Just when you thought Adam Sandler was down and out and potentially done after the summer bomb Pixels, he pulled out a surprising victory at the box office, reteaming with Sony Pictures Animation for the animated sequel Hotel Transylvania 2, which opened with an estimated $47.5, making it the biggest opening for a September release as well as Sandler’s second-biggest opening after 2005’s The Longest Yard.
It opened bigger than the original 2012 Hotel Transylvania, which previously set the September opening record with $42.5 million before going on to gross $148 million domestically and another $210 million overseas. Directed by the original film’s director Genndy Tartakovsky and featuring the voices of Sandler, Mel Brooks, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Kevin James, Molly Shannon, Jon Lovtiz and more, it received an “A-” CinemaScore, which bodes well for the movie’s legs, although it will have to face Sony’s other family horror offering Goosebumps in just a few short weeks.
Furthermore, Hotel Transylvania 2 will be #1 in 33 of the 37 international markets in which it opened on Friday, and though we haven’t received exact numbers just yet, Sony is saying that it more than doubled the opening of the previous movie.
Filmmaker Nancy Meyers returned with her latest comedy The Intern, starring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro, which was also quite successful with an estimated opening of $18.2 million, which is lower than her previous movie It’s Compiicated but a bigger opening than her previous two films. Most of Meyers’ films have opened in December allowing them to do well beyond opening weekend due to the holidays, but even without that, strong word-of-mouth signified by an “A-” CinemaScore should help it continue to do well without a lot of direct competition for female moviegoers.
Last week’s #1 movie, 20th Century Fox’s sequel Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, adapted from James Dashner’s novel, dropped to third place with $14 million, down 54% from its opening weekend with a 10-day domestic gross of $51.7 million.
Universal’s ensemble adventure-drama Everest, directed by Balthasar Kormakur (Contraband) and starring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emily Watson and Keira Knightley, expanded nationwide into 3,004 theaters on Friday where it grossed an estimated $13.1 million or $4,358 per location. With the $10 million it amassed in IMAX and other large-screen platforms, it has grossed $23 million in North America so far. It grossed another $3.7 million from IMAX screens this weekend raising its domestic IMAX take to $11.5 million, the first September release to gross more than $10 million in IMAX alone. It received an “A” CinemaScore from moviegoers, although it has a lot of competition over the next few weeks from Ridley Scott’s The Martian, the expansion of Sicario and Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, which will take over many of those IMAX screens on Wednesday.
Internationally, Everest is doing huge business, having grossed $73.7 million so far with another $33.8 million this weekend from 62 territories with $4.1 million of that amount from its 241 IMAX screens, which takes its international IMAX total to $8.2 million.
Warner Bros.’ crime-drama Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Dakota Johnson, Julianne Nicholson, Rory Cochran and Kevin Bacon, dropped 49% in its second weekend and fell to fifth place with $11.5 million and $42.6 million grossed so far.
M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit (Universal) dropped to sixth place in its third weekend with $6.8 million (down 42%) and a total domestic gross of $52.3 million.
Screen Gems’ thriller The Perfect Guy, starring Sanaa Lathan, Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut, took seventh place with $4.8 million (down 51%) and $49 million domestically, followed by the faith-based family drama War Room (Sony/TriStar) with $4.3 million and $56 million earned so far.
Two years after it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of “Midnight Madness,” Eli Roth’s South American horror flick The Green Inferno was released by Universal-based Blumhouse Tilt in 1,539 theaters, where it grossed an estimated $3.5 million, or $2,274 per theater.
Denis Villeneuve’s Mexican cartel crime-thriller Sicario (Lionsgate), starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro, expanded into 59 theaters on Friday after a strong platform release, and it took in $1.8 million for the weekend, about $30,000 per theater, to claim a place in the Top 10 with $2.3 million grossed before its nationwide expansion this coming Friday.
Bleecker Street’s Bobby Fischer drama Pawn Sacrifice, starring Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber, Peter Saarsgard and Michael Stuhlbarg, expanded nationwide into 781 theaters where it earned $1 million, just $1,307 per theater.
In limited release, Roland Emmerich’s controversial Stonewall (Roadside Attractions) took in just $110,000 in 129 theaters, a weak $853 per theater after receiving horrible reviews, while Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s gambling drama Mississippi Grind (A24), starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn, opened in a single New York theater where it grossed $14,000.
