The Weekend Report

It was scary stuff as Boo! A Medea Halloween had an edge over Jack Reacher: Never Go Back with the debuting films opening to respective estimates of $27.6 million and $23 million. The other two national openers included a chilling $14 million for Ouija: Origin of Evil and an even more chilly $5.5 million for the spy spoof Keeping Up with the Joneses.

Among exclusives were encouraging starts of $41,700 from two lecterns for Michael Moore in Trumpland and a $52,300 gross for The Handmaiden at four locations. All were bested by the jaw-dropping $407,000 box office of fest-lauded Moonlight from a mere four diners.

In the niches, Indian imports included a disappointing $152,000 for Telugu ISM and a solid $79,600 for Malayalam Puli Murugan on 16. Filipino The Third Party did well with $174,000, as did South Korea’s Luck-Key with $103,000. Mexico’s El Jeremias had a tepid $253,000 launch, while faith-targeted I’m Not Ashamed had pew capacity to spare with an unholy $920,000 box office from 505 screens.

The first of the weekend surprises was the better-than-expected debut of Boo! A Medea Halloween that was expected to perform lower than the Jack Reacher sequel. Tyler Perry’s “mad black woman” debuted in 2002 and continues as a solid performer in most of her subsequent iterations. Initially drawing an overwhelming African American audience in the 90 percentile, Perry has slowly pulled in other audiences over the years. The current offering had a 60% African American composition and was 69% female with 66% of viewers aged 25 and older per studio exit demos.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back opened on the low end of industry tracking and that was just enough for Medea to take the lead. Exit demos reveal a shift in headliner Tom Cruise’s appeal with a male tilt of 57% and 82% of ticket buyers aged 25 and older. Cruise’s international appeal remains strong, with an estimated $31 million overseas bow from 20 markets. China led with $5.6 million, followed by the U.K. at $3.3 million, France at $2.8 million and Russia with $1.9 million.

Ouija 2 also bowed per expectation and added about $8 million from international playdates. Its domestic audience was evenly split between the sexes with 53% aged 25-years and younger.

Keeping Up With The Joneses was never viewed as a potent commercial starter the lark about “00” neighbors was still predicted to open in the $8-$10 million range. Exit demos for the instant misfire were unavailable.

Revenues for the session approached $125 million for a 26% improvement from last weekend. It also exceeded 2015 box office by 17%. A year back The Martian retook the top of the charts with $15.7 million with The Last Witch Hunter the session’s top new release at $10.8 million.

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