A Bullish Summer Goes Out With A Yawn As The Labor Day Weekend B.O. Dawns
As we come off a swampy August, don’t expect any box office perks from the Labor Day weekend holiday.
Typically the final weekend of summer is home to horror fare — the frame’s record opener being 2007’s Halloween reboot at $30.6M — but distributors ignored the opportunity to program the genre this year. Instead, the fresh offerings are composed of Broad Green’s first wide entry A Walk In The Woods, aimed squarely at adults, and EuropaCorp’s franchise reboot The Transporter Refueled, targeted toward guys.
Two African-American demo titles are projected to reign over the top two spots again, with Universal/Legenardy’s Straight Outta Compton taking $10M over FSSM and Sony/Affirm’s War Room in 200 more theaters from last weekend at 1,335, making $7M-$8M. Compton will become the second title this year after Uni’s Furious 7 to hold No. 1 for four weekends straight.
Broad Green is getting its Nick Nolte-Robert Redford hiking dramedy way out in front of the autumn awards-season adult onslaught, previewing tonight before opening Wednesday in 1,800 locations. By Friday, the Ken Kwapis-helmed feature, based on Bill Bryson’s New York Times bestseller, should be in 1,946 theaters. According to this morning’s estimates, A Walk In The Woods is expected to make $5M over FSS and $8M over six days. It’s not unusual for adult-skewing dramas to launch over the Labor Day frame, i.e. Focus Features’ The Debt and The Constant Gardener opened during summer’s final weekend in the past. The Debt bowed on a Wednesday in 2010 and made $9.9M over FSS and $14.8M over six days, while Constant Gardener grossed $8.7M over FSS and $12.7M over six in 2005. Broad Green acquired A Walk in the Woods out of Sundance for high seven figures. The strongest demo in tracking are females over 25 with a 40% definite choice. Previews start tonight at 7 PM.
EuropaCorp’s foray into stateside distribution, Transporter Refueled, is looking at $7M-$8M over four days in third place. Luc Besson’s company is banking on the world for this one. Transporter 3 made $77.3M overseas to $31.7M stateside in 2008. Why open a Transporter now? Well, Fox opened Transporter 2 during Labor Day weekend 2005 and made a whopping $20.1M over four days.
The Weinstein Co.’s No Escape and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation will continue to fight in the rankings with about $6M in FSSM cash.
Open Road’s critically acclaimed Dope, which has collected $16.76M at the domestic box office to date, is out for another go-round in about 1,000 theaters. AMPAS, PGA, DGA, WGA, BFCA and the SAG and NAACP nomination committees will be passed in for free.
Related‘Dope’ Review: Geeks Meet Street In Fresh & Original Summer Movie
Through this past Sunday, summer could wind up being the second-best ever with $4.3 billion after 2013’s record $4.7 billion. Could being the key word. Summer 2011 is currently No. 2 at $4.4B, but August really proved a drag — off 63% versus last August, which hit a record $1B high thanks to mega grossers Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($191.2M domestic B.O.) and Guardians Of The Galaxy ($333.2M). That Disney-Marvel pic was the highest-grossing film of 2014 for quite some time until The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 beat its record, followed by American Sniper.
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