“The Predator” Misses Its Target at the Box Office

BOX OFFICE REPORT

September 14-16, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

The Predator $24.0 million
The Nun $18.2 million
A Simple Favor  $16.0 million
White Boy Rick  $8.8 million
Crazy Rich Asians  $8.7 million

The Predator sliced and diced its competition, but its opening wasn't anything intimidating. The fourth entry in the Predator series – sixth if you count the awful Alien vs. Predator spin-offs – opened at No.1 with an estimated $24 million. That's below what the mostly forgotten future-set Predators opened with in 2010. The film had a lot of goodwill going in, but it got mostly bad reviews and was beset by behind-the-scenes controversy (for which director Shane Black has now apologized). This means it's yet another failed attempt to keep this franchise going.

The Nun slipped to No. 2, dropping more than 66 percent. So while it still might become the second-biggest movie in The Conjuring universe, it's likely to be forgotten quickly, like so many other horror flicks that open big but fade fast.

A Simple Favor opened higher than expected, with audiences intrigued by the mystery at its core. Its $16 million opening is solid for a female-led movie that had to work hard to obscure its twists. Word-of-mouth could propel this to be the sleeper hit of the fall. Despite a big push, audiences were less interested in the true crime of White Boy Rick. The R-rated drama managed only $8.8 million, barely topping the fifth weekend of Crazy Rich Asians.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Mexican crime drama Museo. The Gael García Bernal-starring heist thriller made $17,500 on its lone screen.
  • The Meg and Hotel Transylvania 3 hit major milestones: Both films crossed half a billion dollars internationally.
  • It took two solid months to get there, but Mission: Impossible – Fallout is officially the biggest film in the franchise, overtaking 2000's second entry. It's also the biggest internationally as well, with a whopping 71.6 percent of the film's take coming outside North America.

Next week:

Will Eli Roth have his first No. 1 film in more than a decade? The controversial horror director is going in a kid-friendly direction for the first time with The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Given its well-known cast and beloved source material, it should easily nab $20 to $25 million for first place. Life Itself, from the creator of This Is Us, won't match that show's success. Both it and Michael Moore's everything-is-awful documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 will debut with less than $10 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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