Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Inferno’ Goes Down in Flames
Did anyone want a third Robert Langdon thriller? While The Da Vinci Code was a gigantic hit back in 2006, Angels and Demons made significantly less on both the domestic and international charts. And now, Inferno looks to answer that question with a painful whimper. No, nobody wanted a third Robert Langdon movie, and the film’s opening weekend makes that abundantly clear.
Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
1 | Boo! A Madea Halloween | $16,675,000 (-41.5) | $7,253 | $52,019,000 |
2 | Inferno | $15,000,000 | $4,195 | $15,000,000 |
3 | Jack Reacher: Never Go Back | $9,550,000 (-58.2) | $2,526 | $39,679,000 |
4 | The Accountant | $8,475,000 (-37.9) | $2,491 | $61,257,000 |
5 | Ouija: Origin of Evil | $7,070,000 (-49.7) | $2,232 | $24,638,000 |
6 | The Girl On the Train | $4,270,000 (-40.4) | $1,548 | $65,918,000 |
7 | Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children | $3,975,000 (-32.6) | $1,421 | $79,879,000 |
8 | Keeping Up With the Joneses | $3,375,000 (-38.2) | $1,117 | $10,779,000 |
9 | Storks | $2,785,000 (-30.4) | $1,465 | $68,244,000 |
10 | Ae Dil Hai Mushkil | $2,135,000 | $7,070 | $2,135,000 |
Inferno opened with a devastating $15 million, a far cry from the $77 million and $46 million openings for director Ron Howard’s previous adaptations of Dan Brown’s art history-themed thrillers. Although the budget is significantly lower this time around (a reported $75 million compared to Angels and Demons’ $150 million), this is the kind of opening from which you simply do not recover. Tom Hanks may be one of the most beloved men on the planet, but his days of opening blockbusters are over. International numbers may allow this one to break even, but even so, this franchise is officially dead.
And in news that everyone will treat as a surprise although it is not surprising at all, Boo! A Madea Halloween clung on to the number one spot with $16 million, dropping only 41% from its opening weekend. Tyler Perry’s latest film has made $52 million so far against a budget of only $20 million, benefiting from being one of the few films in release to take advantage of the season and from being a film that caters to black audiences, a group that always “surprises” Hollywood when they embrace a movie. This “surprise” occurs about a half dozen times a year and acts as proof that the film industry frequently forgets that audience beyond white males actually exists.
Boo! A Madea Halloween is also indicative of the most successful films in the top 10 at the moment: modestly budgeted movies that do solid business against their low-stakes costs. Just look to The Accountant in fourth place, which has made $61 million against a $44 million budget (and is still going strong), or to The Girl on the Train in sixth place, which has made $65 million against a $45 million budget. Even Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is doing fairly well despite plummeting in its second weekend, charging toward its $60 million budget. Unfortunately, that 58% drop suggests that audiences agree with critics on this one — the second outing for Tom Cruise’s wandering action hero simply isn’t as good as the first one.
Meanwhile, the only horror movie in theaters in the weekend before Halloween, the well-reviewed Ouija: Origin of Evil, fell 49%, which is actually pretty good for this typically front-loaded genre. It has made $24 million so far against a budget of only $7 million and it should tap with out with $40 million when all is said and done.