Box Office Report for the Week of September 13

The fall has found its first box office hit with Warner Bros’s Practical Magic 2, which has officially conjured a box office victory by knocking Spider-Man: Brand New Day out of the top spot, after the superhero blockbuster led the domestic box office for six consecutive weeks. The sequel to the 1990s romantic fantasy film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman flew to a $46M global debut, with $16M overseas and $30M domestic.

The performance of the sequel’s opening weekend is similar to Sandra Bullock titles like The Lost City and pre-COVID Ocean’s 8, which previously bowed to $53.7M global pre-COVID. With the film’s modest first weekend, it solidified its status as a cult 1990s treasure rather than a massive four-quadrant play like The Devil Wears Prada 2, another female-led comedy sequel led by Hollywood A-listers.

Among the weekend’s prominent new entries, Scott Waugh’s action release from Angel Studios, Runner, pulled in a solid $6.7 million across more than 2,500 theatres, successfully carving out a reliable audience base among fans of Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, as well as crowd-pleasing action. Meanwhile, Na Hong-jin’s acclaimed sci-fi/thriller blockbuster Hope expanded to North America via Neon following its massive domestic success in South Korea, pulling in an impressive $3.3 million domestically across 1,560 screens as it broadens its global footprint. The film, starring both famous Korean and Hollywood actors, garnered buzz at May’s Cannes Film Festival and the strong word of mouth has attracted audiences to see it on the big screen. Paul Greengrass’s gritty historical rebellion epic The Uprising, starring Andrew Garfield, debuted with $3.25 million, telling of the peasants’ revolt against King Richard II in the story that inspired Robin Hood, though that marketing ploy may not have paid off the way Focus Features had hoped due to mixed reviews and having been overshadowed by other films catered to action fans.

Meanwhile, Universal’s The Odyssey filed another massive weekend, contributing to its running global cume of $1.68 billion from 85 territories. In another exciting milestone for the film, Christopher Nolan‘s epic officially stands as Universal’s highest-grossing theatrical release ever, overtaking Jurassic World. As IMAX’s highest-grossing movie ever (having taken the title from Avatar), it counts $506M globally for the large format, with IMAX 70mm driving a $78.8M gross.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day sits at a North American gross of $935.1M, $1.51B overseas, and $2.5B global. It’s now the third highest-grossing film of all time, behind only Avatar and Avengers: Endgame. Sony/Stage 6/Blumhouse/Atomic Monster’s Insidious: Out the Further pulled a $10.2M fourth global weekend ($6.8M offshore, $3.35M domestic) for a $155.2M worldwide gross, outpacing the lifetime totals of both the original Insidious ($100.1M) and Chapter 3 ($112.9M).

It seems that the fall movie season is officially in effect with its first #1 hit. September still sees a few major titles, like Heart of the Beast and Forgotten Island, anticipated to make waves in the final week of the month, along with the “Encore” re-release of Avengers: Endgame. Meanwhile, October promises to bring out a mix of major awards players such as Digger, Sense & Sensibility, and The Social Reckoning, as well as a few genre crowd-pleasers like Verity, Clayface, and Street Fighter, that audiences may flock to see on the big screen.

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

1. Practical Magic 2 (Warner Bros): $30.0M – 4,146 theatres
2. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Sony): $8.4M [-20%] – 3,520 theatres
3. The Odyssey (Universal): $7.0M [-9%] – 2,312 theatres
4. Runner (Angel Studios): $6.7M – 2,500+ theatres
5. Coyote vs. Acme (Ketchup Entertainment): $6.2M [-29%] – 3,727 theatres
6. Buddy (Roadside Attractions): $3.5M [+5%] – 1,771 theatres
7. Insidious: Out of the Further (Sony): $3.4M [-36%] – 2,897 theatres
8. Hope (South Korea / Indie): $3.3M – 1,560 theatres
9. The Uprising (Focus Features): $3.25M –
10. By Any Means (Paramount): $2.5M – 2,903 theatres