Once again, Sony’s Venom was atop the box office, and once again, Venom came in above expectations. It is clear at this point that Venom is a hit, and audiences are responding much better than critics. Meanwhile, A Star is Born held on well, as expected, but First Man, Goosebumps 2, and Bad Times at the El Royale all had disappointing openings.
After breaking the October opening weekend record last weekend, many, myself included, expected a hard drop for Venom considering the large opening and negative reviews. However, that was not the case. Venom dropped only 56% for a $35.0 million second weekend for $142 million after 10 days. Sony must be feeling confident about their superhero universe now. Barring a disaster, Venom should have no trouble crossing $200 million.
The runner up was once again A Star is Born, dropping a healthy 33% for a $28.4 million weekend and $94 million to date. The musical drama has very strong word of mouth, and the soundtrack just debuted at #1 on Billboard. Additionally, the single “Shallow” jumped to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, both of which are good signs for the film’s longevity.
Third place was First Man, Damien Chazelle’s followup to La La Land, starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy. The well reviewed Neil Armstrong biopic had a dissapointing opening, collecting only $16.0 million, coming in well below expectations. What exactly went wrong? Well, for one, the film is a 141 minute long drama that is more character study than adventure movie. The “action” scenes consist of only a small part of the runtime. Audiences were not nearly as positive as critics, with a B+ Cinemascore from opening day audiences, which is not a good result for this type of film. And stronger than anticipated performances from A Star is Born and Venom certainly took away a good chunk of its potential audience, especially as A Star is Born has been dominating all the awards chatter. First Man would be lucky to make more than $50 million domestically when all is said and done (without much hope of an overseas breakout), which means Universal will almost certainly lose money on this $59 million movie.
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween debuted in fourth place with $15.8 million. While this is behind the original’s $23.6 million debut in 2015, it also cost considerable less, $35 million compared to the original’s $58 million. The House with a Clock in its Walls certainly stepped on Goosebumps 2‘s toes a bit, but thanks to the smart budgeting, the family movie will be a moderate success for Sony.
Warner Bros. animated Smallfoot took fifth with $9.0 million in its third weekend for $57 million to date. The movie is holding nearly identically to WB’s 2016 fall offering, Storks, and running slightly ahead of it. If it continues to hold similarly, it will end up around $75 million.
Night School finished in sixth place with $7.7 million for $57 million after three weekends in release, already nearly double its $29 million budget.
Our last new release, Bad Times at the El Royale, had a disappointing opening, coming in seventh with $7.1 million. Despite a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes and a great cast, the film couldn’t muster up a decent opening. Like First Man, it suffered due to too much competition in theaters, as well as underwhelming marketing. With a $32 million budget, Fox certainly can’t be too pleased. The best hope this film has is to find a second life on streaming and DVD.
The House with a Clock in its Walls held well despite the debut of Goosebumps 2, making $3.8 million in its fourth weekend for $62 million so far.
Limited release The Hate U Give surprised, coming in ninth place with $1.7 million from just 248 theaters, for a healthy $7003 per theater average. The film, based on a popular Young Adult novel, goes wide next week.
Finally, The Nun ($1.345 million) barely edged out out A Simple Favor ($1.329) for tenth, bringing it to $115 million, a phenomenal tally for the $22 million horror movie.
In other news, Amazon’s addiction Oscar-bait drama, Beautiful Boy starring Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet, debuted in four theaters, making a strong $218,000.
Next weekend, The Hate U Give expands to wide release (2300 theaters), Robert Redford’s final film, The Old Man and the Gun jumps to 600 theaters, and Halloween prepares for a massive launch.
Film Central 