Box Office Report for the Week of September 1

We are now closing the gap between the summer and fall movie season, with the new cycle beginning in full swing next week with Tim Burton‘s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, poised to make over $100 million at the domestic box office. As we await Michael Keaton‘s return to one of his most iconic characters, there wasn’t much choice for moviegoers this weekend, with Reagan and AfrAId being the two new theatrical releases of the week.

Reagan did reasonably well, opening in fourth place with a $7 million tally on a $25 million price tag. It’s not a terrible start for an independent production, one plagued with various delays and controversies during its production. Meanwhile, Sony’s AfrAId flopped terribly, opening in ninth place with a $3.7 million tally. The fact that it had little to no promotion (and no press screenings in this writer’s area) didn’t inspire confidence that the Blumhouse horror film would be any good. Critics published their reviews after its first showings, and word of mouth was immediately negative. As a result, it will be one of Blumhouse’s biggest flops, when it usually does reasonably well even with the middling quality of their movies.

The winner this weekend is once again Deadpool & Wolverine, adding $15 million more to its amazing $1.262 billion global tally. It’s a fitting end to an incredible run for what will be one of the biggest productions of the year, and one of the most successful R-rated movies in history. I have no idea if Joker: Folie à Deux will give it a run for its money, but it’ll be interesting to see its Venice reactions fairly soon as the movie has its world premiere in just a few days from now!

And as we finally get into the crux of the movie season with some epic blockbusters like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Megalopolis, Gladiator II, Joker: Folie à Deux, and Wicked, and awards season contenders like Anora, Conclave, Saturday Night, The Apprentice, and A Complete Unknown, the next few months look to be incredibly diverse and will hopefully give us more successes to discuss, and less flops like the ones we had to sit through for the past month.

What are you looking forward to watching this fall the most? Let us know in the comments below!

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. Deadpool & Wolverine (Disney): $15.2M (-17%) – 3,630 theatres
2. Alien: Romulus (Disney): $9.3M (-43%) – 3,120 theatres
3. It Ends with Us (Sony): $7.4M (-36%) – 3,551 theatres
4. Reagan (Showbiz Direct Distribution): $7.4M – 2,754 theatres
5. Twisters (Universal): $7.2M (+17%) – 3,005 theatres
6. Blink Twice (Amazon MGM Studios): $4.7M (-36%) – 3,067 theatres
7. The Forge (Sony): $4.6M (-31%) – 1,921 theatres
8. Despicable Me 4 (Universal): $4.1M (-4%) – 2,698 theatres
9. AfrAId (Sony): $3.7M – 3,003 theatres
10. Inside Out 2 (Disney): $2.8M (+36%) – 2,660 theatres

Source: Comscore