The fall movie season finally swung into action this weekend with three new releases reaching the Top 10. Two limited releases stunned with huge results, while one little-marketed wide release predictably flopped.
Dystopian YA sequel Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials took the #1 spot this weekend, opening only $2 million lower than its predecessor did last September. This franchise is not even close to being a Harry Potter-, Twilight-, or Hunger Games-sized mammoth smash, but it’s a reasonable hit. Only one other YA book series adaptation has made it to a second film in recent years; however, the Divergent films are so bad. By most accounts, the Maze Runner films are a good deal better. I still plan to catch up with this franchise over the next couple of weeks.
Coming in at #2 is Black Mass, the Whitey Bulger biopic starring Johnny Depp and a large supporting cast of interesting actors. This is the first big Oscar-buzzy film of the fall to open, and its earnings this weekend are certainly promising. This type of adult-oriented film doesn’t usually get a huge opening, but it tends to last longer than blockbuster fare. This is a film that should be around for a while.
Last week’s new releases, The Visit and The Perfect Guy fell to #3 and 4 this week, with the M. Night Shyamalan horror flick holding better than the sexual thriller. Both are small hits, but expect them to keep falling off fairly quickly.
The big news of the week is the sensational debut of Everest, which came in at #5 despite it only playing in limited release exclusively on IMAX screens. With the disaster movie’s per-screen average of $13,872, it’s clear that Universal’s unusual release pattern has majorly paid off. The film will expand to wide release next weekend, and it looks like it’ll be a massive hit.
The rest of the Top Ten is filled with familiar titles that have been holding strong over the past weeks. At #6, War Room continues to be a huge success, and this year’s big Christian hit. A Walk in the Woods came in at #7, followed by Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation at #8 and Straight Outta Compton at #9. These last two remain the biggest hits of August, and the fifth M:I is within spitting distance of reaching $200 million.
Expanding nationwide this weekend after four weeks in limited release, Paul Weitz’s Grandma came in at #10. At slightly more than $1,504, Its per-theatre average is not exactly impressive, but star Lily Tomlin continues to get a lot of Oscar buzz, so this is a film that might continue to chug along as the chatter grows and people want to see what all the fuss is about.
The weekend’s third wide release, Captive, fizzled as expected, failing to even crack the Top 10 with an estimated $1,400,000.
Also, the new Denis Villeneuve action drama Sicario was a huge success playing on only 6 screens. I’ll have more about this sometime tomorrow in our look at the weekend’s specialty box office.
| TW | LW | Title | Gross (est.) | Cumulative (est.) | Weeks in Release |
| 1 | N | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | $30,300,000 | $30,300,000 | 1 |
| 2 | N | Black Mass | $23,360,000 | $23,360,000 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 | The Visit | $11,350,000 | $42,348,320 | 2 |
| 4 | 1 | The Perfect Guy | $9,640,000 | $41,350,472 | 2 |
| 5 | N | Everest | $7,560,000 | $7,560,000 | 1 |
| 6 | 3 | War Room | $6,250,000 | $49,088,662 | 4 |
| 7 | 4 | A Walk in the Woods | $2,732,730 | $24,792,245 | 3 |
| 8 | 5 | Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation | $2,250,000 | $191,732,210 | 8 |
| 9 | 6 | Straight Outta Compton | $1,970,000 | $158,921,260 | 6 |
| 10 | 22 | Grandma | $1,595,820 | $3,789,539 | 5 |
Source: Box Office Mojo
What did you see this weekend?
