What’s particularly alarming is that pre-release tracking had many of these films doing substantially better (“The Last Witch Hunter” was expected to do as much as $17 million, while a few estimates had “Steve Jobs” expanding to the tune of $19 million). Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogen and Kate Winslet star.
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But, Steve Jobs only cost $30 million to produce, unlike the biggest flop of the weekend. Jem and the Holograms, which is said to have cost just $5 million, bowed in 15th place with an estimated $1.3 million, while Rock the Kasbah opened in 13th place with $1.5 million. “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension” launched to approximately $8.2 million from 1,656 theaters. That wasn’t even good enough to crack the top ten and mark the lowest openings for studio films released in at least 2,000 theaters.
Those backing Steve Jobs had wanted to land somewhere in the teens, but are counting on a long run throughout awards season (an A- CinemaScore should help word of mouth). That would put the worldwide total at $500 million, making Fox’s $108 million investment a wise one. Rock the Kasbah is Bill Murray’s lowest opening weekend ever, earning a measly $1.5 million domestically as well as overwhelmingly negative reviews.
“The Martian” and “Goosebumps”, in their fourth and second weekends, respectively, likely will beat out new releases “The Last Witch Hunter”, “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension”, “Jem and the Holograms” and “Rock the Kasbah” and the newly expanded “Steve Jobs”, based on Friday figures.
Part of the rationale for the low display rely is the truth that Paramount was experimenting with a shorter house leisure window. With that comes an agreement to share a portion of the VOD sales with participating theaters up to 90 days from its theatrical opening. In the film the last witch hunter is striving to save humanity from the most horrifying witches in history but the story didn’t attract moviegoers.
Paramount is pointing to “Paranormal’s” strong results in circuits like AMC, where it was the top grossing film for the weekend, as evidence that audiences didn’t stay away because they could see the film digitally early. “It’s easy to get lost if you’re a newcomer into such a crowded environment”.
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As audiences decide and select the place to spend their leisure dollars, Dergarabedian additionally notes that there’s a handful of possible blockbusters on the best way with “Spectre”, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. Where available, the latest global numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
