By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Date Night
The re-boot of The Predator horrorfest arrived at the top of weekend movie going with an estimated $24 million debut. Three other films bowed in what’s shaping up as a very crowded fall/awards season. The suburban whodunit A Simple Favor was off to a fast start of $16.1 to rank third while the ripped-from-the-headlines White Boy Rick had a tepid response of $8.7 million. The faith-targeted Unbroken: Path to Redemption was left in the pews with $2.2 million.
In the niches Indian imports mostly stiffed with only the Hindi Manmarziyaan registering a faint pulse with a $310,000 box office from 99 screens. The offbeat revenge drama Mandy failed to make the crossover with a $250,000 tally from 92 venues.
Exclusive freshmen saw some encouraging but not breakout grosses including Lizzie on the infamous axe-wielder of $48,300 from four playdates. Also good were the heist yarn Museo with a single screen gross of $17,7000 and the doc Science Fair posted $12,100 from its solo engagement.
Revenues for the session hovered around $107 million for a 15% abatement from the prior weekend. It was a more modest 6% decline from 2017 when the second weekend of It led with $60.1 million. Newcomers American Assassin and Mother! followed with $14.8 million and $7.5 million respectively.
The extraterrestrial killing machine known as Predator first reared its ugly head in 1987. Since taking on the Governator, the official strain has wrecked havoc on both human and other worldly evils and had re-landed with a new askew view. Expectations, despite a bit of extraneous controversy, were a stronger bow of about $30 million. On the domestic front the audience was 62% male with 66% aged 25-years and older.
The film also bowed in most major international markets (France, Mexico and China still to come) with an estimated $31 million. Top grossers were Russia with $4.7 million, the UK with $3 million and Japan grossing $2.1 million.
Coming in slightly ahead of tracking A Simple Favor appeared to get a boost from positive response on social platforms. However, the film will need to expand beyond its core crowd that came out in force with demos that were 67% female with 86% aged 25-years and older. The film stepped out in 28 mostly secondary international territories to a $3.5 million box office. Australia dominated with $2 million including previews.
White Boy Rick had been positioned as an awards contender but early reviews were lukewarm with high end predictions of a comparatively modest $10 million. Its opening domestic audience was 57% male with 68% of viewers aged 25-years and older.
| Weekend (estimates) September 14 – 16, 2018 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % Chng | Thtr | Cume |
| The Predator | Fox | 24.0 (5,950) | NEW | 4037 | 24 |
| The Nun | WB | 18.1 (4,670) | -66% | 3876 | 85 |
| A Simple Favor | Lionsgate | 16.1 (5,180) | NEW | 3102 | 16.1 |
| White Boy Rick | Sony | 8.7 (3,460) | NEW | 2504 | 8.7 |
| Crazy Rich Asians | WB | 8.6 (2,550) | -34% | 3385 | 149.5 |
| Peppermint | STX/Elevation | 6.1 (2,040) | -55% | 2980 | 24.3 |
| The Meg | WB | 3.8 (1,320) | -38% | 2851 | 137.1 |
| Searching | Sony | 3.2 (1,580) | -31% | 2009 | 19.6 |
| Mission: Impossible – Fallout | Par | 2.3 (1,300) | -41% | 1761 | 216.1 |
| Unbroken: Path to Redemption | Pure Flix | 2.2 (1,380) | NEW | 1620 | 2.2 |
| Christopher Robin | BV | 2.0 (1,070) | -40% | 1902 | 95 |
| BlacKKKlansman | Focus | 1.3 (1,360) | -50% | 942 | 45.9 |
| Operation Finale | MGM | 1.2 (790) | -59% | 1472 | 16.3 |
| The Wife | Sony Classics | 1.1 (2,110) | 78% | 541 | 3.4 |
| Alpha | Sony | 1.0 (670) | -59% | 1534 | 34.4 |
| Incredibles 2 | BV | .76 (1,070) | -44% | 710 | 605.6 |
| Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation | Sony | .74 (1,100) | -34% | 673 | 165.3 |
| God Bless the Broken Road | FreeStyle | .44 (360) | -68% | 1201 | 2.4 |
| Ant-Man and the Wasp | BV | .39 (1,090) | -37% | 356 | 215.4 |
| Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again | Uni | .36 (780) | -39% | 455 | 119.7 |
| Slender Man | Sony | .35 (870) | -58% | 402 | 30.3 |
| The Hows of Us | ABS | .33 (4,690) | -40% | 71 | 1.2 |
| Manmarziyaan | Eros | .31 (3,110) | NEW | 99 | 0.31 |
| Juliet, Naked | Roadside Attractions | .28 (1,070) | -56% | 265 | 3 |
| Mandy | RLJ/Elevation | .25 (2,850) | NEW | 89 | 0.25 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $101.20 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -6% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -15% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Shailaja Reddy Alludu | LA Telugu | .23 (1,380) | 169 | 0.23 | |
| U-Turn | Magnus | .20 (1,950) | 104 | 0.2 | |
| Three Identical Strangers | Neon/Mongrel | .10 (1,090) | -31% | 95 | 12.1 |
| Eighth Grade | A24 | 87,500 (870) | -52% | 101 | 13.4 |
| The Children Act | eOne/A24 | 76,400 (3,320) | 23 | 0.08 | |
| Seema Raja | 24 AM | 72,600 (700) | 107 | 0.07 | |
| A Boy. A Girl. A Dream | Goldwyn | 69,100 (1,110) | 62 | 0.07 | |
| Where Hands Touch | Vertical | 64,600 (630) | 103 | 0.06 | |
| Sorry to Bother You | Annapurna/eOne | 56,300 (1,200) | -32% | 47 | 17.4 |
| Lizzie | Roadside Attractions | 48,300 (12,080) | 4 | 0.05 | |
| Kusama-Infinity | Magnolia | 41,500 (4,150) | 43% | 10 | 0.09 |
| Puzzle | Sony Classics | 36,700 (610) | -60% | 60 | 1.9 |
| The Dawn Wall | Orchard | 20,400 (10,200) | 2 | 0.02 | |
| Museo | Vitagraphj | 17,700 (17,700) | 1 | 0.02 | |
| Bel Canto | Screen Media | 13,850 (6,930) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Science Fair | NatGeo | 12,100 (12,100) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| I Think We’re Alone Now | Momentum | 11,700 (5,850) | 2 | 0.01 | |
