Weekend Estimates: Labor Day Weekend Looking Better Than Expected

September 3, 2017

The Hitman’s Bodyguard

This weekend is somewhat uncharted territory for the movie industry, with no new releases rolling out in over 1,000 theaters and no dominant film already playing. Fortunately, the result is looking like a glass that is at least half full. Thanks in part to the holiday weekend, and the start of recovery from Hurricane Harvey, several returning films improved their box office from last weekend, and the number one film, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, will remain flat from its last outing, with $10.25 million expected by Lionsgate, and a total around $55 million by the end of the day on Sunday.

The biggest gainers are family movies, with Cars 3 riding a big increase in theaters back into the top 20 with $1.7 million for the weekend. The film passes the $150 million milestone in the process, making it the 18th out of 19 films to do that for Pixar at the domestic box office. Despicable Me 3 moves back into the top 10 with $2.36 million, and Leap! rises 3% in its second weekend to $4.9m, for $11.4 million so far. Family-friendly super hero movies are also doing well this weekend, with Spider-Man: Homecoming up 29% to $3.65 million (and $324 million in total), and Wonder Woman gaining 15% to $1.92 million, and $409 million to date.

Weinstein is having an interesting weekend overall. As well as getting an uptick in business for Leap!, the distributor has Wind River entering the top 3 in its fifth weekend in release, with $5.9 million or so from 2,602 theaters, for a total of $18.3 million. Their third film to chart is Tulip Fever, which, after all sorts of delays, will finally open with $1.2 million from 765 locations, and in a distant 22nd place. Nerdy fact of the week: that’s the 5th-biggest weekend for a movie finishing in 22nd place in the chart. (Most of the records for highest-box-office-in-nth place come from January, 2007, by the way, with the weekend of January 12, 2007 being a standout example of box office income being spread far and wide).

The best theater average for a wide-ish release this weekend goes to Hazlo Como Hombre, with $1.125 million in 382 theaters, for an average of $2,945. (It’s also the 5th-highest-earner in 23rd place of all time, if you’re interested.) That’s not particularly strong, but two films are having good debuts in limited release: Viceroy’s House will make an estimated $44,736 from four theaters, and Dolores is shooting for $14,125 from a single location.

Most importantly, this weekend will be up overall from last weekend, and comfortably avoid the ignominy of being the worst industry weekend of the century—something that was looking fairly likely this time last week.

- Weekend estimates
- Worst overall weekend for all movies

- All-time highest-grossing films worldwide

- Hazlo Como Hombre Comparisons
- Tulip Fever Comparisons
- The Hitman’s Bodyguard comparison chart
- Annabelle: Creation comparison chart
- Leap! Comparisons
- Logan Lucky comparison chart
- Dunkirk comparison chart
- Spider-Man: Homecoming comparison chart
- The Emoji Movie comparison chart

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Despicable Me 3, Tulip Fever, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Cars 3, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Ballerina, Wind River, Viceroy’s House, Dolores, Hazlo Como Hombre