Box Office Report for the Week of September 7

It’s been a spectacular year for Warner Bros., and the hits continue with the incredible opening weekend of The Conjuring: Last Rites, the final installment of the popular billion-dollar horror franchise. The movie grossed an estimated $83 million domestically and has now solidified Warner Bros. as the first studio in history to hit seven back-to-back releases opening at over $40 million domestically.

Again, to think David Zaslav was intent on firing Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy before their streak of commercial juggernauts began with A Minecraft Movie and has since followed until then. I am not sure Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another will be as profitable as their past series of hits, but one thing is sure: Warner Bros. does have staying power in Hollywood, regardless of the irresponsible decisions Zaslav made that damaged the brand.

There weren’t many new releases this weekend, as studios are in a transitional period between the summer and fall movie seasons. However, there was an opportunity for Disney to finally release the recorded version of Hamilton in theatres, whose release was impacted by COVID-19 and went straight to Disney+. Predictably so, the release was a success and managed to be the second-highest-grossing movie of the weekend, with a $10 million tally.

Now, we’re in the full swing of the fall movie season, which means many Awards contenders are popping up as this article is published! Joey and several other Awards Radar contributors are at TIFF, and, while I can only speak to the films I’ve seen, it’s looking to be a very competitive year, and likely one of the best Awards seasons of this decade. We’ll see how it shapes up in the months to come, so be sure to keep an eye out on this website for more updates as they arise!

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

1. The Conjuring: Last Rites (Warner Bros): $83.0M – 3,802 theatres
2. Hamilton (Disney): $10.0M – 1,825 theatres
3. Weapons (Warner Bros): $5.3M (-49%) – 3,284 theatres
4. Freakier Friday (Disney): $3.8M (-44%) – 3,125 theatres
5. Caught Stealing (Sony): $3.2M (-59%) – 3,578 theatres
6. The Roses (Disney): $2.8M (-55%) – 2,700 theatres
7. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Disney): $2.7M (-45%) – 2,385 theatres
8. The Bad Guys 2 (Universal): $2.45M (-48%) – 2,602 theatres
9. Light of the World (Emick): $2.40M – 2,075 theatres
10. Superman (Warner Bros): $1.0M (-61%) – 1,187 theatres

Source: Comscore