We are back again with another look at the weekend Box Office for October 23rd. This week we had a few new releases that someone was anticipating???? right??? anyone??? The ‘big’ openings were Vin Diesel’s ‘The Last Witch Hunter‘, another Paranormal Activity ‘The Ghost Dimension‘ and ‘Jem and the Holograms‘, so i guess you could cross off the possibility that one of them is going to reach the top spot. But how about we check out what made it to the top and if any of these new releases sit amongst the flops of the year.
- The Martian: $15.9M
- Goosebumps: $15.5M
- Bridge of Spies: $11.4M
- The Last Witch Hunter: $10.8M
- Hotel Transylvania 2: $9M
Well as you can see, ‘The Martian‘ climbs to the top position in its 4th week overtaking ‘Goosebumps‘ after it stole the top spot on its release last week. ‘Bridge of spies‘ managed to stay strong in that 3rd position holding off the highest of the new releases ‘The Last Witch Hunter‘. And rounding out the top 5 is the kids animated film ‘Hotel Transylvania 2‘, sticking in there for its 5th week.
Firstly lets look at those top positions. Last week ‘Goosebumps‘ opened to the number 1 position dethroning Ridley Scotts ‘The Martian‘. But Astronaut Mark Watney has gotten his revenge as the film dropped only 25% and brought in $15.9M to JUST edge out family film ‘Goosebumps‘ which finished with $15.5M. This shows really good word of mouth as the film still manages to stick in that top spot after 4 long weeks since its release. And it is a well deserved result for such a fantastic movie that you hopefully have seen by now. But if you haven’t, be sure to check out my non-spoiler review of the film HERE before you go and check it out. As for Goosebumps, i would say the studio would be happy with the result, as far as a family centred fantasy film goes i don’t think they have anything to worry about, it will do just fine and make some money.
Finishing right below in 3rd place was Steven Spielberg’s latest film ‘Bridge of Spies‘ starring Tom Hanks. It made $11.4M on its 2nd week dropping only 26% from last week. Nothing much to mention here other than it looks like some people really liked it and it may hang around in the top 5 for a little longer.
Now we get to the first of the new releases, ‘The Last Witch Hunter‘, the Action Fantasy starring Vin Diesel that not many people seemed to care about. It was the highest finisher of the new releases in 4th place bringing in only $10.8M, just barely scratching that $10M mark. When the biggest new release only makes $10M you know it is going to be a crap week at the box office. This just shows that Vin Diesel isn’t as big of an action star as previously thought, without the Fast and Furious name he struggles to bring in a substantial crowd. I haven’t seen much marketing for this film recently so maybe they cut back on the marketing to try and limit their losses at the box office. Disappointing but one day we will get a good original Action Fantasy, one day.
Rounding out the top 5 is ‘Hotel Transylvania 2‘ taking an additional $9M in its fifth week as it sees itself out of the top 5. Nothing interesting here, just another animated film passing through.
I gotta talk about those 2 films that didn’t make it into the top 5 in their first weekend. One of those is ‘Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension‘, yes thats right, the fifth (or sixth) instalment of the Paranormal Activity franchise only managed to bring in $8.2M making it the lowest opening out of any of the Paranormal films. This is a pure indication that the found footage horror genre is mostly dead and the Paranormal series has run out of gas. Despite the low intake, it also had a really low production value so it is still going to make the studio money, just not as much has they would have liked.
And now we get to add to the Flops of 2015 list as we welcome the release of ‘Jem and the Holograms‘. Whats that? You’ve never heard of this film? Well let me refresh your memory.. Do you remember an 80’s cartoon of the same name? No? Well what about any of the complete unknowns that were cast? No? Well i guess now we know why this film only managed to make an embarrassing $1.3M in its opening weekend. When you have a film based on an 80’s cartoon that almost no-one remembers and you cast complete unknowns in the roles and you don’t market the film like, at all, then it is destined to fail. This is one of the biggest flops of the year and that is what it will be remembered as, nothing more.
Well there you have it, another week of Weekend Box Office is over. Be sure to follow this blog to stay up to date with my Movie Reviews and all of the Box Office news right here. And be sure to check back below tomorrow for the Weekend Actuals when they release.
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