| Rank | Title | Domestic Gross (Weekend) | Worldwide Gross (Cume) | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Hitman's Bodyguard | $10,250,000 | $76,208,648 | 3 |
| 2 | Annabelle: Creation | $7,300,000 | $253,375,598 | 4 |
| 3 | Wind River | $5,863,074 | $21,380,273 | 5 |
| 4 | Leap! | $4,886,923 | $94,474,241 | 2 |
| 5 | Logan Lucky | $4,886,923 | $24,619,929 | 3 |
Notable Box Office Stories:
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While this weekend wasn't as bad as it could have been it's been another rough one. Once again #1 was The Hitman's Bodyguard which dropped just 0.1% to come in with $10.2M. In fact despite being the first Labor Day weekend in 20 years without a new release the box office actually managed to improve over last, clearly do to the lack of external factors including Harvey finally dying down in the south and a heat wave in the west forcing many to seek aircon theaters. 6 of the top 10 films actually saw an increase in sales over last weekend and half of those lost theater counts. Still while it didn't top last weekend as the worst weekend in 20 years, it did become the worst Labor Day weekend since 2000, the illustrious weekend where the biggest release was the 4th Highlander film. Now to be fair Labor Day has never been a massive money maker, with the highest grossing opening ever in the slot being Halloween '07 which opened to a 'whopping' $26.3M. Still this was a miserable weekend with not a single new release cracking the top 10 and managing to come in over $25M overall less than last year's Labor Day. WB has wisely kept itself away the last month despite winning the summer overall. They have been wisely building hype for IT which now has all the room in the world to explode because by god the summer has ended with two of the biggest thuds in box office history.
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When adjusted for inflation Close Encounters of the Third Kind is still in the top 100 highest grossing films. However it seems general audiences don't care that much any more as the 4K rerelease opened pretty weak at #13 with $1.8M in 900 theaters, a per theater average of around $2,000. It's been a rough time for re-releases this summer as also Terminator 2: 3D has paled in comparison to the 3D re-release boom of 2011-2012 (so far it's grossed $920K while Titanic 3D opened to $17.2M and ended up grossing $57.8M). If even that re-release can't bring in the crowds despite it being a primary theatrical experience then it's no wonder Close Encounters failed. The 4K Blu-Ray will be out in just two weeks and with 4K TVs cheapening every day there is just not the excitement people once felt for the theatrical experience for something older. As films like this fail to ignite the likelihood of future re-releases dwindle which doesn't exactly help the restoration market which continues to focus more and more on a select group of individuals and not the mass market. When a re-release of one of the highest grossing films in history is now in the top 200 worst wide releases ever, that's a really bad sign.
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It's not just the old films that suffered as the exclusive 400 IMAX run of the pilot of the new Marvel TV show Inhumans failed to impress opening at #18 to $1.5M, a per theater average of $3,817. To be clear the film made less than The Dark Tower in it's 5th week. In comparison the 2015 IMAX release of the season finale of Game of Thrones scored $1.8M in 200 theaters, a per theater average of $7,146. And that episode wasn't shot in IMAX like Inhumans was nor was it originally intended to be a full film. It doesn't help Inhumans' production has been savaged by fans, going from major film in development to almost cancelling Agents of SHIELD before finally pushing it back. Then there's critics who think the show looked incredibly cheap which was only heightened by the IMAX format. It will be interesting to see what effect if any this has on the show itself which is set to premiere on regular old TV later this month. As for the release it's not an auspicious one and shows that just because something has Marvel slapped on it doesn't make it a guaranteed success.
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Oh the Weinsteins, do you have some hatred for Dane DeHann? First you cut him out of US release of Leap! and now you cancel all critics showings for Tulip Fever and dump it on one of the worst weekends of the year? Well okay maybe this one isn't some weird Dane feud because Tulip Fever was savaged by critics when they finally did see it which certainly didn't help the film with opened at #23 with $1.2M on 765 screens, a per theater average of just $1,588. That puts the film in the bottom 200 of worst wide releases of all time. It's not surprising as the film was shot in 2014 and has been shuffled around from release date to release date. Usually Harvey scraps these films by pushing them to Lifetime like Grace of Monaco or to Netflix but there must have been a wide release contract in play here because this was just a nightmare of a release. What the hell is going on at the Weinsteins right now I have no idea but they are quickly losing faith within the industry as their money woes and terrible release strategies continue to mount.
Films Reddit Wants to Follow
This is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.
| Title | Domestic Gross (Cume) | Worldwide Gross (Cume) | Budget | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | $389,639,205 | $863,062,971 | $200M | 18 |
| Wonder Woman | $408,939,021 | $812,639,021 | $149M | 14 |
| Cars 3 | $150,846,869 | $343,246,869 | $175M | 12 |
| Baby Driver | $105,530,256 | $207,730,256 | $34M | 10 |
| Spider-man: Homecoming | $324,051,546 | $746,151,546 | $175M | 9 |
| Dunkirk | $178,754,545 | $458,754,545 | $100M | 7 |
| Wolf Warrior 2 | $2,602,956 | $814,989,720 | $30M | 5 |
Notable Film Closings
| Title | Domestic Gross | Worldwide Gross | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alien: Covenant | $74,262,031 | $233,056,304 | $97M |
| The House | $25,584,504 | $33,384,504 | $40M |
As always /r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.
Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at /r/moviesboxoffice.