Friday Estimates: The Joker Laughs at the Competition

October 12, 2019

Joker

Joker remained in first place earning $17 million on Friday. This is 57% lower than the film’s opening Friday, which is a really good hold and puts it on pace for $58 million over the full weekend. This would lift its running tally to nearly $200 million after just 10 days of release and might even be enough to cover the film’s entire combined production and advertising budget.

The Addams Family was next with $9.72 million on Friday, putting it on pace for just over $30 million over the weekend. Its reviews are not helping things, nor is its B plus from CinemaScore. It’s a really bad sign when a family film fails to earn at least an A minus from CinemaScore. That said, it is still topping expectations at the box office, so even if the legs are weaker than average for a family film, it should manage a solid profit during its home market run.

I really thought Gemini Man would top The Addams Family on Friday, but that’s not the case, as it earned just $7.5 million. Its reviews are even worse, but it earned a B plus from CinemaScore, which is merely mediocre for an action film and not likely an omen for terrible things to come. The film would have to have unreasonably long legs to match our $24 million prediction; in fact, it has no better than a 50/50 chance of getting to just $20 million over the weekend. I don’t see the movie ever earning a profit, not unless it is a monster hit internationally.

Abominable was way back with $1.69 million on Friday, but this is actually on the high end of expectations, putting it on pace for $7 million over the full weekend. The film is going to come close to its production budget domestically and assuming it can find a similar sized audience internationally, relatively speaking, then it will break even sometime late in its home market run.

Downton Abbey rounded out the top five with $1.46 million on Friday, putting it on pace for $5 million over the weekend, which is on the high end of expectations.

Jexi was close behind with $1.1 million on Friday. However, unlike the previous film, its reviews are a disaster and it only managed a B minus from CinemaScore. Furthermore, it is a new release and not a holdover, which also means shorter legs and an opening of just under $3 million.

- Friday Box Office Chart

Filed under: Friday Estimates, Gemini Man, Abominable, The Addams Family, Joker, Downton Abbey, Jexi