Weekend Box Office: It Delivers Monster Opening

Summer may have ended with a whimper, but fall 2017 started with a bang (or pop, depending on how you take to balloon puns) as Warner Bros./New Line’s It smashed records all around. The top twelve totalled $149.3 million, a big +181.6% increase over last weekend and +44.5% over the same frame last year when Warner Bros.’ Sully took #1 with $35.03m.

Coming in first (surprise) is the Andre Muschietti-directed It, which hauled in a jaw-dropping $117.15 million from 4,103 venues. Where should we begin with this movie? For starters, it shattered the opening record for a “pure” horror film, previously held by Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 3 ($52.57m). If we’re considering every horror-centric movie, it doesn’t make a lick of difference – Ridley Scott’s Hannibal held the title with $58m. It also broke the September opening record with ease (Hotel Transylvania 2 was #1 with $48.46m). With regards to previous Stephen King adaptations, It holds the #1 opening and is already #2 overall – just behind Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile ($136.8m).

Here’s a fun piece of trivia: It eclipsed the domestic total for last month’s The Dark Tower ($48.9m) on its opening Friday ($51m). Lastly, It delivered the second-highest debut for an R-rated film, behind Fox’s Deadpool ($132.43m). Many anticipated It to be an event, but a performance like this is unprecedented and further proves that any month can harbour a blockbuster so long as the film entices audiences. A big kudos goes out to the marketing team behind It, as their campaign combined frights, comedy, and ‘80s nostalgia on a near-perfect note. Also helping matters is the horror film’s glowing 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (avg. critic score being 7.2/10 from nearly 200 reviews) and 8.2/10 on IMDb from over 32,000 scores. This was a perfect storm – the acclaim, the effective marketing, the brand recognition, the drought of titles in recent weeks, and the list goes on. As if this performance couldn’t be more impressive, It carries a $35m budget, meaning it has recouped 3.35x its production cost already. Oh, and another fun fact: It opened above two of this summer’s big superhero outings, Warner Bros./DC’s Wonder Woman ($103.25m) and Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming ($117.03m).

Internationally, It spooked up $62 million from 46 markets, giving the horror pic a huge $179.15m global debut. It opened to #1 in nearly every market and carries the best debut for a horror film (and for September) in multiple. Top five openings for It are the U.K. ($12.3m), Russia ($6.7m), Australia ($5.9m), Brazil ($5.6m), and South Korea ($4.3m).

In second place, Open Road’s romantic comedy Home Again debuted with $9.03 million. While Home Again’s opening is far away from It, these numbers aren’t disastrous by any measure considering the Reese Witherspoon-starrer cost a frugal $15m to produce. Home Again opened +5.1% higher than last September’s Bridget Jones’s Baby ($8.57m), which totalled $24.25m in North America. It’s too early to suggest Home Again will match/exceed Bridget Jones’s Baby as reception for the film has been mixed-negative – Home Again carries a 34% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (avg. critic score being 5/10 from over 60 reviews) and a 5.8/10 score on IMDb from over 400 ratings. We’ll see if Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s film can maintain the leggy performances her mother, Nancy Meyers, enjoys. There are no international numbers to report for Home Again.

Falling into third, Lionsgate’s The Hitman’s Bodyguard added $4.85 million to its coffers, lifting it to a $64.9m domestic cume. Hitman’s Bodyguard declined -54% from last weekend, though such a drop was expected given the previous frame’s Labour Day bump. The Ryan Reynolds/Samuel L. Jackson action-comedy has next weekend to take in as much as it can before Fox’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle steals its audience. Internationally, The Hitman’s Bodyguard took in $7.8 million from 26 markets. Overseas and global cumes are $60.2m and $125.1m, respectively. No breakdowns for each market are available yet.

In fourth, Warner Bros./New Line’s other horror offering, Annabelle: Creation, grossed $4 million. Creation dropped -46.7% compared to last weekend, an impressive result considering this is the post-Labour Day frame and it has direct competition with It. Annabelle: Creation has totalled $96.27m in North America, guaranteeing it a $100m+ gross. Hell, it has a likely chance of outgrossing last year’s The Conjuring 2 ($102.47m). Internationally, Annabelle: Creation added $8.6 million from 61 markets, giving it a $184m overseas cume. The global total is an impressive $280.27m – for perspective, Creation’s production budget is $15m. Warner Bros. and New Line ought to be pleased with their horror roster as of late. Top markets for Annabelle: Creation are Mexico ($18.1m), South Korea ($13.8m), Brazil ($12.1m), the U.K. ($9.82m), and Indonesia ($9.8m).

Rounding out the top five is Weinstein Company’s Wind River – the Taylor Sheridan-directed drama fell -48.5% from last weekend to add $3.21 million. The domestic cume for Wind River is $25m. Wind River has already eclipsed last month’s acclaimed, award-friendly titles Detroit ($16.69m) and The Glass Castle ($16.08m), and should overcome Logan Lucky ($25.23m) shortly. Overall, Wind River has performed nicely relative to its $11m production cost. There are no international numbers to report for Wind River.

 

HOLDOVERS

6. Leap! (Weinstein) – $2.5 million (-48.4%), $15.87m cume
7. Spider-Man: Homecoming (Sony) – $2.02 million (-45.3%), $327.7m cume
8. Dunkirk (Warner Bros.) – $1.95 million (-55.4%), $183.11m cume
9. Logan Lucky (Bleecker Street) – $1.83 million (-58.6%), $25.23m cume
10. The Emoji Movie (Sony) – $1.06 million (-57.0%), $82.52m cume

 

NOTABLES

– Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has grossed $492.2 million globally, making it the highest-grossing World War II film ever worldwide (unadjusted for inflation).
– Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming opened to $70.8 million in China, giving the film an $823m global haul.
– Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 3 crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide, making it the 31st film to cross the milestone. The animation has grossed $1.007 billion.