Night School was able to take #1 at the box office this weekend with a $27.2 million opening. While it came in slightly below expectations, it is still a strong start for the film, as it cost only $29 million. It is also the highest comedy opening of the year, surpassing Crazy Rich Asians (which opened on a Wednesday) and Blockers ($20.5 million). The film further shows that Kevin Hart is one of the most reliable and critic-proof draws working today, and Tiffany Haddish is on her way to join him.
Second place was Warner Bros.’ Smallfoot with a respectable $23 million. While nothing spectacular, the film should become a modest success for WB as it doesn’t face any animated competition until The Grinch on November 9.
Last weekend’s champion, The House with a Clock in Its Walls came in third place, dropping 52% for a $12.6 million second weekend, bringing the PG film to a $44.8 million cumulative gross, surpassing its $42 million budget in 10 days. It will be interesting to see how the film plays out the rest of its run, as Halloween approaches, but it faces Goosebumps 2 on October 12, another PG rated, family-targeted Halloween movie starring Jack Black.
Lionsgate’s A Simple Favor had another strong hold, finishing in fourth with $6.5 million, for just over $43 million after its third weekend. The R-Rated mystery/comedy/thriller from Paul Feig is a much-needed hit for Lionsgate, and should soon surpass Overboard‘s $50.3 million to become the studios biggest hit of the year.
The Nun took fifth with another $5.4 million it its fourth weekend for an impressive $109 million so far. The fifth installment in the Conjuring cinematic universe is showing the franchise to be incredibly profitable, as The Nun also became the highest grossing film in the franchise worldwide, with $329 million, surpassing 2013’s The Conjuring‘s $319 million.
In something of a surprise, Hell Fest grossed $5.1 million in its opening weekend, which was on the upper end of forecasts and enough for sixth place. With a $5.5 million budget, the slasher film should have no trouble making a profit.
Crazy Rich Asians continues its crazy run, as it became the highest grossing romantic comedy in over a decade, surpassing 2009’s The Proposal as it grossed $4.1 million to bring it to $165.5 million after its seventh weekend. Its the highest grossing rom-com since 2005’s Hitch. The two films are neck and neck with their grosses lately, so it’s a toss up as to whether or not Crazy can surpass it. Regardless, having already made back its budget five times over, the film is nothing less than a massive success.
Rounding out the top 10 are The Predator ($3.8 million), White Boy Rick ($2.4 million), and Peppermint ($1.7 million).
In other news, documentary Free Solo posted the best opening weekend per theater average of the year with a $72,551 average from four theaters for a strong $290,000 weekend, making it the latest successful documentary in a year that has been full of them.
On the other side of this, Assissination Nation had a horrible weekend, losing 80.4% of its audience as it made just $206,000 in its second weekend, putting it in 29th place for the weekend. This is the 10th worst second-weekend drop of all time. It actually made less than Free Solo despite playing in 258 times the amount of theaters.
Next week, Sony’s Venom with Tom Hardy attempts to break the October opening weekend record, while Warner Bros’s A Star is Born, starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, looks to turn its strong reviews and Oscars buzz into a breakout hit.
Film Central 