Weekend Wrap-Up: Perfect Opening for Visit and Guy
September 15, 2015
Both of the two true wide releases had amazing openings this past week. Or to be more specific, amazing openings for a September release. The Perfect Guy did earn first place, but by less than half a million dollars over The Visit. Both films opened substantially above expectations. Thanks to this, the overall box office rose significantly, both compared to last week and compared to last year. The total box office was $102 million, which is 13% higher than last week. It is also 13% higher than the same weekend last year. September is already looking really good. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled in $7.65 million putting it 5.3% ahead of last year's pace of $7.26 million. 2015 is nearly $400 million head of 2014's pace and there's not a lot of time for 2015 to blow that lead. It wouldn't be impossible, but it is getting more and more unlikely.
The Perfect Guy earned first place with $25.89 million, which was a little more than No Good Deed opened with last year. It was also the third film in a row to earn first place that had a predominately African-American cast. (War Room and Straight Outta Compton were the previous two.) On the downside, the film is a thriller and it earned just 27% positive reviews, so it likely won't have strong legs. On the other hand, even if it just matches its opening weekend during the rest of its run, it will top $50 million and that might be enough to cover its combined production and advertising budgets.
The Visit earned a solid second place with $25.43 million. This was M. Night Shyamalan's second worst wide opening in his career, behind only Lady in the Water. However, this film only cost $5 million to make, and while it likely cost roughly $20 million in P&A, a $25 million opening on a $5 million budget is still amazing. The film's reviews did remain above the overall positive level and are currently 62%, making it the first film from the director to earn positive reviews since Signs. So if it can have even merely respectable legs, the film will break even just on its domestic numbers.
War Room was down just 18% over the weekend to $7.77 million. After three weeks of release, the film has earned $39.56 million and it is on pace for a total of $60 million, more or less. I can't imagine it cost too much to make and distribute, so this should be more than enough to break even, just on the theatrical numbers.
A Walk in the Woods added $4.74 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $20.01 million. Its studio, Broad Green Pictures, should be very happy with this result.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation was a surprise entrant in the top five, earning $4.10 million over the weekend for a total of $188.12 million after a month and a half of release. At this pace, it will leave theaters before it reaches $200 million. On the other hand, it could get close enough that Paramount will give it a push over the top. It is too close to tell.
The final new release of the week was 90 Minutes in Heaven, which landed in ninth place with $2.04 million, thus continuing the tradition of faith-based films being completely unpredictable. As a box office analyst, I hate these movies, because they make my job really difficult.
Moving on to the sophomore class, The Transporter Refueled fell 62% to $2.82 million over the weekend for just $13.47 million after ten days of release. This franchise is dead. Un gallo con muchos huevos held on better down just 41% to $2.02 million over the weekend for a total of $6.79 million. That might not seem like a lot, but it was only playing in 616 theaters.
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Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, A Walk in the Woods, Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, The Visit, Straight Outta Compton, The Transporter Refueled, War Room, The Perfect Guy, 90 Minutes in Heaven, Un gallo con muchos huevos, Transporter, M. Night Shyamalan