October: Big flops, disappointments

Lennie James stars as Mister Cotton in Alcon Entertainment’s action thriller Blade Runner 2049. It came in fi fth at last weekend’s box office and made about $4 million.
Lennie James stars as Mister Cotton in Alcon Entertainment’s action thriller Blade Runner 2049. It came in fi fth at last weekend’s box office and made about $4 million.

LOS ANGELES -- After a record-breaking September and the success of New Line Cinema's It, the October box office brought a series of major flops and disappointments.

This has been a really rough month at the box office, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at measurement firm ComScore. All the momentum that was gained in September was pretty much lost in October.

Ticket sales were down 13 percent compared with October 2016, grossing $539 million compared with 2016's $622.6 million, which has done nothing to help remedy the overall year-to-date box office deficit. "We're left with two months in this box office year to make up a 5 percent deficit," said Dergarabedian. "That's going to be really tough. We have a lot of ground to make up and not a lot of runway to do that in."

Despite 16 new wide releases in October -- including disappointments such as Blade Runner 2049 and Geostorm and complete nonstarters such as The Snowman, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women and the weekend's Suburbicon -- nothing could touch last month's monster success It, which has grossed $323.7 million domestically to date.

Jigsaw, the eighth installment in the popular Saw franchise, scared up about $16.6 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, below analysts' expectations of $20 million or more, according to figures from ComScore.

Dropping one spot since last week was Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, also by Lionsgate, which brought in $10 million over the weekend, a 53 percent decline. The film has a cumulative total of $35.5 million.

Warner Bros.' environmental disaster thriller Geostorm, also in its second week, came in third, slipping one spot. It brought in about $6 million, a 59 percent drop since opening, giving it a total of about $24 million.

In fourth place, Blumhouse's horror film Happy Death Day added about $5 million, a 46 percent drop since last week.

Rounding out the top five was Alcon Entertainment's Blade Runner 2049, now in its fourth week and adding about $4 million to its earnings, a 46 percent dip.

The weekend's other notable newcomer, Paramount's Suburbicon, debuted with $2.8 million.

Universal's drama Thank You for Your Service also premiered over the weekend with $3.8 million. Following a group of American soldiers returning home from Iraq, the film earned an A-minus rating on CinemaScore and a 77 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Miles Teller stars.

In limited release, Open Road premiered All I See Is You, starring Blake Lively. The film opened in 283 locations and brought in an anemic $153,504. Directed by Marc Forster, the film centers on a blind woman and her husband (played by Jason Clarke) and earned a 32 percent rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Magnolia Picture's art world satire The Square opened in four theaters with $76,000, for a per-screen average of $19,000. The film, which scored the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, was directed by Ruben Ostlund and earned a 78 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer, from A24, expanded to 33 locations in its second week, earning $221,532, for a per-screen average of $6,713, and a cumulative gross of $392,453. The film, which follows a surgeon who befriends a fatherless teen to frightening results, stars Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman.

Meanwhile, in limited release, A24 will bow Greta Gerwig's festival favorite Lady Bird starring Saoirse Ronan, and Amazon and Lionsgate will debut Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying starring Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Laurence Fishburne.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:

  1. Jigsaw, Lionsgate, $16,640,452, 2,941 locations, $5,658 average, $16,640,452, 1 Week.

  2. Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, Lionsgate, $10,052,608, 2,388 locations, $4,210 average, $35,574,251, 2 Weeks.

  3. Geostorm, Warner Bros., $5,903,428, 3,246 locations, $1,819 average, $23,781,796, 2 Weeks.

  4. Happy Death Day, Universal, $5,078,685, 3,535 locations, $1,437 average, $48,374,210, 3 Weeks.

  5. Blade Runner 2049, Warner Bros., $4,117,395, 2,421 locations, $1,701 average, $81,538,180, 4 Weeks.

  6. Thank You for Your Service, Universal, $3,817,700, 2,054 locations, $1,859 average, $3,817,700, 1 Week.

  7. Only the Brave, Columbia, $3,502,095, 2,577 locations, $1,359 average, $11,992,152, 2 Weeks.

  8. The Foreigner, STX Entertainment, $3,443,433, 2,505 locations, $1,375 average, $29,060,751, 3 Weeks.

  9. Suburbicon, Paramount, $2,840,246, 2,046 locations, $1,388 average, $2,840,246, 1 Week.

  10. It, Warner Bros., $2,503,338, 2,560 locations, $978 average, $323,868,540, 8 Weeks.

  11. Let There Be Light, Atlas Distribution Company, $1,729,535, 373 locations, $4,637 average, $1,729,535, 1 Week.

  12. American Made, Universal, $1,702,605, 1,558 locations, $1,093 average, $48,507,805, 5 Weeks.

  13. Victoria and Abdul, Focus Features, $1,641,515, 1,044 locations, $1,572 average, $17,741,754, 6 Weeks.

  14. Kingsman: The Golden Circle, 20th Century Fox, $1,625,354, 1,489 locations, $1,092 average, $97,314,232, 6 Weeks.

  15. The Mountain Between Us, 20th Century Fox, $1,309,104, 2,029 locations, $645 average, $28,030,947, 4 Weeks.

  16. The Lego Ninjago Movie, Warner Bros., $1,275,301, 1,474 locations, $865 average, $56,459,051, 6 Weeks.

  17. Same Kind of Different as Me, Pure Flix, $1,252,142, 1,238 locations, $1,011 average, $4,776,427, 2 Weeks.

  18. The Snowman, Universal, $1,212,950, 1,815 locations, $668 average, $5,799,535, 2 Weeks.

  19. My Little Pony: The Movie, Lionsgate, $1,027,701, 1,682 locations, $611 average, $20,051,709, 4 Weeks.

  20. Marshall, Open Road, $905,053, 821 locations, $1,102 average, $6,949,354, 3 Weeks.

MovieStyle on 11/03/2017

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