Each week on Atom Insider, we break down the box office numbers for all of the biggest films opening in theaters. We knew for a while that It Chapter Two would be one of the biggest movies of the fall, if not the biggest. But just one week later, we have Hustlers knocking on its haunted house door.
This Week’s Top Earner – ‘It Chapter Two’
Arguably Warner Bros’s most important film of the year in terms of box office expectations, It Chapter Two is so far performing admirably as it dropped just 55.3% in its second weekend, securing a domestic box office of $40.7 million. Worldwide, it’s already made $323.3 million, and for the sake of context, it’s already made in about two weeks what took Godzilla: King of the Monsters almost a full box office run. It’s made more than The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part earned in 13 weeks, and it will also soon surpass Shazam! and its current 2019 champ, Detective Pikachu, which finished at a worldwide total of $431.6 million.
But that doesn’t mean It Chapter Two will keep pace with its own predecessor, It (2017). The sequel would have to maintain some extraordinary momentum to keep audiences coming back, because at this point, it’s still well behind the first film domestically and internationally. Still, this is certainly the best film Warner Bros has seen at the box office since Aquaman toppled a billion last winter, and they won’t have another heavy hitter at the box office until Joker debuts in October.
Second Place – ‘Hustlers’
STX hasn’t seen very many success stories come out of its studio in 2019, but Hustlers is easily their biggest since The Upside released in January. The film starring Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez as strippers who scam Wall Street sleazebags to the tune of Goodfellas saw a big turnout in its opening weekend, overperforming with $33.2 million in over 3,200 theaters. Though this was only enough to get Hustlers to #2 at the box office, it had the highest per-theater average in the Top 50 box office ($10,225).
Hustlers also had the best domestic opening weekend of all 30 STX films, beating out Bad Moms and The Upside by about $10 million. And judging from the film’s positive buzz, uproarious reviews (like ours from TIFF), and a lack of similar films coming soon to compete (save for Downtown Abbey, maybe?), Hustlers could eventually hustle its way to becoming the biggest film ever released by STX.
And Third – ‘Angel Has Fallen’
Angel doesn’t just have wings, it also has legs. Angel Has Fallen (Lionsgate) only dropped 26.5% in its fourth week, managing to outgross The Goldfinch in its own debut by double (we’ll get to that film later). The action film still doesn’t have any international numbers coming in, so for now, we’re still looking at a $40 million reported budget getting just barely outsized by the film’s domestic numbers. Certainly not a flop, but we’re still guessing if the film has made a profit, broken even, or lost some money overall.
Rounding Out The Rest Of The Box Office
And then there’s The Goldfinch (Warner Bros), which was the only other major debut of the weekend alongside Hustlers. Did it land at #4? #5? #6? No, the film opened at a paltry #8, making just $2.6 million in over 2,500 theaters. This was always a film positioned to be an Oscars contender considering its subject matter, and who doesn’t want to see Ansel Elgort acting in just about anything? Unfortunately, a lot of people, including many fans of the book by Donna Tartt who weren’t on board with the film’s direction under John Crowley. Amazon produced the film, which has so far been decried by critics writ large, so perhaps it will eventually be caught on streaming sometime soon.
The rest of the Top 10 this week saw predictable movement. Good Boys, The Lion King, Hobbs & Shaw, and Overcomer all dropped just one spot and maintained their respective orders on the chart. All of these films lost hundreds of theaters, except for Overcomer, which gained 140 but still dropped in box office compared to last week.
A nice surprise was seeing The Peanut Butter Falcon (Roadside Attractions) climb to #9 in its sixth week of release, edging past Dora and the Lost City of Gold (Paramount), a film that has been jumping all over the Top 10 and Top 15 these last few weeks. It will likely drop out of the Top 10 as new films hit the charts next week.
And They’re Out
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Lionsgate) saw a gradual decline over the past few days, falling to #11 after six weeks at the box office. The surprise late-summer horror hit will wind down its run at $91.1 million off a reported budget of just $25 million.
And after a month at the box office, Ready or Not (Fox Searchlight) fell all the way to #15 after losing half of its theaters and earning just under $1 million domestically. Though the film lost steam fast, it still managed to gross $41 million, which is almost 7x its reported budget of $6 million.
That’s it for this weekend. Check back with Atom Insider next week as we recap all the newest releases vying for the top of the box office.
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