Box Office: Goosebumps Bumps The Martian With $23.5 Million Opening

Box Office, Columns, News

goosebumps

At the end of last week’s box office report, I estimated that Sony Pictures’ Goosebumps would finish atop the top 10 with $25 million. It looks like my estimate wasn’t far as off as the adaptation of R.L. Stine’s best-selling book series, toplined by Jack Black, finished with $23.5 million. This figure was a few million more than Sony had quietly speculated it would earn. Frankly, they were probably low-balling in their projections. After all, it’s October, Halloween is right around the corner, and Sony’s other big hit at the moment, Hotel Transylvania 2 was entering its fourth weekend in theaters. Of course, kids would be all over this, and the $20+ million in earnings proves this much.

Slipping to second is Fox’s The Martian. Ridley Scott’s latest has surpassed previous efforts Prometheus and American Gangster to become the filmmaker’s third highest domestic grosser (only trailing Gladiator‘s $187 million and Hannibal‘s $165 million). Raising its total to $143.8 million, the sci-fi drama is only $45 million to matching Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar in U.S. earnings.

The latest collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Hanks, Bridge of Spies, opened with $15.38 million. The Cold War drama received solid reviews (including by us) and was definitely geared toward an older audience who was all about seeing Tom Hanks in his first film in two years, after 2013’s one-two punch of Captain Phillips and Saving Mr. Banks.

Elsewhere in the top 10, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak had a soft opening, while Pan took a nosedive with a 61.7% audience loss as it made $5.86 million. In ten days, the $150 million production has made $25 million in the U.S. Sicario‘s screen count gets cut by nearly 500 as Lionsgate contemplates an Oscar push for stars Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro, as well as cinematographer Roger Deakins.

One of my other predictions was the religious-themed Woodlawn would have a double-digit weekend. It did not, but it did make $4.1 million from 1,553 screens.

In limited release, A24’s Room premiered in four theaters and made $120,000. Sony Pictures Classics’ Truth, starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford, made $76,646 from six theaters. And Netflix’s biggest original film release, Beasts of No Nation, failed to attract much of an audience in 31 theaters (only $56k earned), but Netflix corporate is reporting a good number of streaming for the new title from Cary Fukunaga (HBO’s True Detective) and co-starring Idris Elba.

Upcoming for the weekend we have Jem and the Holograms battling Vin Diesel and The Last Witch Hunter, along with yet another Paranormal Activity movie (presumably the last one) and Bill Murray’s Rock the Kasbah. It could very well be a weekend where a movie with $15 million tops the top 10. Now the question is if it will be Goosebumps or The Last Witch Hunter? I’ll go with Vin with an opening that we be somewhere around $19 million. The PG-13 rating will give it a boost, most likely.

Top 10 below.

01. Goosebumps – $23.5 Million
02. The Martian – $21.5 Million ($143.8m)
03. Bridge of Spies – $15.38 Million
04. Crimson Peak – $12.85 Million
05. Hotel Transylvania 2 – $12.25 Million ($136.4m)
06. Pan – $5.86 Million ($25.7m)
07. The Intern – $5.4 Million ($58.7m)
08. Sicario – $4.5 Million ($34.6m)
09. Woodlawn – $4.1 Million
10. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials – $2.75 Million ($75.4m)

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!