LOS ANGELES, Oct 23 — Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween narrowly beat Jack Reacher: Never Go Back at the Friday box office, making it likely that Perry’s film will walk away with more candy than the Tom Cruise sequel and win the weekend race.
Boo! grossed US$9.4 million (RM39.3 million) Friday from 2,260 locations for a projected US$25 million debut.
Perry can thank Chris Rock for the idea for the comedy-horror spool, which originated from a fake Madea movie featured in Rock’s Top Five. Boo! is the latest collaboration from Perry and Lionsgate, and earned an A CinemaScore from audiences.
The film, which also stars Bella Thorne, Diamond White and Cassi Davis, follows Perry’s popular Madea character as she spends a haunted Halloween fending off killers, paranormal poltergeists, ghosts, ghouls and zombies while keeping a watchful eye on a group of misbehaving teens.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back grossed US$8.9 million Friday from 3,780 cinemas, far more locations than Boo!, for a projected US$24 million weekend. (Numbers could always shift on Saturday.)
Both movies are doing more than expected. Heading into the weekend, each were tracking to open in the high-teens to US$20 million range.
A sequel to the 2012 film, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is an adaptation of Lee Child’s book series about an ex-military policeman fighting for justice wherever he goes. The Paramount and Skydance Productions film, directed by Edward Zwick and costing $60 million to make, also stars Cobie Smulders and Aldis Hodge. It earned a B+ CinemaScore.
Never Bo Back — receiving a B+ CinemaScore — is having to compete with holdover The Accountant for male attention, as well as overcome poor reviews.
The first Jack Reacher opened to US$15 million over the December 21-23 weekend in 2012 and ultimately earned US$218.3 million worldwide.
Never Go Back also is opening day-and-date in 40 international territories — including China, where the studio has struck a major local partnership — and those behind the movie expect it to do strong business overseas, where Cruise remains a big star.
Like Boo!, Universal and Blumhouse Productions’ horror prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil is likewise opening pre-Halloween. The supernatural horror prequel grossed US$5.5 million Friday from 3,167 cinemas for a projected US$13.7 million weekend, a decent start for a film costing less than US$9 million to make. It’s coming in behind the US$19.9 debut of the first Ouija in 2014, but hopes to be scare up strong business through Halloween since there are no other horror movies opening.
Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes and Hasbro, maker of the classic board game Ouija, are also partners on the film. Directed by Mike Flanagan, the film is set in 1967 in Los Angeles where a widowed mother and family fake seances as part of a scam for a living.
This weekend’s fourth new nationwide offering, Fox 2000’s Keeping Up With the Joneses is DOA in its debut. The comedy earned US$2 million Friday from 3,022 cinemas for a projected US$6 million weekend. The US$40 million comedy, directed by Greg Mottola, stars Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot and follows a suburban couple who discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbours are government spies.
As awards season heats up, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is shining bright at the specialty box office, where it could score the top location average of the year to date as A24 opens the critically acclaimed drama in four cinemas in New York and Los Angeles.
Early returns suggest Moonlight could open US$385,000 for a location average north of US$96,000, the best showing since The Revenant posted a cinemas average of US$118,640 when launching in four cinemas in December 2015.
Moonlight traces the life of a young black gay man struggling with his sexuality from his troubled childhood growing up in a tough Miami neighbourhood to maturity. Naomie Harris, Andre Holland, Janelle Monae, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome and Mahershala Ali also star. — The Hollywood Reporter/Bloomberg
