Box Office Weekend – ‘Rich Asians’ Have Crazy Hold, ‘Happytime Murders’ Dead on Arrival

Box Office
This weekend at the box office, Crazy Rich Asians continues to blow financial expectations away while STX Entertainment’s The Happytime Murders doesn’t have a whole lot to be that happy about.

 

The sophomore outing for the Warner Bros. film Crazy Rich Asians made just over $25M, which is almost as much as the $26M+ three-day opening weekend. That kind of a hold is virtually unheard of in this day and age (and if anything, it more closely resembles the kind of hold that a movie can have over the Holiday season) and signifies that there’s a significant amount of support from Asian demographics and strong repeat business all around. Given that next weekend is Labor Day, expect another great weekend ahead for the romantic comedy that should put it past $100M. Speaking of which, The Meg (also a WB picture) managed to cross that mark this weekend as that movie continues to overperform to box office expectations, and at this point it’s clear that the movie will make a good profit.

 

There’s some not-so-great news for this weekend’s new offerings, however. The Melissa McCarthy puppet noir/black comedy The Happytime Murders opened well below $13M-ish expectations with about $10M. Critics brutalized the R-rated comedy (usually a death sentence for that sort of movie), but making matters worse is that audiences that did show up weren’t fans, as the movie got a C- CinemaScore, which probably does little favors for the movie’s long-term prospects. The other new release of the weekend, Global Road Entertainment’s A.X.L., had a dismal sub-$3M opening weekend against a modest budget of $10M – something that’s not great news in the face of Global Road’s recent financial situation getting so bad that lenders are taking over the company.

 

Beyond that, Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout is getting closer and closer to clearing $200M domestic; by the end of its run, the sixth movie in the series should outgross Mission: Impossible II to become the franchise’s biggest movie at the domestic box office when not accounting for inflation. Sony’s The Equalizer 2 should also clear $100M domestic sometime next week and will almost certainly outgross the original film, possibly even when accounting for inflation. If Sony is hoping to ride the coattails of Crazy Rich Asians with the Jon Cho-led Searching, then initial results ($360,000) from the film’s limited opening in 9 theaters should be encouraging before it expands next weekend. In addition, Christopher Robin has outgrossed Pete’s Dragon, a film that analysts have compared it to, and it seems like there is plenty of honey left in that pot before the movie leaves theaters. Finally, Universal’s BlackKklansman has more than doubled its $15M production budget this weekend as the movie continues to open in a greater number of theaters.

 

The Top Twelve box office performances for the three-day weekend can be summarized as follows (bolded titles are new releases):

  1. Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros.) – $25.01M Weekend/$76.817M Total; 5.7% Drop.
  2. The Meg (Warner Bros.) – $13.03M Weekend/$105.3M Total; 38.4% Drop.
  3. The Happytime Murders (STX Entertainment) – $10.02M Total.
  4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount Pictures) – $8M Weekend/$193.9M Total; 25.7% Drop.
  5. Christopher Robin (Disney) – $6.34M Weekend/$77.628M Total; 28.5% Drop.
  6. Mile 22 (STX Entertainment) – $6.03M Weekend/$25.17M Total; 56% Drop.
  7. Alpha (Sony Pictures) – $5.6M Weekend/$20.16M Total; 45.9% Drop.
  8. BlacKkKlansman (Universal Pictures/Focus Features) – $5.345M Weekend/$32.037M Total; 27.6% Drop.
  9. A.X.L. (Global Road) – $2.939M Total.
  10. Slender Man (Sony Pictures/Screen Gems) – $2.785M Weekend/$25.403M Total; 42% Drop.
  11. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony Pictures) – $2.5M Weekend/$158.617M Total; 33.7% Drop.
  12. The Equalizer 2 (Sony Pictures) – $2.005M Weekend/$98.025M Total; 30% Drop.

The Equalizer 2Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and The Meg are now playing in theaters.