It took only five weeks for New Line Cinema’s IT to top $300M domestically as early estimates put the Stephen King adaptation at $9.6M for the weekend for a total of $305M. Worldwide is sitting at $298M (we’ll update this as soon as we have numbers), which means worldwide has officially topped $600M. IT‘s still not even close to The Sixth Sense or The Exorcist.
Warner Bros.’ other genre film, Blade Runner 2049, underperformed in its #1 spot. Early reports pegged it topping $40M only early estimates now have it at $31M. (Update: It also made $50M internationally.) While it carried a strong Cinemascore, the movie did run at nearly 3 hours, limiting the number of showings in the 4,000+ theaters. It was also R-rated, which typically can have a negative impact on box office. ERCboxoffice notes a perfect comp: The Mummy, which ended its run with $80M domestically ($400M worldwide). Blade Runner 2049 carries a reported $150M budget, which means it will need over $600M worldwide to break even. Not happening. It’s a bummer, too, as Blade Runner 2049 is a unique and artistic film that really breaks the norm of what we’d expect a studio to release. This underperforming, much like Paramount’s over-priced mother!, could put an end to studio risks until the next one breaks out.
Speaking of, mother! is working its way out of theaters quickly. It barely topped $350k this weekend in just 420 theaters. It sits at $17M domestic and $39M worldwide. If the budget weren’t a ridiculous $30M, it would have possibly recouped its budget (plus marketing). Instead, write this one up as a massive flop.
Another flop is Sony’s Flatliners remake, which found it’s way up to 4% on Rotten Tomatoes. It only dropped 43% this weekend and made another $3.8M for a total of $12.3M. On a budget of $20M, the second weekend of international only pulled in $3M more. Brutal. Right now it sits at $18M worldwide.
Let’s see how Happy Death Day performs next weekend, with Jigsaw waiting in the wings for Oct. 27.
