Tyler Perry's 'Boo 2!' Tops Weekend While Fellow Newcomers Struggle All Around
As expected, Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween topped the weekend box office becoming the seventh of eight Madea films to open over $20 million. Meanwhile, it was rough going for the weekend's four other new wide releases as Geostorm, Only the Brave and The Snowman essentially bombed while Pure Flix's Same Kind of Different as Me failed to meet the low end of expectations after strong group sales on opening day. Overall, the top twelve generated just $81.3 million, over $30 million less than the same weekend last year as October is currently pacing ~13% behind last year.

With an estimated $21.65 million, Boo 2! finished atop the weekend box office while falling nearly $7 million short of the original's opening one year ago. The film did receive an "A-" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, just a notch below the original Boo!'s "A" and it will be interesting to see what kind of run Boo 2! can leg out. The original film delivered a 2.56x multiplier, finishing with a domestic gross over $73 million. Given the film's placement as the Tyler Perry, a domestic run right around $50 million, give or take a couple million on either side, seems just about right. Overall, Perry's films have so far accumulated over $838 million domestically and with two films set for release in 2018 the director's films will be knocking on the door of $1 billion collectively.

In second is a rather miserable showing for Warner Bros.'s reportedly $120 million disaster flick Geostorm, which finished with an estimated $13.3 million from 3,246 theaters. Reviews for the film didn't begin appearing online until after the film's opening and when they did they weren't impressive with a current rating of 21 on Metacritic. Audiences weren't particularly taken by the film either, awarding it a "B-" CinemaScore. Of that audience 56% were male vs. 44% female and, of the overall audience, 77% were over the age of 25.

Internationally, Geostorm began its overseas run last weekend in just eight markets. This weekend it added another 42 and brought in an estimated $36.4 million, pushing its international cume to $49.6 million for a worldwide tally that now totals $62.9 million. Of its openings this weekend, South Korea led the way with an estimated $5.4 million followed by Russia ($4.9m), Mexico ($3.8m), UK ($2.0m), Brazil ($1.7m), UAE ($1.4m), Australia ($1.2m) and Germany ($1.1m). Geostorm opens in China next weekend followed by France and Italy on November 1.

Universal and Blumhouse's Happy Death Day delivered a third place finish with a rather steep, 64% second weekend drop for an estimated $9.37 million. The film's domestic cume now totals $40.6 million.

WB's Blade Runner 2049 fell over 50% for the second week in a row, this time dipping 54% for an estimated $7.15 million bringing its domestic cume to $74 million. The film added another $14.3 million internationally this weekend bringing the international cume to $120.1 million for a worldwide tally just shy of $195 million. 2049 debuts in China and Japan next weekend.

Rounding out the top five is Sony's Only the Brave, finishing right where the studio expected with an estimated $6 million. The $38 million production entered the weekend with strong reviews, but just wasn't able to generate enough interest to break out, though those that did turn out seemed to have enjoyed it, awarding the film an "A" CinemaScore. Overall, the audience was 54% male vs. 46% female, of which 74% were 25 years or older.

It isn't until the eighth position in the top ten that we come to Universal's The Snowman, which debuted in just 1,812 theaters and delivered a miserable $3.4 million ($1,900 PTA). Reviews for the film were dismal entering the weekend, rating just 24 on Metacritic, and a "D" CinemaScore from opening day audiences suggests they agree. Overall, the audience was 52% male vs. 48% female with 65% of the audience coming in at 25 years or older.

Outside the top ten is where we find Pure Flix's Same Kind of Different as Me, which debuted in 1,362 theaters and kicked things off with a strong $1.36 million on Friday, but most of that was due to a large number of early group sales. As a result, Saturday and Sunday are estimated to only add an additional $1.2 million for just $2.56 million for the weekend and a twelfth place finish. The nearly 47% drop from Friday to Saturday is currently the twelfth largest all-time.

In limited release, A24's The Killing of a Sacred Deer delivered a solid $114,585 from four theaters and a chart-topping $28,646 per theater average. The film will expand further into top markets next weekend followed by a nationwide expansion on November 3.

National Geographic Films and Abramorama's release of Jane debuted in three theaters this weekend and brought in an estimated $55,712 for a $18,571 per theater average.

Roadside's release of Amazon Studios' Wonderstruck brought in an estimated $68,762 from four theaters, delivering a $17,191 per theater average. The current plan for the Todd Haynes-directed film is to expand into top ten markets next weekend with further expansions throughout early November.

Other limited releases include Gunpowder & Sky's Tragedy Girls, which brought in an estimated $10,677 from two theaters ($5,339 PTA); Music Box's Aida's Secrets debuted with $5,068 from one theater; The Orchard's BPM opened with $8,721 from two locations ($4,361 PTA); and Reliance's release of Golmaal Again brought in an estimated $1 million from 265 theaters ($3,807 PTA).

A couple of additional international highlights include Fox's Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which opened in China with an estimated $40.3 million, a 73% improvement over Kingsman: The Secret Service, which brought in nearly $75 million from the market overall. The Golden Circle is currently $70 million behind The Secret Service worldwide with $344.8 million and still has a January 5 opening in Japan on the books where the first film brought in $7.5 million.

Additionally, Universal and Illumination's Despicable Me 3 has passed Finding Dory to become the fourth highest grossing animated film worldwide with $1.0287 billion. Animated titles ranking ahead of Despicable Me 3 worldwide include:
  • Frozen
[/link] - $1.276 billion
  • Minions
[/link] - $1.159 billion
  • Toy Story 3
[/link] - $1.067 billion

Next weekend sees the release of the eighth film in the Saw franchise, Jigsaw, debuting in ~2,700 theaters, George Clooney's Suburbicon will open in ~2,000 locations and Universal will release DreamWorks' Thank You for Your Service from American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall, also opening in ~2,000 theaters.

You can check out all of this weekend's estimated results right here and we'll be updating our charts with weekend actuals on Monday afternoon.

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