On a very slow weekend, The Nun II edges out A Haunting in Venice.
While not nearly the cinematic backwater January is, late August through late September has rarely been an prominent spot on the movie calandar. In recent years, hits like the two Its, The Nun, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings have sought to burnish September's reputation, but it's still not a month most studios are looking to program potential blockbusters in. Hence, the movie lineup of September 2023, which has been and will continue to be a parade of sequels that most people weren't really asking for.
In the battle of sequels, The Nun II emerged--barely--on top, finding $14.5 million in its collection plate. The latest entry in the extended Conjuring franchise has scared up a ten-day total of $56.3 million. It's still running well with Insidious: The Red Door, with a slightly higher second weekend than the July hit and a slightly lower overall gross (thanks to both summer and a PG-13 rating, Red Door had better weekday grosses than Nun does), suggesting a final gross of around $80 million is likely. The Nun has another weekend to play before another horror sequel--Saw X--arrives in two weeks.
Finishing just behind is Kenneth Branagh's return as Belgian detective Herclue Poirot, trying to solve the mystery behind A Haunting in Venice. The not-exactly-loaded cast--after genuine get Michelle Yeoh, the next big names (Tiny Fey, Jamie Dorman) would have been considerably bigger, say, 8 years ago--and not-terrible reviews helped propel the spooky thriller to a $14.3 million opening. That's a bit better than what Death on the Nile opened to a year and a half ago, but not good enough to suggest that Haunting will do much better than Nile did.
In third, The Equalizer 3 continues the parade of September sequels with $7.2 million. With a $73.7 million gross, it has now fallen considerably off the pace of the first two titles and seems to be heading toward a final number of less than $100 million.
Not too many people are shouting "Opa!" for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, as the comedy could only manage $4.8 million for a ten-day total of $18.6 million. By comparison, Wedding 2 had double the overall gross and more than twice the weekend gross after its second weekend. In other words, the honeymoon may finally be over for the franchise.
Barbie, now available for home viewing, continues to hang out in the Top 5, though mostly because it was a slow weekend. The comedy took in $3.8 million for a total of $626 million. Top Gun: Maverick, which has been outpacing its weekend grosses for a while, has finally passed Barbie's overall gross at the same point in its run. Barbie is still holding up pretty well, so a final gross of around $650 million is still on the table, particularly as the film is heading for IMAX soon.
In 6th, Blue Beetle continues to chug along, bringing in another $2.5 million for a total gross of $67.3 million. It still looks to be heading for around $75 million.
Bollywood movies tend to have massive second-weekend drops, so by that standard, the fact that action flick Jawan fell only about 60% actually means it has pretty strong legs. The shoot-em-up took in $2.4 million for a twelve-day total of $12.1 million. That's enough to make it the biggest Indian movie in the North American market for the year so far.
Rounding out the Top 10, Gran Turismo is hitting the finish line well in back of the competition. It took in $2.4 million for a total of $39.4 million. Oppenheimer looks to be heading for the exit, as it took in $2.1 million for a gross of $318.6 million. Also heading back to the sewers is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which made $2 million for a total of $114.2 million.
This week's biggest opening is, surprise surprise, another sequel no one particularly wanted. The rather awkwardly-titled Expen4bles revives the 80s-throwback action franchise that has been dormant for 9 years. The film brings back franchise regulars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lungren, and Randy Couture, though other franchise vets like Jet Li, Terry Crews, and Arnold Schwarzenegger are apparently sitting this one out. Joining the film are Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson III and Megan Fox, neither of whose careers have been exactly thriving. Still, with not much competition, this looks poised to take #1. The only other newcomer is It Lives Inside, a indie horror film about a Indian-American teenager who must fight a Hindu demon that has possessed her friend. Lives Inside could surprise (look at the overperformance of Talk to Me, for example), but its hard to see any other movie besides Expen4bles taking the top spot. Can it make more than the $15.9 million Expendables 3 opened to? We'll find out next week.
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