The Weekend Report

The debuts of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon topped the movie charts with respective estimated box office of $28.5 million and $20.5 million. The session’s other national opening, Relativity’s long-delayed Masterminds, bowed with $6.6 million.

Among exclusive newcomers, Music Box Film’s second Swedish Oscar submission in as many years, A Man Called Ove, had an okay start of $55,900 on nine screens while real-life Holocaust courtroom drama Denial was solid with $104,000 from five sites. Major expansions included The Queen of Katwe , going wide-ish with $2.6 million and The Dressmaker that added new markets to weave $360,000.

In the niches a couple of Indian imports had potent starts. The Hindi M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story grossed $1.14 million at 256 sites and the Punjabi Nikka Zalidar rang up $239,000 from 44 engagements. It was also a good session for Chinese imports with I Belong to You opening on 50 screens to $324,000 and L.O.R.D.: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties bowing to $188,000 from 53 locations. Those films bowed in China this weekend to $46 million and $29 million, respectively.

Revenues for the frame generated about $115 million and expanded 11% from last weekend. However the decline from 2015 continued with a 23% erosion. A year back the debut of The Martian led with $54.3 million followed by the $33.2 million second weekend of Hotel Transylvania 2.

Jane Goldman’s oddball novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was ideally mated for filmmaker Tim Burton and fans of the book, slotting it as the clear tracking favorite with an expected opening in the mid-20s. Studio exit demos identified the audience as 59% female with 51% aged 25-years and younger. The film opened day-and-date in 59 international territories to an estimated $36.5 million. It’s top markets were Korea with $5.2 million, the UK grossing $4.5 million and Mexico with $3.8 million.

The makers Deepwater Horizon chose to extol the heroism of those on-board the off-shore drilling rig during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico explosion and largely ignore the later investigation into negligence. The graphic recreation and muscularity of the production was expected to gross about $20-$22 million. The high-ticket item will need more dynamic overseas response to break good. Exit demos saw an even split between the sexes as opposed to an anticipated male tilt with 67% of viewers aged 35-years and older.

The skew on a true-life bank robbery in Masterminds was given a low bar of $4-$6 million despite an appealing cast of misfits. It had a slight male tilt of 53% with 64% of ticket buyers aged 25-years and older.

Despite strong reviews and aggressive marketing Queen of Katwe continues as a modest seat filler. It drew a 60% female audience with 30% of the audience aged between 17 and 24-years old.

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