“Hustlers” Scores While “The Goldfinch” Bombs

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report Comments Off on “Hustlers” Scores While “The Goldfinch” Bombs

BOX OFFICE REPORT

September 13-15, 2019

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

It: Chapter Two  $40.7 million
Hustlers $33.2 million
Angel Has Fallen  $4.4 million
Good Boys $4.2 million
The Lion King $3.5 million

It: Chapter Two continued to scare up the most box office dollars. The highly anticipated sequel fell 55 percent, a bigger drop than first one experienced and with much less money in the bank, about $60 million less so far. But it's already the fifth-biggest R-rated horror flick and should pass last year's Halloween sequel, as well as Us and Get Out by next week.

Hustlers is the biggest win of the week for a whole lot of reasons. At $33.2 million, it's the biggest opening in the history of STX, which had to swoop in when Annapurna had issues. It's also the biggest opening of Jennifer Lopez's 20-plus year career (excluding animated films). And it's one of the biggest openings ever for a movie with an almost entirely non-white cast. With great reviews coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival, it should be one of the biggest hits of the fall.

Angel Has Fallen dropped to third, where it's earned nearly $60 million thus far. Good Boys inches closer to $75 million, as it's spent five weeks in the top five. The Lion King, though, is still dominating, spending its ninth week in the top five. Even though it will hang around for the next few weeks, getting into the all-time top 10 and topping $600 million seems impossible.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Monos, Neon's Lord of the Flies riff. It averaged $8,657 on its five screens.
  • In a year of underperformers, The Goldfinch is 2019's biggest dud. The literary adaptation had Oscar glory on its mind, but it only made $2.6 million on a $45 million budget. That's a full-blown disaster.
  • The Peanut Butter Falcon has continues to be a sleeper hit. Falling only 9 percent, the crowd-pleaser has made $15 million to date.

Next week:

Ad Astra takes on Rambo: Last Blood in a battle of smart vs. stupid blockbusters. And then there's Downton Abbey, which will be big with audiences not interested in either film. I think it will be a photo finish, with Ad Astra taking $27 million, Rambo taking $22 million and Downton Abbey taking $20 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.