Four new wide release movies hit theaters this weekend and all four tanked in ways that make it easy to remember why October is considered the refuse dump Hollywood makes before making the jump to light speed for the holidays. At least not on the positive side.
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Matt Damon’s “The Martian” topped this weekend’s box office with an estimated $15.9 million from 3,504 theaters. How did our new arrivals do? Last weekend the stranded-on-Mars-sci-fi slid to second in favor of Sony’s Goosebumps, but as the Jack Black-led children’s horror dips into second with a solid hold and an estimated $15.5 million, Scott’s Martian is number one for the third time in four weekends in release. “Bridge of Spies” took-in another $11.37M domestically for third-place, despite having been in theaters for two-weeks now.
Again. What happened? While the new releases didn’t promise any blockbuster numbers, there was enough there to make a decent haul.
Though it wasn’t far behind The Last Witch Hunter on Friday, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension looks like it will wind up with less than $8 million through Sunday.
But, Steve Jobs only cost $30 million to produce, unlike the biggest flop of the weekend. And the latest in the Paranormal Activity franchise is unable to find much traction as Paramount tested a new release strategy, the overall results of which are still a little hard to sort. It was not to be. Usually they have to wait 90 days. However, many chains balked, worrying that the plan threatened theatrical exclusivity and thus their business models. They refused to show the picture, leaving it to open on 1,656 screens, roughly 1,000 less than the previous film in the horror series. The opening duds made way for THE MARTIAN to take the top spot and now I’m wondering if the film’s box office success will translate into award season success later on. “It wasn’t about consumer rejection”. That’s on par with 2013’s “Jobs” which starred Ashton Kutcher and opened to $6.7 million despite much poorer reviews. Rock the Kasbah and Jem and the Holograms couldn’t even crack the top 10 over their opening weekends in wide release, with Jem and the Holograms taking the title as the worst opening in history for a major studio release playing in more than 2,400 theaters. Early prediction from analyst were in the $15-to-$19M range. “There is a tremendous amount of sophisticated, major market appeal”.
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“It’s not like all is lost at the box office”, Dergarabedian said. With a strong cast and $15 million budget, it never found its footing, thanks to a non-existent marketing campaign. It’s one among Murray’s worst debuts ever and a low level for Open Road Films.
