“Madea” Scares Up Her Best Debut in Years

By Kip Mooney • On • In News, Weekend Box Office Report News, Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

October 21-23, 2016

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Boo! A Madea Halloween  $27.6 million
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back  $23.0 million
Ouija: Origin of Evil $14.0 million
The Accountant  $14.0 million
The Girl on the Train $7.2 million

It's been nearly three years since Tyler Perry put on his wig and make-up to play Madea, the loud-mouthed, loving matriarch. With this horror comedy, he's gone full Ernest. Boo! A Madea Halloween opened with an estimated $27.6 million. That's Perry's biggest debut as a director since 2010's Why Did I Get Married Too? and his biggest debut as the Madea character since 2009's Madea Goes to Jail, which remains his biggest hit by a wide margin.

That was enough to stop the seemingly unstoppable Tom Cruise. His Jack Reacher sequel no one asked for (Never Go Back) took in $23 million. That's actually an improvement on the original, which only took in $15.2 million back in its debut in December 2012. This one received much worse reviews. Still, if it tops $80 million, Cruise might keep coming back. He has 25 more books he could adapt.

Ouija: Origin of Evil had the opposite problem. It got much better reviews than the original board game-based horror flick, but debuted worse. It's within a few thousand dollars of The Accountant and may end up switching places with it. They both made around twice as much The Girl on the Train, which still isn't the breakout hit the book was.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Moonlight, the critically acclaimed coming-of-age story. The indie film, which has earned raves at just about every major festival this year, averaged $103,685 on just four screens. That's the best per-theater average of the year by far.
  • Keeping Up with the Joneses couldn't keep up with the rest of the competition. The suburban spy comedy only took in $5.6 million, good for 7th place. That's two big flops in a row for Zach Galifianakis.
  • The makers of I'm Not Ashamed may be proud of their film, but they should be ashamed of their box office returns. The Columbine High School drama – told from the perspective of one of the victims of the shooting – opened on more than 500 screens, but couldn't even manage $1 million.

Next week:

Inferno is the only major wide release, and it will be the top movie. Though Tom Hanks and Ron Howard haven't delivered a Robert Langdon thriller in more than seven years, it's still bound to open in first place despite having one of the worst trailers I've ever seen. Still, I'm only predicting about a $30 million opening.

 

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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.

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