It was a battle of the sequels at the multiplexes this weekend, as “Boo! A Madea Halloween” narrowly edged out “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” to claim first place at the domestic box office.
The latest film in the long-running Madea series racked up $27.6 million. Comedian Chris Rock may be entitled to a percentage of the gross. Creator Tyler Perry was inspired to take his pistol-packing grandma trick-or-treating after Rock’s comedian character in 2014’s “Top Five” joked that his latest movie, a passion project about a slave revolt, was going head-to-head at the box office with “Boo! A Madea Halloween.” What was once intended as satire eventually became a seasonally appropriate reality.
“Never Go Back” was right behind, with the action sequel earning a solid $23 million. The film brought back Tom Cruise as Reacher, an ex-military investigator with a penchant for ass-kicking. The films are based on a popular series of books by Lee Childs, but despite their best-selling pedigree, a sequel to “Jack Reacher” wasn’t exactly a given. The first film ended up making money for Paramount in 2012, grossing $218.3 million worldwide on a production budget of $60 million, but it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster.
A notable miss was Keeping Up with the Joneses, which had a budget of $40 million before marketing and only made $5.6 million during its debut weekend. The movie stars Gal Gadot, Jon Hamm, Zach Galifianakis, and Isla Fisher.
Here are the Top 10 movies at the US box office for October 21-23, as posted by EW:
- Boo! A Madea Halloween – $27.6 million
- Jack Reacher: Never Go Back – $23 million
- Ouija: Origin of Evil – $14 million
- The Accountant – $14 million
- The Girl on the Train – $7.3 million
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – $6 million
- Keeping Up with the Joneses – $5.6 million
- Kevin Hart: What Now? – $4.1 million
- Storks – $4.1 million
- Deepwater Horizon – $3.6 million
