Weekend Box Office (October 25 - 27, 2019)
THIS WEEKEND In a diabolical move, box office king Joker stole back the number one spot in its fourth weekend of play as it crept closer to the billion dollar mark worldwide. The DC smash declined by only 35% to an estimated $18.9M which was enough to lead all movies and allowed Warner Bros. to raise its domestic cume to $277.6M making it now the top grossing movie ever from October beating Gravity. That makes Joker the seventh highest-grossing R-rated movie of all-time surpassing The Hangover which coincidentally is from the same director. A final north of $315M seems likely.
Overseas markets kept on rocking too with an additional $47.8M this weekend, down 38%. Incredible new totals are now $571.5M international and $849.1M worldwide. A final above the $1 billion mark looks set and this is without any release in China. The performance has truly been spectacular, especially for a film that cost only about $60M to produce. Blockbusters reaching the billion dollar club often carry budgets of $200M or more - plus they have large China grosses.
Close behind in second place in its sophomore frame was the Disney sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil with an estimated $18.5M falling 50%. The North American total is now $65.4M on its way to a finish of possibly $100-110M. Overseas markets have seen a much bigger turnout with a potent $64.3M this weekend. Latest totals are now $228.1M international and $293.5M worldwide. A final of $450-500M may result.
Kidpic The Addams Family followed with an estimated $11.7M, off only 28% as Halloween approaches, for $72.8M overall for UA and MGM. The action-comedy-horror sequel Zombieland: Double Tap fell 57% in its second weekend to an estimated $11.6M giving Sony $47M to date.
Horror fans looking for a new scary movie came out in moderate numbers for the new thriller Countdown which led all new releases opening to an estimated $9M from 2,675 locations for a mild $3,368 average for STX. Landing a notch below in its first weekend was the cop drama Black and Blue which bowed to an estimated $8.3M from 2,062 sites for a better $4,037 average. Neither fared very well with film critics.
Dropping another 52% to an estimated $4M was Will Smith's Gemini Man which has underperformed with a $43.3M cume to date for Paramount.
Arthouse film The Lighthouse expanded nationwide and jumped into the top ten with an estimated $3.1M averaging a good $5,261 from 586 playdates. Cume for A24 is $3.7M. Another new face in the top ten was the Thomas Edison film The Current War which took in an estimated $2.7M from 1,022 theaters for a lackluster $2,671 average for 101 Studios.
Rounding out the top ten was the animated film Abominable with an estimated $2M, down 43%, giving Universal only $56.8M thus far. The China-set film has done only $14.8M in that market and the global gross of $144.6M makes it one of the lowest ever for DreamWorks Animation.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $89.9M which was off 1% from last year when Halloween remained at number one with $31.4M; but up 55% from 2017 when Jigsaw debuted on top with $16.6M.
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Last Updated: October 27, 2019 at 12:35PM ET
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