In a weekend crowded with new releases, Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, scores an upset win.
Twenty-five years ago, the weekend before Thanksgiving, most box-office pundits were expecting an easy victory for the opening weekend of the much-hyped Will Smith thriller Enemy of the State. Instead, The Rugrats Movie, a theatrical spin-off of the hugely popular Nickelodeon animated series, not only pulled an upset victory, but ended up beating Enemy by over $7 million. The success of Rugrats prompted the three major producers of TV animation at the time--Nick, Cartoon Network, and Disney--to put movie version of other animated shows into production. Over the next few years, in addition to Rugrats sequels, moviegoers were also treated to movie versions of Doug, Hey Arnold, The Powerpuff Girls, The Wild Thornberrys, and Recess, among others. None did anywhere near the business of that first Rugrats movie, and the trend fizzled out by the early aughts, with only some films from juggernaut SpongeBob SquarePants and an occasional one-off like Teen Titans Go! to the Movies piercing the veil between TV/streaming/video and theatrical release.
After this weekend, don't be shocked if history repeats itself. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, surprised just about everyone by opening to a very mighty $22.8 million, not only securing the #1 spot, but also greatly outpacing the 2021's Paw Patrol: The Movie, which only opened to $13.2 million (though, to be fair, the first one was simultaneously released on Paramount +, while Mighty is a theatrical exclusive. The first film topped out at $40.1 million, a number that this one should easily top. Expect Mighty to finish at over $50 million, and maybe even above $60 million, especially as there aren't really any films aimed at kids and families arriving until both Trolls Band Together and Wish arrive at Thanksgiving. And every dollar that Mighty earns just makes it all the more likely we'll see The Bluey Movie by 2025.
Since the Saw series petered out in 2010, there's been two unsuccessful attempts to revive the franchise with Jigsaw in 2017 and Spiral in 2021. Apparently the thing to do was to get back to the basics, as Saw X brings back Tobin Bell as the series's evil-but-still-sympathetic mastermind, John "Jigsaw" Kramer, despite the fact his character died some 7 movies ago. In this one, set fairly early in the series timeline, Kramer gets his revenge on some fraudsters who prey on sick people. With surprisingly terrific reviews for the usually critically-lambasted franchise, X managed a solid $18.3 million, the best non-3D-enhanced opening for the franchise since Saw V back in 2008. We'll see if the good reviews translate into good word-of-mouth, which might give the film something horror films rarely have--legs (the better to gorily amputate without anesthesia). At any rate, given that Lionsgate is obviously very eager to keep the series going, expect to see Saw XI possibly by next Halloween.
There was some hope that strong reviews might help the week's third wide release, The Creator, find an audience. Alas, reviews ended up being weaker than expected, and with a generic title, familiar-sounding story, and the fact that lead John David Washington doesn't have nearly the star power of his dad Denzel, this opened to a rather disappointing $14.1 million. Again, we'll see if word-of-mouth helps rescue the sci-fi drama, in which Washington plays a former soldier who finds himself befriending a robot child, though she could be instrumental in wiping out all humans. But don't be too surprised if this finishes below $40 million.
After three weekends on top, mostly by default, The Nun II falls to fourth, taking in $4.8 million. That brings the total stuffed in its collection plate to $76.9 million. It's still keeping pace with Insidious: The Red Door, and will likely finish just north of $80 million.
In an opening so quiet that most pundits, including myself, didn't even realize this was coming out this weekend, Christian audiences helped The Blind open to a respectable $4.4 million. The bio drama, about the early life of Phil Robertson, who would eventually become the patriarch of the family as seen on long-running reality hit Duck Dynasty. This feels likely to fall off relatively fast, but given the popularity of the show, this one might have some crossover appeal.
A Haunting in Venice won't be haunting multiplexes much longer, as the Agatha Christie adaption could only scare up $3.6 million, for a total of $31.4 million. This pushes it below where Death on the Nile was after its third weekend, suggesting it might end up looking up at Death's $45.6 million total.
After having an OK semi-wide expansion last week, it turned out to be a dumb move to send Dumb Money wide. The real-life comedy only collected $3.3 million in money, for a total of $7.1 million, once again proving that theatrical movies based on very recent events tend to be box office losers. Money could possibly stage a comeback if it gets awards attention, but it is rather rare for a September opener to be a major player during awards season.
In 8th, The Equalizer 3, starring John David Washington's dad, continues to chug along, bringing in $2.7 million for a total of $85.9 million.
Lionsgate was able to successfully revive Saw this week, but their attempt last week to revive a seemingly dead franchise, Expend4bles, continues to be DOA. The action extravaganza slumped to only $2.5 million in its second week, for a ten-day total of $13.3 million. Next up on the Lionsgate Revival Club: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, out at Thanksgiving.
After 10 weeks in the Top 5, Barbie lost a significant number of theaters to the newcomers this weekend, and also suffered its first significant drop of its entire run. The comedy fell all the way to 10th, taking in $1.4 million for a total of $633.1 million. If this is indeed its final weekend in the Top 10, it leaves as the last summer movie still in over 1,200 theaters and with a box office total this is highly unlikely to be matched by any other movie opening this year.
Outside the Top 10, the re-issue of the seminal Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense brought in $1 million in its second weekend, bringing its 2023 ten-day gross to $3 million. Not bad for a movie that came out in 1984 and is widely available for home viewing.
Back in 2018, director David Gordon Green directed Halloween, a highly successful revival of the horror franchise that returned original star Jamie Lee Curtis front and center (there were two follow-ups that were considerably less well received). Green is hoping lightning will strike twice with his revival of The Exorcist, which returns original star Ellen Burstyn front and center. The Exorcist: Believer, in which Burstyn's Chris MacNeil assists a desperate father (Leslie Odom, Jr.) after his own daughter and her friend get possessed, is getting considerably weaker reviews than Green's Halloween (or, for that matter, Saw X or The Nun II), but is widely expected to be an easy #1. The only other wide release this weekend is Disney's 30th anniversary re-release of its beloved Halloween comedy Hocus Pocus. The comedy, which Disney inexplicitly originally released in July back in 1993, had a successful-for-the-pandemic rerelease in October 2020, grossing $4.8 million. Can The Exorcist top the September openings of Saw and The Nun? Or will its first weekend gross be proof that it will swiftly be excised from theaters? We'll find out next week.
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