This 2019 weekend before Halloween was pretty mundane with two new wide releases that were only going to do moderate business but somehow this random weekend turned into a tight race for the number one spot where one film came out the early winner until the rival studio did its final tallies for the weekend.
Originally, Joker took the top spot after relinquishing it to Maleficent: Mistress of Evil the weekend before. Joker had spent two spectacular weeks at number one and, despite underperforming, Maleficent was able to prevent a third. Maleficent was expected to see a steeper drop than Joker in its second weekend so many, myself included, thought Joker would laugh its way back to the top. Early estimates showed that it did with $18.9 million vs. the $18.5 million earned by the Disney sequel. I thought it was way too close to call in early estimates and thought things could change significantly once the final numbers came in.
Disney is all about magic and wonder so it really is no surprise that once the final numbers came in, the roles were flipped. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil turned out to be the true winner of the weekend, giving Disney bragging rights for two weeks at number one for the film with a final gross of $19.4 million, down 47.6% from its underperformance the week before. Disney is able to spin this into some decent news this weekend because they kept the drop below 50% which is always good and it gets to run TV spots that the film is number one for the second weekend in a row. Mistress of Evil got the edge over Joker with more family business, especially on Sunday when it really came out ahead of the crown prince of crime. Mistress of Evil has a domestic total of $66.2 million after two weeks of release, a total that doesn’t even reach the original film’s opening weekend but the sequel isn’t a disaster like some would lead you to believe based solely on its international performance. Internationally, the film added another $64.3 million for an overseas total that now tops $228 million for a global tally just shy of $294 million. I’m hearing the film needs about $400 million worldwide to break even and justify its existence and that seems pretty feasible at this point.
Don’t cry for Joker maintaining second place this weekend with a gross of $19.2 million. The film had another excellent hold, dropping just 34.2% and brings its domestic total to a stellar $277.9 million. The big news for Joker is that the film topped Deadpool to become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all-time at the worldwide box office as it cleared $788 million. The final worldwide trajectory seems to be about $950 million but I wonder if there is enough gas in the tank to get to $1 billion when it’s all said and done. Joker has broken so many status quos at the box office that I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
In third, we have The Addams Family with $12 million, dipping just 26.4%. That’s a much better hold than last weekend as it likely is benefitting from the Halloween season and it should continue to pull in decent numbers until we clear the holiday on Thursday. The film has grossed $73.1 million to date and if it had one more Halloween weekend in play I’d say $100 million was a possibility by the end of its run but I’m thinking it falls short with a still impressive $90 million, justifying their rush to announce that a sequel was already in the works.
In fourth, we have the second weekend of Zombieland: Double Tap which grossed $11.8 million. The film fell a steep 55.9% which isn’t too surprising since there was probably a bit of a fanboy rush for the film on opening weekend. Double Tap has a domestic tally of $47.2 million to date and it’s likely to benefit from some pre-Halloween exposure as well this week before it’s all said and done.
Rounding out the top five is Countdown with a better than expected $8.8 million. The film was tracking at about $6 million so this was the best possible result. The film cost $6.5 million to make and should perform ok until Halloween but from there it’s a distant memory given its “C+” CinemaScore but STX Entertainment is going to turn a small profit from the film given its modest budget.
Check out the full top ten results below:
| Film | Total | % Change | Gross to Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onward | $10,601,952 | -72.9% | $60.3 |
| Bloodshot | $9,176,695 | NEW | $9.17 |
| I Still Believe | $9,103,614 | NEW | $9.10 |
| The Invisible Man | $5,890,805 | -61.1% | $64.3 |
| The Hunt | $5,304,455 | NEW | $5.3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | $2,522,584 | -67.3% | $145.7 |
| The Way Back | $2,356,115 | -71.2% | $13.3 |
| The Call of the Wild | $2,226,720 | -67.1% | $62 |
| Emma. | $1,295,215 | -73% | $9.9 |
| Bad Boys for Life | $1,102,208 | -63.5% | $204.2 |
