Hitman’s Bodyguard tops lowest US box-office weekend in 3 years
HAMPERED BY a hurricane and a high-profile boxing match, weekend box-office results in North America were the slowest in nearly 16 years, allowing previous leader The Hitman’s Bodyguard to hold its top spot with an unimpressive $10.1-million take.
Harvey, the deadly hurricane-turned-tropical storm, led to some theater closings in Texas, while Floyd Mayweather’s much-hyped bout against Irishman Conor McGregor proved to be one of the biggest pay-per-view shows in history, Variety.com noted.
That left the overall weekend box office around $65 million, its lowest since a weekend shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Weighing on the box office was Floyd Mayweather’s boxing victory over Conor McGregor Saturday night.
“It drew people away from the movies,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at ComScore. The match was shown in 481 theaters and generated $2.4 million in ticket sales, but the movie industry doesn’t benefit from that, he said.
The low weekend box office will seal this August as one of the weakest on record. Through Sunday, the month was down about 36% from a year earlier. And with no new big releases on tap, the coming Labor Day weekend doesn’t look to offer much relief from a summer that’s proved a disappointment for the film industry, with North American revenue slumping more than 13% through last Sunday, according to ComScore.
“It’s been a brutal month,” Dergarabedian said.
Of three films opening in wide release, Weinstein Co.’s Leap! was the only one to make the top five, placing third with revenue of $5.02 million. The movie features Elle Fanning in an animated comedy as the voice of the orphan girl Felicie, who dreams of becoming a ballerina. She leaves her rural home for Paris, where she bluffs her way into the Grand Opera house.
The movie had already generated $58 million internationally before its domestic release and was forecast by BoxOfficeMojo to earn $5.2 million this weekend. It scored 37% positive reviews at RottenTomatoes.com.
The martial arts feature Birth of the Dragon, released through the Blumhouse label BH Tilt, placed 8th with $2.5 million. BH Tilt and a unit of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. acquired the movie after its premiere at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival.
The picture is a homage to the movie that made Bruce Lee famous, with a modern day twist that sets the fighting in San Francisco in the 1960s. Philip Ng plays an up-and-coming Lee, who battles his Kung Fu master Wong Jack Man. Just 14% of critics liked the movie, according to RottenTomatoes.
Sony Corp.’s faith-based drama All Saints failed to make the top ten, generating sales of $1.6 million. It had been forecast by Hollywood Stock Exchange to generate $3.8 million after opening in fewer than 1,000 locations. Featuring John Corbett as Michael Spurlock, a salesman turned pastor, the movie is based on a true story of a fight to keep the doors of tiny church open.
TOP MOVIES
Hitman saw its estimated three-day take drop by about half from its $21.4 million opening a week earlier, industry Web site Exhibitor Relations reported.
The film tells the story of a famous bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds) hired to protect a notorious hitman (Samuel L. Jackson) who is about to testify in a high-profile trial. Salma Hayek plays Jackson’s wife.
In second place for the weekend was Warner Bros.’ horror flick Annabelle: Creation, part of the popular Conjuring franchise. The film, starring Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Miranda Otto and Anthony LaPaglia, took in $7.4 million, adding to its worldwide gross of more than $1 billion.
Fourth place went to Wind River, another Weinstein production, at $4.4 million, improving on its 10th place finish last week. It stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen as federal agents trying to solve a murder on an Indian reservation in Wyoming.
Bleecker Street’s Logan Lucky, Steven Soderbergh’s first film since his self-proclaimed retirement four years ago, also took in $4.4 million. The film stars Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Riley Keough in an unconventional heist comedy set at a NASCAR race.
Rounding out the top 10 were: Dunkirk ($4 million); Spider-Man: Homecoming ($2.7 million); Birth of the Dragon ($2.5 million); The Emoji Movie ($2.4 million); Girls Trip ($2.3 million). – Bloomberg/AFP
