New films were not considered weaklings – they included Vin Diesel’s The Last Witch Hunter, horror stalwart Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, Rock the Kasbah with Bill Murray and Bruce Willis, and Jem and the Holograms, based on… well, something from the past.
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The Cold War drama Bridge Of Spies made $11.4 million and is performing strongly especially with older movie goers, and has a total gross to date of $32.6 million.
The Last Witch Hunter came in # 4 with $10.8 million from 3,082 theaters, a slow start considering its production budget of $75 – 80-M.
Paramount’s “Paranormal Activity” sequel whiffed, producing the lowest grossing opening in franchise history with $8.2 million.
Universal’s “Steve Jobs” – directed by Danny Boyle, written by Aaron Sorkin and starring Michael Fassbender as the Apple co-founder – had the highest per-screen grosses of the year when it opened in four theaters two week ago, and it was projected to be the No. 1 film when it expanded over the weekend to 2,493 theaters in North America. Goosebumps held surprisingly strong in its second weekend, making $15.5 million for a total of $43.7 million.
None of the weekend’s flops will garner as a lot consideration as “Jem and the Holograms”, although, which opened to $ 1.3 million to grow to be one of many worst debuts of all time for a serious studio film opening in over 2,000 places. That’s the worst opening ever for a film playing in more than 2,400 theaters.
However, audiences weren’t buying, as only Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Haysbert and Bob Uecker returned among the major players from the first two films.
The studio’s next release, “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse”, comes out on October. 30 under the same “Paranormal” strategy. The result was slightly more than half of my $20 million prediction. Witch Hunter cost an estimated $80 million to make, and Lord knows how much more to promote, so it’s likely that it’ll end up being the costliest of this week’s financial failure.
Of the new arrivals, audiences liked “Steve Jobs” best, giving it an “A-” grade, according to the CinemaScore market-research firm.
Four new films, including “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension” and Vin Diesel’s “The Last Witch Hunter”, crowded into theaters this weekend and were swiftly pulverized and left for dead. 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. Instead, it was holdovers The Martian, Goosebumps, and Bridge of Spies that took the top three spots, reports THR.
The domestic total for the outer space blockbuster has reached $166.4 million and is on target to reach $200 million stateside.
Jem And The Holograms seemed like a sure thing. DreamWorks, Participant Media and Disney (NYSE:DIS) partnered on the $40-M historical drama, which fell just 26%.
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“There’re just too many films being released into the marketplace”.
