Liam Neeson's newest wins the weekend, as the first new release from a major studio in weeks fizzled.
It was a slow weekend at the nation's open theaters, as, after a couple of weekends of new star vehicles, the only new wide releases this weekend were largely starless and little-attended. Leading the pack was Honest Thief, winning for the second weekend in a row, though only with a gross of $2.4 million. That's not only the lowest gross for the #1 movie since theaters reopened in August, but, outside of the Covid closings from March until August, it's the lowest gross for a #1 movie since at least 1981. The thriller's ten-day total stands at $7.5 million.
The War With Grandpa spent its second weekend at #2. The Robert De Niro family comedy brought in $1.9 million for a total gross of $9.8 million.
Opening in third is the little-noticed horror flick The Empty Man. Starring "Hey, it's that guy" actor James Badge Dale as cop who stumbles across an ancient curse, this was filmed back in 2017, and sat on a shelf until Disney, which bought the film when they bought Fox, threw it out with almost no promotion or critical screenings. The handful of reviews were largely negative, so it's not too surprising that the film mostly played to empty theaters. It opened to $1.3 million.
Tenet, making just a sliver less than The Empty Man, despite having been out for 8 weeks now, came in fourth. It's now up to $52.5 million and is the final film on this week's chart to top $1 million for the weekend.
Disney's re-releases took the 5th through 7th spots, as Halloween themed The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus brought their 2020 grosses to $1.9 million and $4.4 million, respectively. They were followed by the first weekend of Monsters, Inc., which apparently got an October re-release because of its title, even though it's a comedy that has nothing to do with Halloween. It took in just under $0.5 million, or even worse than fellow Pixar re-release Coco did two weeks ago.
In 8th is another new release, the romantic drama After We Collided. A sequel to last year's After, which was an adaption of a One Direction fan fic, the original seemed designed to be shown at sleepovers for middle school girls. That one was PG-13, but this one is R, since apparently the filmmakers forgot who their target audience is. Like a lot of movies these days, this one is also available on VOD, which limited its screen count and its grosses. The film appears to have been quietly playing in Canada for a while, which explains why its grosses are already at $2.1 million, even though its "opening weekend" was only a bit above $0.4 million.
Rounding out the top ten is Christian romantic drama 2 Hearts, which has a ten-day gross of $1 million, and another animated re-release, last year's The Addams Family.
With Halloween falling on Saturday this year, this was always going to be a very slow weekend, even if there was no pandemic. Only one movie is set to open, the horror flick Come Play, about a young autistic boy who discovers his new online friend is actually a scary monster. Given that it's a theater-only release, it has a decent shot of beating Honest Thief to take the weekend. We'll find out just how spooky the box office turns out to be next week.
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