Weekend Box Office (August 24 - 26, 2018)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND Posting one of the best second weekend holds of all-time, the hit romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians easily crushed all its competitors to lead the North American box office once again and displayed the type of legs to suggest that a massive treasure chest still awaits. Electric word of mouth allowed the Warner Bros. pic to gross an estimated $25M this weekend making for an astonishingly scant 6% decline from what was already a surprisingly strong debut. The second weekend average was a solid $7,093 from 3,526 theaters.

CRA now boasts a 12-day cume of $76.8M and with buzz this hot, plus competition staying weak in the coming weeks, this one is heading past the $150M mark and even the $200M mark can't be ruled out right now. The performance so far brings to mind another August sleeper hit - The Sixth Sense from 1999 - which had almost identical numbers in the first two weeks. That ghost flick opened to $26.7M, dipped only 3% on the second frame to $25.8M, and banked $69.7M in the first ten days. It's too early to suggest that Crazy will come close to the $293.5M final of Sense, but certainly the widespread love for the film leaves the door open for its limit. The coming weeks will tell.

Crazy is also on its way to becoming one of the top five highest grossing romantic comedies of all-time. Success was expected, but intense audience support is sending this pic beyond all industry expectations. A sequel is already in the works and most of the international marketplace has yet to open so there is tremendous upside moving forward.

Jason Statham once again had the widest release out there with his shark hit The Meg as the only movie playing in over 4,000 theaters. The Warner Bros. film banked an estimated $13M in its third round, down 38%, lifting the domestic cume to $105.3M. Worldwide is now $408.6M led by China's big $143M.

Melissa McCarthy's starpower did little to drive audiences to go see the new comedy The Happytime Murders which disappointed in third place with an opening weekend of an estimated $10M. STX averaged only $3,077 from 3,256 sites and the R-rated film was met by downward pointing thumbs from critics and paying audiences alike.

Cruising towards that $600M barrier was Mission: Impossible - Fallout which dropped only 26% to an estimated $8M putting Paramount at $193.9M from North America and $538.7M around the world ahead of what should be a strong China launch this Friday.

Disney kept bringing in families for Christopher Robin which collected an estimated $6.3M, down just 29%, for a new sum of $77.6M. Mark Wahlberg followed with Mile 22 which fell a harsh 56% to an estimated $6M giving STX $25.2M to date.

Sony's adventure film Alpha declined by 46% in its sophomore frame to an estimated $5.6M boosting the total to $20.2M. Holding up well again was Spike Lee's critical darling BlacKkKlansman with an estimated $5.3M, down only 28%, giving Focus $32M thus far.

The new robot dog film A.X.L. crashed on opening weekend with an estimated $2.9M debut for a poor $1,719 average from 1,710 theaters for Global Road. Sony rounded out the top ten and saw its horror entry Slender Man do an estimated $2.8M, down 42%, for a robust $25.4M to date.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $85.1M which was up a hefty 86% from last year when The Hitman's Bodyguard stayed at number one with $10.3M; but down 7% from 2016 when Don't Breathe opened in the top spot with $26.1M.


Compared to projections, The Happytime Murders opened a bit below my $12M forecast while A.X.L. came in on target with my $3M prediction.

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# Title Aug 24 - 26 Aug 17 - 19 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Crazy Rich Asians $ 24,808,202 $ 26,510,140 -6.4 3,526 2 $ 7,036 $ 76,617,149 Warner Bros.
2 The Meg 12,812,615 21,151,012 -39.4 4,031 3 3,179 105,083,261 Warner Bros.
3 The Happytime Murders 9,532,425 3,256 1 2,928 9,532,425 STX
4 Mission: Impossible - Fallout 8,087,385 10,773,347 -24.9 3,052 5 2,650 193,988,045 Paramount
5 Mile 22 6,366,042 13,710,825 -53.6 3,520 2 1,809 25,506,996 STX
6 Christopher Robin 6,261,783 8,861,530 -29.3 3,394 4 1,845 77,550,566 Disney
7 Alpha 6,002,359 10,352,512 -42.0 2,719 2 2,208 20,562,933 Sony
8 BlacKkKlansman 5,098,405 7,383,195 -30.9 1,914 3 2,664 31,791,945 Focus
9 A.X.L. 2,798,229 1,710 1 1,636 2,798,229 Global Road
10 Slender Man 2,790,564 4,801,712 -41.9 2,065 3 1,351 25,408,680 Sony
11 Hotel Transylvania 3 2,541,668 3,768,479 -32.6 1,802 7 1,410 158,659,057 Sony
12 Equalizer 2 2,032,245 2,863,549 -29.0 1,914 6 1,062 98,052,577 Sony
13 Mamma Mia 2 2,000,880 3,405,405 -41.2 1,557 6 1,285 115,355,990 Universal
14 Ant-Man and the Wasp 1,791,836 2,646,856 -32.3 1,178 8 1,521 211,458,535 Disney
15 Incredibles 2 1,642,506 2,302,020 -28.6 1,060 11 1,550 597,055,472 Disney
16 Papillon 1,090,073 544 1 2,004 1,090,073 Bleecker St.
17 The Spy Who Dumped Me 1,010,334 2,617,298 -61.4 1,295 4 780 32,288,476 Lionsgate
18 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 741,610 1,157,380 -35.9 608 10 1,220 413,010,305 Universal
19 Beautifully Broken 589,155 651 1 905 589,155 ArtAffects
20 Teen Titans Go! To The Movies 437,834 750,127 -41.6 444 5 986 28,176,673 Warner Bros.
Top 5 $ 61,606,669 $ 82,497,836 -25.3
Top 10 84,558,009 110,718,157 -23.6
Top 20 98,436,150 125,476,294 -21.6
Top 20 vs. 2017 98,436,150 60,670,668 62.2

Last Updated: August 26, 2018 at 1:55PM ET

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