Weekend Box Office (September 15 - 17, 2017)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND Continuing its dominant run through the box office, the horror juggernaut It once again out-grossed every other film in release, combined. Two newcomers barely put a dent into the charts while remaining holdovers all held on pretty well from last weekend.

Falling an extremely reasonable 51.4% from its gargantuan opening, It scared up another $60M this weekend, according to estimates, bringing its total up to $218M. It was the third biggest second weekend of the year, behind only Beauty and the Beast and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2. It has become the highest grossing film ever released in the month of September. At its current path, It should easily beat The Sixth Sense ($293.5M) to become the highest grossing horror film ever. Look for It to end somewhere in the $320-330M range which would put it past notable blockbusters like Iron Man and Transformers. Overseas, It added another $60.3M bringing its international cume up to $152.6M and its global total to $371.3M.

Debuting far behind in second place was the Lionsgate action-thriller American Assassin which grossed an estimated $14.8M from 3,154 theaters for a per screen average of $4,692. Reviews were overall poor as it currently stands at 35% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes while audiences liked it more giving it a B+ grade on CinemaScore. Overseas it added an estimated $6.2M from 41 markets.

Paramount went wide with director Darren Aronofsky's latest, the genre-bending religious allegory mother! which probably should have been platformed as it made only $7.5M, according to estimates, from 2,368 theaters for a per screen average of $3,167. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, the film had mixed reviews from critics (68% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) but was blasted by audiences as it received an F grade on CinemaScore. This was the kind of film that audiences were either going to love or hate and clearly hate was the choice here. I wouldn't expect to see much more talk of this film other than on lists discussing biggest busts of the year. Overseas it added an estimated $6M from 16 markets.

The rest of the box office dropped a couple of spots from last weekend but stayed in the same order. Fourth place belonged to Home Again which fell 37.7% in its second weekend to an estimated $5.3M, bringing its total up to $17M. Look for a finale in the $30M range. In fifth place was The Hitman's Bodyguard which took in an additional $3.5M this weekend, according to estimates, bringing its total up to $70M after five weeks.

The year's other notable horror entry landed in sixth place this weekend as Annabelle: Creation took in an estimated $2.6M this weekend, bringing its total to just a shade under the magical $100M mark. The Weinsteins took the next two spots with Wind River making an estimated $2.5M and Leap! taking in an estimated $2.1M. Cumes stand at $29.1M and $18.6M respectively.

A couple of big blockbusters rounded out the top 10. Spider-Man: Homecoming added an estimated $1.87M to its totals, bringing its cume up to $330M while Dunkirk made an estimated $1.3M bringing its total up to $185M.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $101.6M which was up 43% from last year when Sully remained at number one with $21.6M; and up 6% from 2015 when Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials debuted in the top spot with $30.3M.


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Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The LEGO Ninjago Movie and Friend Request all open.

THIS WEEKEND's TOP 10

Last Updated: September 17, 2017 at 1:30PM ET

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