Beetlejuice Beetlejuice held up really well in week two, but new releases struggled to draw in an audience.
The weekend box office numbers have begun rolling in, and it looks like Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice held up much better than anyone (except us) expected in week two. According to Deadline, the popular sequel grossed $51.6 million this weekend, which is the second-best sophomore weekend for a fall movie since It back in 2017. Notably, the film only dipped 54% this weekend, a strong hold for a movie that opened north of $100 million.
With a $188 million domestic total, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice seems certain to end its domestic run with a $250 million-plus final gross. It is another winner for Warner Bros, who are having a good year. Wonka, Dune: Part Two, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire were all major worldwide hits, with only their underrated Furiosa and Horizon: Chapter 1 box office misfires for them this year. They also have Joker: Folie a Deux coming up in a few weeks, which should be another hit, even if the buzz has been muted after the movie was met with a surprisingly chilly reception from critics in Venice.
Universal and Blumhouse’s Speak No Evil opened within expectations, making $11.5 million, which isn’t that far off from what their movies Night Swim and Imaginary opened with earlier this year. This dark remake of the Danish horror film is targeted at an older audience, with its R-rating, and reviews have been largely positive (our own Tyler Nichols enjoyed it), so word of mouth should be good. Given that the studio is thrifty with their budgets, Speak No Evil should be a solid moneymaker for them.
However, the weekend’s other big new release, The Killer’s Game with Dave Bautista, is shaping up to be Lionsgate’s third massive flop in a row (following Borderlands and The Crow), only grossing $2.6 million (good enough for sixth place). Given how it was financed, The Killer’s Game isn’t even playing in Canada. It is likely destined for a streaming debut in a few months, similar to what happened with The League of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Lucky for them, their horror flick, Never Let Go, opens next week and is getting solid buzz. Horror seems to be a good genre for them, with The Strangers: Chapter 1 also a moneymaker earlier this summer.
While Deadpool and Wolverine added $5.2 million to its coffers in third place (for a massive $621.5 million total), the rest of the top five was dominated by two specialty releases, the Matt Walsh documentary Am I Racist? and the biopic, Reagan, which has proven to be a sleeper hit. Am I Racist? is The Daily Wire’s first wide theatrical release, and the $4.75 million opening is pretty solid, although it’ll be interesting to see whether or not it’s front-loaded at the box office.
Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th President of the United States, has proven to be surprisingly popular. While critics largely disliked it (it has a deadly 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences have turned this one into a pretty big sleeper hit, earning another $2.96 million this weekend towards a $23 million gross. While that may not sound like a huge number, this is big for a lower-key, grassroots release.
Meanwhile, Alien: Romulus crossed the magic $100 million mark at the domestic box office, making it only the second movie in the franchise (after Prometheus) to do so. That said, both Alien and Aliens, adjusted for inflation would easily surpass that number, having been major hits in their time. The Blake Lively romantic drama It Ends With Us has started wrapping up its run, making just over $2 million this weekend for an eighth-place finish and a $144 million domestic total. It was neck-and-neck with Sony’s faith-based, The Forge, which has earned $24.1 million so far. Another faith-based movie, God’s Not Dead: In Good We Trust, rounded out the top 10, making $1.46 million. Further down the list, A24’s The Front Room plummeted a whopping 73% at the box office, with only $427K in grosses over the weekend (according to Exhibitor Relations).
Do you think Lionsgate’s Never Let Go will finally break that studio’s losing streak at the box office? Let us know in the comments.