The RedState Box Office Report

annabelle-creation

Doll possession, over rodents, rules the theaters this weekend as the blockbuster season continues to underperform for Hollywood.

It has been a soft summer overall as studios have struggled to offer up any recent blockbuster titles to light up theaters. The first half of summer saw blockbusters stepping on each other’s tails, with major releases coming week after week. However it has been well over a month since a title opened above the $60million plateau.

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This scheduling congestion led to early battles for audiences and now a vacuum has settled in as less desirable offerings are leading to apathy. Spreading out the wealth would have been the wiser play. Overall this year’s summer is lagging by -11% lower than last year, and no new blockbusters are on the horizon. Seems the summer is a lost cause for profits. No wonder a horror film is reigning, considering those scary returns!

 

1. ANNABELLE: CREATION – $35.04million
Benefitting from a soft schedule audiences were willing to play on the floor with this prequel from the “Conjuring” universe. Warner Brothers teams with New Line on these lower budgeted films and saw a better than expected return. This opening nearly matches that of the original film, which pulled in $250million worldwide. No stars, low budgets, and a targeted marketing plan should lead to some easy money for the studios.

2.  DUNKIRK – $11.4m
Sailing along steadily with the wind behind, Christopher Nolan has a solid hit to add to his impressive resume. This effort is about to drift past the $350million mark globally.

3.  THE NUT JOB 2 – $8.93m
This has become a bigger bomb than the explosion featured at the start of this movie. The original was a moderate hit for small studio Open Road Films, but audiences were confused as to how this sequel was continuing the storyline.. They took a gamble on the weak late summer lineup and gave this a saturation release, larger than the original. The result: One of the historically worst openings for a movie released into 4,000 theaters.

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4. THE DARK TOWER – $7.87m
Registering now as one of the assured Bombs of Summer. After last week’s horrid opening below $20million audiences fled from that low plateau, dropping  -58% here in the second week. This proves out that  half-hearted attempt at a complex source material is not the path to quick profits.

5. THE EMOJI MOVIE – $6.58m
It has begun to shed theaters in its third week after enduring brutalization from critics. Still, considering this was a content-free effortless attempt, Sony should be happy with the total over $60million. Let’s hope this was low enough to tamp down talk of a sequel…

6. GIRLS TRIP – $6.52m
Continuing to hold week on a weekly basis, this has become a rarity from this summer: a successful comedy release. Later this week it will have earned over $100million.

7. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING – $6.1m
The last true blockbuster of the summer is at least showing the legs of a smash hit. This just swung over the $300million mark domestically.

8.  KIDNAP – $5.22m
This Halle Berry thriller was purchased on the cheap after sitting for years after a studio failure. Startup distributer Aviron added a few dozen theaters this week and is enjoying some modest success off the investment.

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9.  THE GLASS CASTLE – $4.877m
Another adult drama that is managing to find some audience interest, although this is not a widely impressive return. Probably landing in the top-10 due to a weakened slate of  titles, as much as any other reason.

10.  ATOMIC BLONDE – $4.57m
Very tepid interest in the female action thriller means it is a long shot for Focus Features to  make money off the stylish attempt.

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