This week at the box office saw Disney’s mini-hiatus end, as they returned atop the box office with “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”, in a week that also saw “Joker” edging toward yet more R rated milestones, and in which three Oscar hopefuls debuted in limited release.
To begin with, Disney’s latest offering, the sequel to 2014’s “Maleficent,” scored $36M domestically, a figure below what Disney would have expected from the Angelina Jolie starring fantasy flick, especially considering its predecessor’s near $70M opening weekend haul five years ago. Despite meek reviews as well (48/100 on Metacritic) it did take a solid $117M overseas. But its overall $153M opening weekend shows signs the film will do well to get anywhere close to the $241M domestic of $758M worldwide gross of the first film.
The big winner of the week yet again (despite dropping to second place) was Warner Bros smash hit, “Joker’.” Now in its third weekend, the film clocked in a mightily impressive $29.2M, and is expected to pass $250M domestic come Monday. Meanwhile another $77.8M overseas, has seen its total move to $737.5M, which will soon make it the third highest grossing R-rated Movie ever, as it moves past, “Logan”, “The Passion Of Christ”, “IT”, and “The Matrix Reloaded” and continues to hunt down the “Deadpool” duo loft that hold the top two spots.
[Source: Box-Office Mojo]
Sony (like Disney) also released along awaited sequel this week, however, the 10 years between the first and second installments of the “Zombieland” story are double that of '“Maleficent.” “Zombieland: Double Tap” Ruben Fleischer’s long-awaited follow up to his 2009 cult classic garnered a solid $26.7M domestically, whilst hauling in a further $5M abroad, where it will no doubt hope to improve over the coming week.
In its second week of release, United Artists “The Addams Family”, drew in a further $16.05M as it continues to cash in as Halloween nears. And speaking of Halloween, Its extremely healthy $56.8M domestic gross will be bolstered next week by its international release on October 25th, no doubt designed to give the film the type of boost Universals “Halloween” recurved this time last year.
In fifth place this week is last week’s dismal opener, the Ang Lee directed, Will Smith starring “Gemini Man” from Paramount. Another $8.5M domestic lifted its disappointing total to around $36M, whilst an underwhelming $21M opening in China brought its global tally to $118.7M. A near disaster for a film with a reported $138M production budget.
Elsewhere, arguably the most intriguing releases came from those making their limited bows this weekend, as three potential Oscar hopefuls opened in various locations.
Firstly, Bong-Joon Ho’s much talked about “Parasite” delivered an impressive $1.2M from 33 locations, as it continues to expand having just played in three locations the week prior. A24’s hopeful, “The Lighthouse” from Robert Eggers, and starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, opened in just eight locations to the very nice sound of $419,000. The hypnotic fantasy horror, takes the huge step to 500 locations next week. The final debutant was the highly anticipated “Jojo Rabbit” from mercurial filmmaker Taika Waititi. His anti-hate satire, in which he plays Adolf Hitler, opened in only three locations, making $350,000. However, Fox Searchlight will continue to be smart with their Toronto audience prize-winning feature, as it expands slowly, hitting just 50 locations next week.
Next week not only sees “The Addams Family” expand internationally, but also sees another throw of the dice for Paramount following the “Gemini Man” bomb, in the shape of “Terminator: Dark Fate”, which brings back Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Whilst STX will hope PG-13 horror “Countdown” can add to the studio’s success following surprise hit “Hustlers”.
The Top Ten
1. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil $36,000,000
2. Joker $29,205,000
3. Zombieland: Double Tap $26,725,000
4. The Addams Family $16,057,000
5. Gemini Man $8,500,000
6. Abominable $3,500,000
7. Downton Abbey $3,080,000
8. Judy $2,056,000
9. Hustlers $2,050,000
10. It: Chapter Two $1,505,000
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.