On this last weekend of September, one new release dominated the box office, with nothing else even coming close. Hotel Transylvania 2 opened right at the top, not only besting its predecessor’s opening three years ago, but also becoming easily the biggest hit of the month. The film’s success is nothing surprising, though — this is the first big mainstream animated film in nearly three months, and families clearly ate it right up.
Opening at #2, The Intern did surprisingly well, overcoming its tepid reviews and horrifying trailer. Writer-director Nancy Meyers doesn’t exactly have name recognition with the movie-going masses, so was it the Hathaway-De Niro team-up that pulled in the audience? In any case, this is not the kind of film that will last long, so — if you’re dying to watch a 20-something bearded hipster hand the 72-year-old De Niro a magazine to hide his arousal when the attractive office masseuse rubs his shoulders — don’t wait another moment.
Last week’s top film, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials slipped to #3, though it’s only slightly trailing last year’s first installment of the franchise.
At #4, Everest somewhat disappointed, expanding wide after last weekend’s IMAX-only release. After it did such spectacular numbers last week, I was expecting it to do much better business than this upon expanding this week. Perhaps the sneak-peek IMAX release wasn’t ultimately as good an idea in retrospect? Despite positive reviews, it seems public interest in the film wasn’t quite strong enough to sustain a platform release.
Black Mass came in at #5 this weekend, and it should continue to slowly build its total gross over the next weeks as awards season buzz keeps interest alive. The Visit and The Perfect Guy continued their solid runs, slipping down to #6 and #7, respectively. With their small budgets, both are already huge successes for their studios, and they’ve still got a couple of decent weeks ahead of them. Christian drama War Room fell to #8 this week, maintaining its run as one of the top-grossing faith-based movies of all time.
New horror release The Green Inferno opened modestly at #9. Despite a somewhat troubled road to theatres (it was reportedly delayed for over a year), this should be considered a decent opening for a movie that is so low-budgeted and so niche. Its long-term success will be determined by how well it continues to do in future weeks.
Finally, Sicario came in at #10 in its second weekend, rising 14 spots after expanding to an additional 53 theatres. The film continues to be a limited-release sensation, with a $30,000 per-theatre average this week. The reviews are excellent and the awards buzz is thunderous. This will keep expanding until it’s eventually playing nationwide, and it should be quite a big hit when all is said and done.
| TW | LW | Title | Gross (est.) | Cumulative (est.) | Weeks in Release |
| 1 | N | Hotel Transylvania 2 | $47,500,000 | $47,500,000 | 1 |
| 2 | N | The Intern | $18,225,000 | $18,225,000 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | $14,000,000 | $51,685,572 | 2 |
| 4 | 5 | Everest | $13,090,000 | $23,129,805 | 2 |
| 5 | 2 | Black Mass | $11,510,000 | $42,608,000 | 2 |
| 6 | 3 | The Visit | $6,750,000 | $52,260,580 | 3 |
| 7 | 4 | The Perfect Guy | $4,750,000 | $48,871,135 | 3 |
| 8 | 6 | War Room | $4,275,000 | $55,999,681 | 5 |
| 9 | N | The Green Inferno | $3,494,000 | $3,494,000 | 1 |
| 10 | 25 | Sicario | $1,770,000 | $2,350,594 | 2 |
Source: Box Office Mojo
What did you see this weekend?
