Sandra Bullock’s Our Brand is Crisis, where Bullock plays an American political adviser helping a Bolivian election, opened with just $3.4 million over 2,202 theaters.
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The lack of returns from these new movies meant films that opened earlier this month were still ruling the box office.
Burnt rounds out the top five.
The movie industry never expected much luck with Halloween falling on a Saturday. By comparison, The Terminal had $54 million through the same point. At No. 4 was Hotel Transylvania 2, which earned $5.8 million to remain in the Top 5 for its sixth consecutive weekend. With another sub-30-percent drop, this time bringing in $8 million, the cumulative total of the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks thriller grows to $45 million. Globally it has hit $428.4M. Directed by Rob Letterman, the horror comedy has pooled in $66 million worldwide. At least 2009’s Friday the 13th had the excuse of a $40 million opening to offset its 80% drop in attendance for its second weekend. Replacing it in that slot was Bradley Cooper’s new chef pic Burnt, but the film was left with a sour taste in its mouth and no Michelin stars, as it could only launch to $5 million.
Vin Diesel’s The Last Witch Hunter followed up last weekend’s slow start with a lackluster second week, down two spots to #6. It’s expected to finish out the weekend at $5 million.
Still, Warner Bros. reduced the risk to its bottom line with co-financing from Participant Media and RatPac-Dune Entertainment. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension only pocketed $3.45M. Sony Pictures Classics expanded its Oscar hopeful Truth beyond 18 screens to 1,122 locations and saw its attendance spike by more than 729%. The one horror-themed movie to roll out this Halloween weekend, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse didn’t even break into the top ten, making just $1.7 million, landing in the number twelve spot. Finally, even the critically acclaimed have been having it rough, as Crimson Peak (estimated $3.1 million) is flopping badly at $27.7 million in revenue against $55 million in budget costs, while Steve Jobs earned an estimated $2.6 million and is barely at half of its $30 million budget in earnings. In the Nordic region, Spectre set records in Finland and Norway with 2.35 million Euro ($2.63 million USD) and 24.4 million krone ($2.88 million USD) respectively.
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It may be hard to ever say whether or not Paramount’s release strategy with these two titles-Scouts Guide or Paranormal Activity-was a success or not.
