Box Office Report for the Week of September 24

It has been the slowest week at the domestic box office since the start of the year, and not even an IMAX re-release of Barbie could muster up excitement at going to the movies this weekend. I can attest to this. The cinemas were eerily quiet this weekend, and I saw two movies on empty screens (on the flip side, my screening of Monia Chokri‘s Simple Comme Sylvain was nearly sold out, so that’s a good boost for local cinema). While Greta Gerwig‘s film didn’t drop as big as last week’s, it still fell short of climbing to the top three, with a $3.2 million tally.

Some misinformation has been spread online about the fact that the IMAX edition of the movie had “an extended runtime of 2 hours,” when the film itself is the same that premiered two months ago. The IMAX version contains a series of bloopers and deleted scenes inside this one large sizzle reel, making the runtime longer than the 114-minute film. Once audiences figured this out, many didn’t go to Barbieland again, the biggest that the Barbenheimer craze had officially ended. Still, both movies had incredible runs and will be major Oscar contenders as the season ramps up.

The number one film this weekend is, once again, The Nun II, with an $8.4 million gross. The post-COVID lockdown appetite for horror on the big screen is still going strong, and I should expect The Nun III to be greenlit as soon as the studios pay and treat their writers and actors fairly. It Lives Inside also did relatively well in 2,005 theatres, grossing over $2.6 million on a relatively small budget. Another win for independent horror!

Dumb Money expanded to more cinemas and made the top ten, grossing over $2.5 million in only 616 theatres! Sony’s slow rollout strategy will likely pay off next week as it expands to even more theatres, though it will be far more crowded than this week’s, with The Creator, Saw X, and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie giving lots of options for moviegoers of all ages.

On the other hand, Expend4bles was a massive flop. Despite opening in second place, the film grossed only $8.3 million over a $100 million budget. Normally, I would exercise caution on calling a movie a flop as it opens, but there’s no way it’ll leave. The reviews for this one are abysmal and far worse than The Expendables 3, which had a PG-13 rating. This one is rated R, but the critics (and audiences) who have seen it aren’t enjoying themselves. There’s no chance that this current franchise iteration will continue now.

Here’s the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. The Nun II (Warner Bros): $8.4M (-42.2%) – 3,536 theatres
2. Expend4bles (Lionsgate): $8.3M – 3,518 theatres
3. A Haunting in Venice (Disney): $6.3M (-55.9%) – 3,305 theatres
4. The Equalizer 3 (Sony): $4.7M (-34.6%) – 3,270 theatres
5. Barbie (Warner Bros.): $3.2M (-16.3%) – 2,634 theatres
6. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (Universal): $3.0M (-37%) – 3,078 theatres
7. It Lives Inside (NEON): $2.6M – 2,005 theatres
8. Dumb Money (Sony): $2.5M (+1,031.5%) – 616 theatres
9. Blue Beetle (Warner Bros/DC): $1.8M (-28%) – 1,953 theatres
10. Oppenheimer (Universal): $1.6M (-22.2%) – 1,459 theatres

Source: Box Office Mojo