has passed $1 billion in 2017 domestically.

The happy outcome for Annabelle can’t mask the fact that we have two more duds on our hands this weekend. The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature has stumbled out the gate with $8.9 million from 4,003 theaters. That’s by far the worst opening for a film playing in over 4,000 theaters (see chart). Notably, it’s the third time that record has broken this year, with The Mummy’s $31.6 million debut being “beaten” by The Emoji Movie just two weeks ago. That film’s $24.5 million opening doesn’t look so bad now, although Sony will have spent much more on marketing than Open Road, which evens things out a little.

The other film to fail to match up to initial hopes is The Glass Castle, which will end up with $4.8 million from 1,461 theaters for Lionsgate. As a movie aimed at an older demographic, it badly needed good reviews, and didn’t manage to get enough of them to tip the balance.

One standout film in limited release this weekend is Ingrid Goes West, which is set for $141,216 from just three theaters, according to distributor Neon. The distributor looks like it’s taking a leaf out of A24’s playbook, both in the type of film (a darkly comedic look at modern day life), and in the release strategy. It seems to be paying off.

The other standout film in limited release is A24’s own Good Time, which will post a projected $137,625 from four movie houses. Also cracking the $10,000 theater average mark is The Trip to Spain, with $45,306 from three venues. That’s a little softer than the debuts of the previous two films in the franchise, although this one will, like the others, likely run for a while (both previous outings topped $2 million by the end of their runs).

Also having a great weekend is Well Go USA, which is distributing Wolf Warrior 2 for The H Collective, and has earned nearly $2 million from that title in three weeks. Well Go also had two great launches of its own this weekend: Korean film A Taxi Driver opens with about $332,000 from 41 theaters, and Chinese film Once Upon a Time will make a projected $256,500 from 51 locations. That’s over $1 million for the weekend for the distributor—handsome money for a small independent.

- Weekend estimates

- All-time highest-grossing films worldwide

- Annabelle: Creation comparison chart
- The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature comparison chart
- The Glass Castle comparison chart
- The Dark Tower comparison chart
- Detroit comparison chart
- Kidnap comparison chart
- Dunkirk comparison chart
- The Emoji Movie comparison chart
- Girls Trip comparison chart
- Atomic Blonde comparison chart
- Spider-Man: Homecoming comparison chart
- Despicable Me 3 comparison chart
- Baby Driver comparison chart
- Wonder Woman comparison chart

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Wonder Woman, The Mummy, The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, The House, Good Time, Dunkirk, The Glass Castle, The Emoji Movie, Annabelle: Creation, Ingrid Goes West, The Trip to Spain, Once Upon a Time, Taeksi Woonjunsa, Zhan Lang 2, The Trip