Thor: Ragnarok led the box office for a second straight weekend while two new releases did fairly well in their debuts.
Falling a reasonable 54% in its second weekend, Marvel’s latest entry into the MCU, Thor: Ragnarok, took in an estimated $56.6M bringing its total up to $211.5M. A finale in the $325M range is not out of reach for this well-received film. Overseas the movie has taken in $438.5M bringing its worldwide cume to an astounding $650M.
A couple of new films battled it out for the silver medal with Daddy’s Home 2 so far in the lead. The comedy sequel made an estimated $30M from 3,575 theaters for a per screen average of $8,392. The original film opened a little under two years ago to $38M (with a finale of $150M, hence the sequel), but that film had the Christmas holiday working in its favor. Coming in a close third was Murder on the Orient Express. The murder-mystery with the all-star ensemble took in an estimated $28.2M from 3,341 theaters for a per screen average of $8,441, pretty good for a movie based on 80-year-old source material.
Another comedy sequel fell to fourth place as the ladies of A Bad Moms Christmas slipped 31% to an estimated $11.5M this weekend, bringing its total up to just under $40M. The original Bad Moms was at $50M at the same point in its cycle but also had the added benefit of being released in the summer and feeling a little more, well, original. Still, the sequel should end its run in the $65-75M range which is nothing to shake a stick at.
Yet another sequel took fifth place, this one of the horror variety, as the game playing Jigsaw took in an estimated $3.4M in its third weekend, bringing its cume up to $34M. I have to imagine the studio had higher hopes for the reboot of its successful horror franchise, but with a small $10M budget the studio has more than made its money back.
Hey look, another comedy sequel in sixth place this weekend! Tyler Perry’s latest, Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, made $2M this weekend, according to estimates, bringing its total up to a shade under $46M after a month. The original was around $70M a month into its run but as we’ve seen from above, most comedy sequels do not do as well as their predecessors. Alas, not everyone can be an Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (which improved upon the original by 282%!)
Of course sequels come with built-in audiences which helps because sometimes original ideas tank hard. Speaking of tanking hard, in seventh place was the end-of-the-world disaster flick Geostorm which took in an estimated $1.5M this weekend bringing its total up to $31.6M after four weeks. It’s going to have to make a lot of money overseas to break even as we here in North America have thoroughly rejected it. In eighth place was yet another sequel, though this one was decades in the making, as Blade Runner 2049 took in an additional $1.4M, according to estimates, bringing its total to $88M after six weekends.
The original horror film Happy Death Day fell to ninth this weekend and took in $1.3M in its fifth go-around, according to estimates, bringing its total up to $55M. And rounding out the top 10 in spectacular fashion was the critically acclaimed Lady Bird which took in an estimated $1.25M from only 37 theaters for a per screen average of $33,766. Debuting outside of the top 10 to terrific numbers was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which opened on only 4 screens to $320,000 for a whopping $80,000 per screen average.
The top ten films grossed $137M which was down 6% from last year when Doctor Strange remained at number one for a second weekend with $42.9M; but up 46% from 2015 when SPECTRE spent a second week in the top spot with $33.7M.
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