Annabelle: Creationwill be at the top at the box office by the time Monday rolls around, according to estimates that have it coming in with some $35 million domestically. There’s a wide margin between the horror sequel andChristopher Nolan’sDunkirk, which will take the second spot with $11.4 million, pushing the war epic across $150 million stateside. And yet, likeThe Dark Tower, I would expectAnnabelle: Creationto drop considerably next weekend, whileDunkirkwill likely stay relatively close to the top.
The Dark Toweris holding in the fourth spot after a 59% drop at the box office, coming in with $7.8 million, pushing this emptyStephen Kingadaptation across the $30 million mark off of a $60 million budget. This is perhaps even worse news than it might appear. Unlike, say,The Mummyor the latestTransformersmovie,The Dark Towerwill not be saved by foreign distribution – it has made around $9 million in total overseas. Like both of those movies, however, it’s got a lot more than just the possibility of a single sequel riding on its box office performance. There’s a whole damn TV series that’s supposedly going to broaden the scope and world of this fiasco, and there’s been little talk thus far about how this movie’s poor showing weights on these plans. If the creators of this film go ahead with any of these plans, it would constitute one of the most wanton and unwise gambles in the movie or TV industry that I’ve seen in a long while.
Still, it’s not likeThe Dark Toweris the only movie in trouble in the top five.The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, a mundane sequel to an intolerable movie, will place in third this weekend with $8.9 million. That would give the animated sequel the distinctly dubious honor of having the worst opening for a film opening in over 4,000 theaters ever. Not surprisingly, the last movie to hold that honor wasThe Emoji Movie, which was able to pull out a victory overMalcolm D. Lee’sGirls Tripto land in the fifth spot with $6.5 million, whereas Lee’s film made its graceful exit from the top five to arrive in sixth place.
LikeAnnabelle: Creation,Girls Tripwas budgeted at less than $20 million, made back its budget and marketing costs, and turned an enviable profit for its studio (Universal) relatively quickly, and it’s still got the home video market to look forward to in the near future. In contrast, no amount of home video enthusiasm will be able to saveThe Dark Tower, a movie that offends fans of the source material and fans of the moviegoing experience equally. Mind you,The Dark Towerwas made on a budget that would encapsulate the cost of makingGirls Trip,Annabelle Creation,Get Out, andSplitwith some $12 million to spare before marketing. Just in terms of domestic gross, those four movies will make close to $500 million cumulatively by the end of 2017, whileThe Dark Towerwill likely still be far from simply breaking even.
Here’s your top five for the weekend:
Weekend Domestic BO
Total Domestic BO
1. ‘Annabelle: Creation’
$35,040,000
2. ‘Dunkirk’
$11,405,000
$153,712,551
- ‘The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature’
$8,934,748
4. ‘The Dark Tower’
$7,875,000
$34,305,764
5. ‘The Emoji Movie’
$6,580,000
$63,591,947
