The animated adventure Abominable from Universal finished on top of the box-office weekend with a $20.9 million showing during its opening weekend. This bested second-place finisher (and last week’s top earner) Downton Abbey by approximately $6.4 million. Still, Abominable has a long way to go to justify its $75 million budget, but positive reviews and word of mouth could help it along in that regard.
The aforementioned Downton Abbey did make $14.5 million during its second weekend, giving the theatrical edition of the popular television show a two-week total of $58.5 million. Director Loren Scarfaria’s Hustlers moved up two spots to finish in third place this weekend with an $11.5 million haul in its third week of release, giving the comedy a cumulative total of $80.6 million.
Meanwhile, It Chapter Two held steady in the fourth spot of the top ten with $10.4 million, giving it a four-week total of $193.9 million. Ad Astra did not prove as fortunate as it dropped three spots to fifth place earning $10.1 million over the weekend, which gives the Brad Pitt science fiction film a two-week tally of $35.5 million. Similarly, Rambo: Last Blood dropped from the third spot last week to sixth place this weekend as it took in $8.6 million, giving Sylvester Stallone’s action film a total of $33.2 over its first two weeks of release.
Debuting this week in the seventh spot of the weekend box-office was Renée Zellweger’s amazing turn as the legendary Judy Garland in Judy, which managed to pull in $3.1 million during its opening weekend. The comedy Good Boys dropped one spot from seventh to eighth place with a $2 million showing over the weekend, giving the film a seven-week cumulative total of $80.4 million.
The live-action rendition of The Lion King dropped three spots this weekend, finishing in ninth place with $1.6 million. Despite the drop, the film still boasts an eleven-week total of $540 million, which probably means no one at Disney is too saddened by the dip over the weekend. Finally, the action film Angel Has Fallen finished in the final spot of the weekend’s countdown with $1.5 million, giving it a six-week total of $67.2 million.
Two films left the box-office weekend top ten: Overcomer, which ended its five-week dalliance with the top ten with a domestic total of $33.1 million; and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, which departs the top ten after earning $172.3 million in its eight weeks of release.
Next weekend we will be treated to the release of Joker from Universal. Joaquin Phoenix’s take on the titular villain is easily one of the more anticipated performances of the season and will certainly lead to another reorder of the box-office weekend roundup.
Weekend Box-Office (September 27th – September 29th)
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.