Halloween falling on a weekend can always be a bit of a mixed bag for distributors looking for treats in terms of ticket sales – with people headed out in costume to score candy, booze or both, cinema admissions can take a hit.
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The Martian held on to the top spot at the box office in its fifth week of release as the new releases again failed to catch on. The Oscar hopeful (a likely best picture contender) has pulled in $182.8 million total, closing in on Gladiator ($187.7 million) as director Ridley Scott’s highest earning film to date. Aloha, however, managed $9.6 million in its opening weekend despite a rash of negative press surrounding almost every aspect of that film.
Goosebumps held on to second place with $10.2M.
At #4 – and up a spot from last week – was Hotel Transylvania 2, which like Goosebumps took advantage of the holiday season to bring in $5.8 million. Its new domestic total is $45.2M off of its $40M budget.
In at fourth place is Hotel Transylvania 2 with $5.86 million. The animated sequel is now $7.7 million ahead of its predecessor’s overall cume from 2012 and Sony’s top-grossing domestic release of 2015 by a large margin.
AE’s Guide to the Box Office Crisis begins with Burnt. The film, which sees Cooper starring as a world class chef in search of redemption after his career is derailed by drug and alcohol addiction, was a massive disappointment earning only $5 million at the box office, well below expected projections. Paramount is experimenting with a shortened theatrical window for the film, along with the recently opened “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension”.
Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton have no such luck to look forward to with their latest however, as Our Brand is Crisis utterly bombed with $3.4 million to finish at #8. But the real story is how October ultimately became the month of big box office bombs. Diesel’s films tend to do well overseas, so even though the numbers are pretty underwhelming so far, there’s still a decent chance that it could cover its production costs or possibly even turn a small profit.
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension seeks to end the current run of the franchise on a whimper, not a bang; while it still could potentially make money with its $13.6 million so far (estimated $3.5 million on the weekend), it is still the worst performing film of the series, and by a wide margin (it has so far made less in total than the previous film made in its opening weekend).
Outside of the top five, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is also opening in wide-release.
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Next week it will be all be about Bond as Spectre blasts into theaters; it got off to an impressive $80.4 million start overseas this weekend.
