It’s a particularly crowded weekend at the box office with four new wide releases hitting the multiplexes and another in semi-wide release. We have Tom Cruise’s action sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween, horror prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil, and the Zach Galifianakis led comedy (his second this month) Keeping Up with the Joneses. You can find my detailed prediction posts on each of them here:
https://toddmthatcher.com/2016/10/11/jack-reacher-never-go-back-box-office-prediction/
https://toddmthatcher.com/2016/10/12/boo-a-madea-halloween-box-office-prediction/
https://toddmthatcher.com/2016/10/12/ouija-origin-of-evil-box-office-prediction/
https://toddmthatcher.com/2016/10/12/keeping-up-with-the-joneses-box-office-prediction/
To add to the clutter, there’s also the faith-based drama I’m Not Ashamed, which debuts on around 500 screens. I’ve got it pegged at $2 million for its start.
So how will all this shake out? Well, it’s probable that the four newbies will all land in the top 5. I have Reacher rather easily winning the weekend with Ouija as the runner-up. The Accountant (which had a solid debut in the top spot this past weekend) could fall to third with Boo! and Joneses rounding out the top five.
Here’s how the blog readers see my picks for the newcomers:
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: 50% Too Low, 41% Just About Right, 9% Too High
Ouija: Origin of Evil: 46% Just About Right, 27%, Too High, 27% Too Low
Boo! A Madea Halloween: 33% Too High, 33% Too Low, 33% Just About Right (how about that?!?!)
Keeping Up with the Joneses: 46% Too Low, 39% Just About Right, 15% Too High
Truth be told, this weekend is pretty unpredictable with all the fresh product coming our way. Let’s see what happens, but here’s how I have the top 5:
1. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Predicted Gross: $23.9 million
2. Ouija: Origin of Evil
Predicted Gross: $15.2 million
3. The Accountant
Predicted Gross: $13.6 million (representing a drop of 45%)
4. Boo! A Madea Halloween
Predicted Gross: $12.5 million
5. Keeping Up with the Joneses
Predicted Gross: $10.1 million
Box Office Results (October 14-16)
The numbers were quite good for Ben Affleck’s The Accountant as it scored a #1 opening with $24.7 million, easily topping my $17.6M prediction. Even though reviews were quite mixed, audiences liked what they saw it scored an A Cinemascore grade.
The Girl on the Train dipped to second in its sophomore weekend with a 50% drop to $12.2 million (a bit under my $13.4M projection). The Emily Blunt thriller has taken in $46 million thus far.
The stand-up comedy concert pic Kevin Hart: What Now? debuted in third with a decent $11.7 million, not quite matching my $13.5M estimate.
Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was fourth with $8.9 million (I said $8.2M) to bring its tally to $65 million. Deepwater Horizon rounded out the top five with $6.4 million (I said $6.8M) and it’s made $49 million.
Last (and least), Max Steel was met with a massive shrug from audience as it opened in 11th place with $2.1 million. I went a bit higher with $3.8M. Look for this one On Demand quite soon.
And that’ll do it for now, folks! Until next time…