Warner Bros.’ “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” had a great second weekend, and easily stayed atop the box office with an estimated $51.6M — it should hit the $200M domestic mark by midweek.
In case you’re wondering, that’s only a 54% drop for ‘Beetlejuice,’ it’s currently playing in 4,575 theaters domestically. Overseas, it gets a little rougher for the sequel as it only took in another $28.7M and has so far made a paltry $76.3M.
Blumhouse and Universal’s “Speak No Evil” did as expected. The horror film opened in second place with an estimated $11.5M against a budget of just $15M. Horror sells these days, and hit movies in the genre can be made for fairly low costs, this is another example of that.
It helps that “Speak No Evil” has garnered solid reviews — an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes — and a B+ CinemaScore from audiences. Many of the folks buying tickets for this one have probably never seen the 2022 original, which is an absolutely shocking film. and twisted
At #3 was “Deadpool & Wolverine,” now in its eighth weekend, with an estimated $5.2M for a domestic cume of $621.5M and $1.3B worldwide. It’s the biggest live-action movie of the year.
However, there was no bigger surprise this weekend than Matt Walsh’s “Am I Racist?” which opened in fourth place with an estimated $4.8M from 1,517 locations. It’s the biggest opening of the year for a documentary. Much of the tickets were sold in conservative markets, but there was also an impressive haul in the Northeast.
The film, which has been described as a mockumentary in the style of “Borat,” follows Walsh as he goes undercover as a "bumbling DEI trainee" attending anti-racism workshops and interviewing experts and others. The production budget for “Am I Racist?” is reported to be $3M.
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.