Box Office Discussion Thread

How medicore was this weekend at the box office? A film that has turned out to be a huge flop plunged 65% from its underwhelming opening...and still easily won the weekend.

So Low--er, Solo: A Star Wars Story earned $29.4 million in its second weekend to bring its total to $149 million. To be fair, most movies (including 70% of this weekend's Top 10) would be ecstatic at a final gross of $149 million, let alone that total in 10 days. But those movies don't have "Star Wars" in their titles. $500 million domestic would be considered a disappointment, and Solo won't come close to half that number. It still has yet to outgross Rogue One's opening weekend, and is in danger of not even passing the $209.4 million The Empire Strikes Back earned during its initial release in 1980--back when a $5 movie ticket would have been seen as outrageously expensive.

Another disappointment--though not nearly as big as Solo--is Deadpool 2, which came in 2nd with $23.2 million, to bring its gross to $254.5 million. The film will still be very profitable, and this shouldn't derail plans for Deadpool 3--albeit with a budget much closer to the first film's than the second's--but Fox was undoubtedly hoping this would become the highest-grossing R-rated film ever (a title still held by The Passion of the Christ). Instead, it might miss $300 million.

Opening in third, at the lower end of expectations, is Adrift, which sailed to $11.6 million. With weak reviews and so-so word of mouth, this will probably sink out of sight before $30 million.

After three underperformers, its good to have a huge hit in 4th. Avengers: Infinity War made another $10.5 million, and has now hit $643 million. Its week-by-week lead over Black Panther has shrunk to less than $12 million, and Avengers is still roughly $54 million behind in total gross (Panther is now at $699.2 million), so its now a bit more doubtful that it will be able to catch up. However, this is all academic. These two films will earn nearly $1.4 billion combined, not even counting international. Even after paying off the costs of Solo, there's plenty of cash for pretty much every executive at Disney to sleep on top of a pile of money with many beautiful ladies (and/or gentlemen).

Book Club, at #5, is quickly becoming the sleeper hit of the summer, earning another $7 million to bring its total to $47.6 million. It should finish north of $60 million. In 6th is the sci-fi thriller Upgrade, which got surprisingly strong review to open solidly at $4.7 million. These types of films tend to burn out fast, but if word of mouth is good, this one could conceivably top $20 million. I suspect Blumhouse wishes they had given the same amout of promotion to this as they did to the already forgotten Truth or Dare.

In 7th is Life of the Party, which after a weak opening and a big second weekend drop, has stabilized. It took in $3.5 million and has now earned $46.4 million. It will still be a big disappointment, but it won't be a disaster. Breaking In came in 8th with $2.8 million, moving its total to $41.3 million, in line with expectations.

Opening in 9th is Action Point, the latest (and based on his age and this film's grosses, possibly last) movie in which Johnny Knoxville attempts to kill himself for our amusement. It made a dismal $2.4 million and will be lucky to make it to $7 million. Paramount and Knoxville probably left several million on the table by not labeling it "Jackass Presents Action Point". The good news is that the film is cheap, and the profits from Book Club and A Quiet Place (which fell out of the Top 10 this week after 8 weeks) will more than make up for it. Overboard rounds out the Top 10, and is now at $45.5 million.

This weekend's big opening is Ocean's 8, starring Sandra Bullock as Debra Ocean (the sister of George Clooney's Danny), who assembled an all-female team (including Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham Carter) to steal an insanely expensive diamond necklace right off a clueless starlet (Anne Hathaway). Exactly 11 years ago, Ocean's 13 opened to $36.1 million. Meanwhile, Bullock's last summer movie, The Heat, opened in 2013 to $39.1 million. Warners would really like to see an opening higher than that, preferably closer to $50 million. Also opening is Hotel Artemis, about a secret hospital for criminals run by Jodie Foster (in her first film in five years) and the acclaimed horror movie Hereditary. The former should appeal to fans of John Wick (though I'd be very surprised if it comes close to the $14.4 million the first Wick opened to in 2014), while the latter is A24's latest attempt to sell arty horror during the summer. Last year's offering from them, They Come At Night, didn't scare up much business. The reviews should help, but best case is likely to be just a bit more than the $8.8 million The Witch opened to in 2016. How much business any of the films will scare up will be discussed next week.

While Pixar was busying themselves with a prequel to Monsters, Inc. and not one, but two follow-ups to Cars, fans were left wondering why the studio was moving so slowly on the one film in the canon that most leant itself to a sequel--2004's The Incredibles. And now, that Incredibles 2 is finally here, Disney and Pixar are probably wondering why it took so long as well.

Incredibles 2 earned a amazing, fantastic, uncanny $182.7 million over the weekend. That's the third-biggest opening of the year, 8th highest of all time, and biggest animated opening of all time, shattering Finding Dory's record by over $47 million. It had passed the original's opening weekend total by the end of the day Friday, even though when the first Incredibles opened, its opening weekend was the 13th best of all time. Indeed, it will probably pass the entire run of the first film by the end of this weekend at the latest.

So how much will Incredibles 2 make? Of the four most recent Pixar movies, only Cars 3 earned more than 30% of its final gross on its opening weekend. That suggests a minimum final gross of over $600 million. I'm not quite ready to say that it will fly that high, but it will almost certainly outgross Finding Dory to be the top animated film of all time.

Even though 67% of the tickets sold this weekend were to Incredibles 2, other movies were out and doing OK business. Ocean's Eight held up all right, taking in $19 for a total gross of $78.6 million. That keeps it ahead of the other Ocean movies at the end of weekend 2, and it seems to be heading for around $120 million.

Opening in third is Tag, which despite the presence of Ed Helms, is not destined to be this summer's The Hangover. It opened to a marginal $15 million. On paper, being the adult alternative to Incredibles seemed like a good idea. In reality, childless adults were much more eager to go see the animated superheroes than a bunch of overgrown frat boys playing a childhood game.

In 4th and 5th are the summer's top two underachievers, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Deadpool 2. Solo made $10 million to bring its overall gross to $193.8 million. Deadpool took in $8.7 million to get to $294.6 million. Both films should make it to the next century mark in the next week or so, but won't have much after that.

At least neither film is Superfly, the glitzy remake of the 1972 Blaxploitation classic. It made $6.9 million over the weekend and has earned $9 million since its opening last Wednesday. At this rate, it seems unlikely to make it to the $30 million or so the original took in in the 70s.

Hereditary held up surprisingly well, scaring up another $6.9 million and bringing its total to $27 million. It should finish around $40 million. With the Incredibles on the scene, Avengers: Infinity War is a bit of an afterthought now, as it earned $5.4 million to bring its total to $664.3 million. Rounding out the top ten were Adrift, with $2.2 million and quiet smash Book Club, with $1.8 million, bringing its total to $62 million.

Opening in 11th was the long-delayed, poorly reviewed biopic Gotti, with John Travolta (with his first film to get anywhere near a wide release since Savages in 2012), which did better than expected. It took in $1.7 million for a per-screen average of nearly $3,500. Those aren't great numbers, but with the bad reviews and lack of advertising, it's not awful, either. The Indian actioner Race 3 opened to $1.7 million as well.

Supposedly in 13th was A Wrinkle in Time, which "officially" also made $1.7 million, with a per-screen average of nearly $7,000. This, despite its being its 15th week in theaters and having been on DVD for two weeks, and its grosses the previous weekend of $102,000. It was even worse in the Sunday estimates, when Disney claimed Wrinkle finished 11th, and its gross was just over $100 million. Apparently, topping the century mark with such obviously fraudulent numbers might attract suspicion, so right now, Wrinkle's official gross is $99.9 million. Mmmhmm. Sure. This is good news for studio stablemate Black Panther, which is currently creeping along at $699.6 million.

Some movies get 25th anniversary commemorative DVD/Blu-ray releases. Jurassic Park gets a 25th anniversary commemorative sequel. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is this weekend's only new wide release. Universal would love for Kingdom to be the third film of the year to open to over $200 million, and that certainly is on the table. However, there doesn't seem to be near as much excitement about heading back to the island. Kingdom will be huge this weekend, no doubt. But honestly, I'll be surprised if its as huge as Incredibles was this weekend.

I had heard the "drive-in" explanation for Wrinkle's grosses this week, and had dismissed it, because plenty of movies have been the second-billed films at drive-ins before without that kind of surge. That link you provided does provide some explanation, though I'm still skeptical. It's still a bit fraudulent, since I suspect very few people were showing up at the drive-in specifically to see Wrinkle in Time this weekend.

I'm a Moviepass subscriber, so I get the push notices suggesting this obscure movie or that all the time. I did get at least one about Gotti, but I chose to ignore it in favor of joining everyone else at Incredibles this weekend. I can't say I regret that decision, but Gotti's "critics are stupid" campaign does remind me of the time that David Lynch advertised (I think) Lost Highway by promoting the two thumbs down it got from Siskel & Ebert.

It's somewhat ironic that, in a year and a season marked by surprises and unpredictability, we reach the halfway point of both 2018 and the summer with a largely predictable weekend.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom took the top spot again with $60.9 million for a ten-day total of $265.7 million. That's certainly not a bad haul for a second weekend, but it does represent a nearly 59% drop from its opening. Still, Universal probably won't have much to complain about. It should finish close to $400 million domestic and over a billion dollars worldwide. If it's not a mega-blockbuster like the first film (either first film) in the series, it will be just fine.

Staying in 2nd is Incredibles 2, which made another $46.4 million this weekend to run its total to $440.6 million. That's enough for it to now be third on the all-time list of animated films, just below Shrek 2 (which ended up as the highest-grossing film released in 2004). In addition to being the highest-grossing animated film of all time, it will be the highest-grossing non-MCU superhero movie of all time, as it now lies less than $100 million behind The Dark Knight. It also seems likely to be the fourth movie since December to hit $600 million domestic, all of which were released by Disney. Save the occasional Solo or Wrinkle in Time, the decision to go all mega-blockbuster all the time is working out pretty well for the Mouse House.

Opening solidly, if not spectacularly, in third is Sicario: Day of the Soldado, with $19 million. The sequel to the much better-reviewed 2015 original opened nearly $7 million better than the first film did in the fall of 2015. It seems like a safe bet that Day of the Soldado will top the original's $46.9 million final total.

Also opening solidly, if not spectacularly, in fourth is Uncle Drew, which made $15.2 million. It's unlikely to be the breakout hit that Lionsgate was hoping for, but it should still turn a profit. It could also end up outgrossing Shaquelle O'Neal's three mid-90s attempts to become a movie star (Blue Chips, Kazaam, Steel) combined.

Ocean's 8 stole away in 5th place, making another $8.3 million for a total haul of $115 million. At this point, it seems guaranteed to outgross Ocean's Twelve and Thirteen. Tag stumbled into 6th, taking in $5.9 million, brining its total to $41.1 million.

It's probably time to stop calling Deadpool 2, in 7th this weekend, a disappointment. It won't top the first Deadpool, but it has made $310.5 million so far, only the fifth R-rated movie ever to top $300 million domestic. Solo, in 9th this week with $2.7 million, is still a huge disappointment, however, even as its total now stands at $207.7 million. In between is the Indian drama Sanju, which opened to $2.7 million. In 10th is Won't You Be My Neighbor, which took in another $2.4 million to bring its total to $7.6 million.

Opening already is The First Purge, the 4th entry in the popular horror series, though this is a prequel. Meanwhile, Disney and Marvel try for yet another huge blockbuster with Ant-Man and the Wasp. Expect Ant-Man to win the weekend, and Purge to be competing with Incredibles and Jurassic World for 2nd.

The Hotel Transylvania series proves just to be as potent in July as it is in September as Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (get it?) opened in first to $44.1 million, roughly what the first two films made on their opening weekends. That suggests that 3 will top out between $150 million and $170 million. That said, both of the first two films played well through October, which is a good month to be a kid-friendly horror comedy. July and August, on the other had, does not lend itself naturally to such fare. Also, both films took advantage of weak family competition. Between the release of the first film in late September and Wreck-It Ralph in early November 2012, the only two family films released were the flops Frankenweenie and Fun Size. 2 had to compete against Goosebumps several weeks into its run, but October 2015's other family release, Pan, was one of that year's most notorious bombs. It's too early to know how Teen Titans Go! To the Movies in two weeks and Christopher Robin in three will do, but the latter, at least, feels poised to be a huge hit. Still, 3 has an advantage that 1 & 2 didn't have, namely the aforementioned Summer Vacation, which means weekday grosses should be higher now than they were in September and October.

Coming in second, albeit with a fairly sizable drop, was Ant-Man and the Wasp, which grossed $29.1 million this weekend for a total take of $133.1 million. It's still on track to outgross the first Ant-Man, but might have to find better legs if it wants to get past $200 million.

Disappointing in third was Skyscraper, which could only manage $24.9 million for its opening, a total that probably puts $100 million out of reach. Dwayne Johnson will be fine--he already has three movies set to open next year, two of which, Jungle Cruise and Jumanji 3, should do very well--but as an article saw this week suggested, he might want to move to a better class of director than Skyscraper's Rawson Marshall Thurber and Rampage's Brad Peyton.

Finishing once again in a near photo finish are Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which grossed $16.3 million and $16.2 million this weekend, respectively. Both films are humongously successful, of course, but both might strain to get to the next milestone. Incredibles stands at $535.9 million, and with weekend grosses dropping fast, topping $600 million is beginning to look unlikely. Meanwhile, Fallen Kingdom stands at $364 million. It's highly likely it will pass $400 million, but its questionable if it has enough juice to pass Wonder Woman's $412.6 million to become the highest-grossing non-Disney film since Jurassic World itself (I'll note here that, of the 10 highest-grossing domestic releases since the beginning of 2015, Jurassic World is the only one that didn't come from the Mouse House).

In sixth, The First Purge took in $9.3 million, to bring its total to $49.7 million. That's off the pace of the first three films, but not horribly so, so it should finish relatively close to those final totals. Sorry to Bother You called in at 7th with $4.2 million. That's a bit of a disappointment (its per-screen is lower than Skyscraper's), but its the type of film that might develop decent legs. A final gross of over $10 million seems very likely, and over $15 million seems possible.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado came in 8th with $3.9 million to bring its total to $43.2 million. Uncle Drew landed in 9th with $3.2 million for a gross of $36.7 million. Ocean's 8 wraps up the top 10 with $2.9 million and a gross of $132.3 million.

Below the Top 10, the acclaimed Eighth Grade had a strong opening in limited release, and Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot had a decent opening, also in limited release. Meanwhile, despite a solid cast, Shock & Awe bombed & bombed, grossing a mere $459 per screen. Documentaries continued to do good business, led by the strong performance of Won't You Be My Neighbor, but also from Three Identical Strangers, RBG, and even Whitney, which is underperforming, but still has a shot at being one of the 50 highest-grossing docs of all time.

Three new films open wide this weekend. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! continues to mine the Abba catalog, reuniting most of the original cast (though one prominent cast member--the most prominent cast member--seems to be regulated to cameo status in this one) with newcomers such as Andy Garcia (whose character is named Fernando) and Cher (who gets to sing "Fernando", and who is playing Meryl Streep's mother, even though she's only three years older than Streep). Ten years ago, the original proved to be smart counterprogramming against The Dark Knight, as it opened to $27.8 million and stuck around for weeks. This one will probably burn out quicker, but expect an opening of roughly double than the original. Meanwhile, Denzel Washington stars in what is, somewhat amazingly, the first sequel of his career with The Equalizer 2. The first Equalizer did decent business in September 2014, opening to $34.1 million. That's about what The Magnificent Seven opened to two years later, so I expect this one to open around $35 million as well. Finally, the surprise hit 2015 horror flick Unfriended gets a follow-up with Unfriended: Dark Web, which, like most low-budget horror sequels, comes back with an all-new cast to get picked off one by one. The first Unfriended opened to $15.8 million. I'd expect this one to open somewhere below that number.

This weekend, America's mission, should they have chosen to accept it, was to pay cash money to see Mission: Impossible--Fallout, since MoviePass spent the time either being down or blacking out the film. America did choose to accept the mission, to the tune of $61.2 million, the franchise's best opening ever. It was also Tom Cruise's second-biggest opening ever, behind only War of the Worlds (his last big, non-M:I hit), allowing him to keep considering himself a huge movie star for a while longer. Since starring in the sixth installment of a 22-year-old franchise apparently isn't enough to keep the memories of his 80s/90s heyday alive, his next film will really lean into the nostalgia. Coming next July: Top Gun 2! At any rate, M:I movies tend to have pretty good legs, which will probably mean that Fallout becomes the third film in the series to top $200 million domestic.

Finishing 2nd for the second weekend in a row is Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which took in $15.1 million for a ten-day total of $70.5 million. It did have a troubling 56.8% drop, far farther than the original's 36.1% drop, and Again actually made less its second weekend then the first did. That suggests that Again will likely struggle to equal the first's $144.1 million, but it should easily make it over $100 million in the next couple of weeks.

Coming in third was last weekend's champion, The Equalizer 2, which had an even harder fall than Mamma Mia, slipping to $14 million, for a total gross of $64.3 million. Equalizer was probably hurt by direct competition from Fallout, though Mia's fall suggests the film would have probably dropped dramatically anyway. It's ten-day gross almost exactly equalizes with the first film's ten-day gross, but Part 1's smaller second-weekend drop and bigger second-weekend gross suggest that Equalizer 2 might fall short of $100 million.

The sequel parade continues with Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, which took in $12.3 million for a 3-week total of $119.2 million. The film's strong weekday grosses continue to make up for the deficits Vacation is running on the weekend compared to the first two films. The 17-day gross is still ahead of 1 & 2 at the same point in their runs, but it should fall behind at least 2 before much longer. Still, a final gross in the neighborhood of $150-$160 million is still likely.

Two weeks ago, if you had told me that Teen Titans Go! To the Movies would open in 5th, to $10.4 million, I'd say that sounds about right. Then, the excellent reviews came out, and I thought that the film might end up breaking out. Nope. The nation's parents collectively decided that, good reviews or not, Junior could watch the approximately 80 episodes a day that Cartoon Network airs rather than go see it at the theater. Luckily, the film is cheap, and seems destined to become a cult hit once it hits DVD/streaming, but it still has to be embarrassing to open below its three-week old competition, not to mention barely beating out another animated film about superheros that has been out since mid-June. This might also give pause to the producers of two other cult animated series scheduled for big screen adaptations in 2020, The Loud House and Bob's Burgers.

Superheroes, this time from Disney, occupy the sixth and seventh slots as well. Ant-Man and the Wasp took in $8.8 million to bring its total to $183.5 million, thereby passing the run of the first Ant-Man. Incredibles 2 continues its incredible run with another $7.3 million, for a total of $572.9 million. $600 million remains a possibility, but an increasingly distant one.

Universal movies took spaces 8-10. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom continues to move toward being the highest-grossing non-Disney film since the first Jurassic World, taking in $6.7 million for a gross of $397.5 million. It's now just a little under $15 million away from passing Wonder Woman. Skyscraper, easily the summer's biggest flop that didn't take place in a galaxy far, far away, made $5.3 million to bring its total to $59.1 million. The First Purge, which has proven to be surprisingly leggy, made $2.2 million for $65.5 million, enough to pass the original.

After #11 (Unfriended: The Dark Web), slots 12-16 proved to be the home of some of the summer's more interesting movies: Sorry to Bother You, Blindspotting, Eighth Grade, Three Identical Strangers, and Won't You Be My Neighbor, which passed $20 million.

Eighth Grade goes wide this weekend, the latest in a number of art house titles that attempt to go wide after succeeding in limited release. So far this summer, only Neighbor and fellow doc RBG have succeeded in breaking out. If Eighth Grade can ultimately secure a final gross above $10 million, the expansion will likely be judged a success.

Four new movies also go wide. The biggest is Christopher Robin, Disney's latest live action (if you ignore the copious amounts of CGI) reimagining of one of their classic animated properties. Unlike previous entries The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast, though, Christopher Robin serves as more of a sequel to the Winnie-the-Pooh shorts and films, as a grown-up, stressed-out Christopher (Ewan McGregor) is visited by his old toys and rediscovers his childlike wonder (if you think the plot sounds like that of Hook, you're not alone). Disney is clearly expecting big things from this, but the box office track record of Pooh films is mixed. Last year, the biopic Goodbye, Christopher Robin, about Pooh author A.A. Milne, failed to break out of the art house circuit, and Disney's last visit to the Hundred-Acre Woods, 2011's hand-drawn Winnie the Pooh, topped out at only $26.7 million. Christopher Robin should easily make more than that this weekend, but don't expect a blockbuster opening like Jungle's or Beauty's.

Also opening is the latest adaption of a dystopian YA novel, The Darkest Minds, about a group of kids with special powers on the run from evil government forces. It looks like an X-Men knockoff, which is why its kind of surprising that X-Men studio Fox is the one releasing it. It could finish anywhere between the similar-looking The 5th Wave's $10.3 million opening and the similar-looking The Maze Runner's $32.5 million. The Spy Who Dumped Me stars Mila Kunis as the now-former girlfriend of a man who, she subsequently discovers, is a CIA agent, which somehow qualifies her and best friend Kate McKinnon to go undercover in Europe. This sounds pretty similar to Spy, which opened to $29.1 million, but that one starred Melissa McCarthy. Kunis's record as a leading lady is mixed, but her wide-release films don't open any worse than the mid-teens, so this probably won't, either. Meanwhile, pardoned felon Dinesh D'Souza's latest screed about the evilness of the Democratic Party, Death of a Nation, opens. 2016: Obama's America is somehow the 5th-highest-grossing documentary of all time, and his subsequent efforts, America and Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, both grossed over $13 million. Of course, that was during the Obama years. It will be interesting to see how paranoia about liberals plays to a paying audience in the era of Trump. I suspect not nearly as well, but I still suspect this will make at least a couple million this weekend and make the bottom reaches of the Top 10.

People like shark movies. Jaws ended its run as the highest-grossing movie of all time, and produced four increasingly ridiculous sequels. Deep Blue Sea is still fondly remembered, despite being pretty stupid (though [Redacted] getting chomped mid-inspirational speech was clever). We're about to get our 6th Sharknado. And, this weekend, The Meg bit off far more of the box office than expected, opening to a superb $45.4 million. This is already the highest grossing movie where Jason Statham is top-billed, and is likely to end up as his biggest film that doesn't involve Vin Diesel and fast cars.

Mission: Impossible--Fallout probably bore the brunt of The Meg's unexpected strength, falling to $19.4 million in its third weekend. It's $161.3 million is still the most any film in the franchise has grossed after 17 days, though, and it remains on track to beat M:I2's $215.4 million, which would also make it the second-highest grosser of Tom Cruise's career. I doubt it will be able to beat War of the Worlds's $234.3 million, though.

Christopher Robin visited the $13 Million Acre Woods this weekend, increasing its gross to $50.6 million. It looks to be heading to around $80 million or so, which is probably about half of what Disney was hoping for for its domestic run.

Despite awful reviews and word-of-mouth, Slender Man was able to squeeze out $11.4 million, meaning that the film will likely turn a profit just from theatrical. Expect a quick burnout, however. If it follows the path of Truth or Dare, a similar poorly received PG-13 horror movie, Slender Man might make around $25 million.

Opening well in 4th is Spike Lee's BlacKKKlansman, which took in $10.9 million. This is Lee's first wide-release movie since Miracle at St. Anna's nearly 10 years ago, and first hit since Inside Man in 2006. That film starred Denzel Washington, and this one marks the leading man debut of his son, John David.

The Spy Who Dumped Me took in $6.5 million in its second weekend, to bring its total to $24.4 million. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again made $5.9 million, to pass the $100 million mark, to $103.9 million. The Equalizer 2 took in another $5.4 million to bring its total to $89.6 million. Weirdly, the first Equalizer was at $89.1 million at the end of its 4th weekend, meaning that it now seems likely that Part 2 will also pass the century mark.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation brought in another $5.2 million for a gross of $147 million. It should finish around $160 million. Ant-Man and the Wasp buzzed past $200 million with $4.1 million, to bring its total to $203.6 million.

Opening outside the Top 10 was Dog Days, which proved to be aptly named as it only took in $2.6 million and $3.6 million since its opening last Wednesday. That's not a good sign for the other two dog movies this month, Alpha and A.X.L, though two of this year's other dog movies, Show Dogs and Isle of Dogs, did better (the less said about the third dog movie, Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero, the better).

It took 12 weeks, but Return of the Jedi has now passed the gross of Solo: A Star Wars Story at the same point in its run.

Already playing is the very well received romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, which should challenge The Meg for #1 this weekend. Opening Friday is the generic-looking Mark Wahlberg action flick, Mile 22 and the boy-and-his-very-first-dog-and-I-mean-first-dog-ever-because-the-movie-is-set-10,000-years-ago movie Alpha. Mile 22 could also challenge for #1 this weekend, while Alpha should at least outgross Dog Days.

Crazy Rich Asians had a crazy easy win, taking in $24.8 million in its second weekend to bring its total to $76.6 million. That is only a 6.4% drop from last weekend, a fall largely unheard of in this day and age outside of Christmas and New Year's. For comparison's sake, the summer movie that opened on more than 3,000 screens that had the best second weekend hold before Crazy Rich was Mission: Impossible--Fallout, which fell 42.3% in its second weekend. Even if you want to point out that Crazy Rich's Wednesday opening diluted some of the opening weekend total, this weekend was still only a 29.7% drop from the film's first five days.

So how crazy rich will Crazy Rich's box office be? A useful comparison will be with another female-driven sleeper hit that opened on a Wednesday in mid-August. The Help and Crazy Rich had very similiar opening weekend and first five days, but Crazy held up considerably better than The Help did in its second weekend, as that film fell 23.1% to a $20 million second weekend. The Help would go on to spend three weeks at #1, 8 weeks in the top 10, play strongly into October, and finish its run with $169.7 million. Given that Crazy Rich is already pulling away from The Help, it seems likely that Rich's final total will be higher than that, and could end up challenging A Quiet Place and its $188 million for the biggest non-franchise film of the year (so far).

Holding up well in 2nd is The Meg, which consumed another $12.8 million this weekend to run its total to $105.1 million. It looks to be swimming to a final gross of between $140 and $150 million.

It was sadtimes in third for The Happytime Murders, which opened to a dismal $9.5 million. This is easily Melissa McCarthy's worst opening since becoming a star, though it seems likely that she won't absorb much of the blame for this one. The film's poor reviews and bad word-of-mouth will probably ensure that Team America: World Police and its $32.8 million gross from 2004 will remain the highest R-rated puppet movie.

The aforementioned Mission: Impossible--Fallout came in fourth, taking in $8.9 million for a total of $194 million. It should top $200 million by the end of the long weekend. Fallout remains on track to pass Mission: Impossible 2 to become the highest grosser of the franchise.

None of that crazy rich magic rubbed off on Mile 22, despite taking place in Indonesia, not very far from Crazy Rich Asians's setting of Singapore. The Mark Wahlberg actioner made $6.4 million in its second week, to run its total to a disappointing $25.5 million. Christopher Robin held up a bit better in 6th, taking in $6.3 million to bring its total to $77.6 million. Alpha held up decently in 7th, earning another $6 million for a total of $20.6 million. It'll be close, but Alpha should probably ultimately outgross Mile 22.

BlacKKKlansman had another strong weekend in 8th, taking in another $5.1 million for $31.8 million. It should pass Jungle Fever and The Original Kings of Comedy this week to become Spike Lee's 3rd-highest-grossing film. Opening in 9th is robot dog movie A-X-L with $2.8 million, which at least can claim opening slightly higher than Dog Days did two weeks ago. Rounding out the top 10 is Slender Man, which also brought in $2.8 million for a gross of $25.4 million.

Farther down the chart, the prison escape drama Papillion was basically dumped, but it still managed a not-awful $1.1 million on 544 screens. Meanwhile, the cyber-missing-person drama Searching earned an excellent $43,000 per screen ahead of its wide opening this weekend. It almost certainly won't win, but could easily make the top 5.

Also opening over Labor Day weekend, the one major holiday that most studios ignore is the failed Oscar bait Operation Finale and the sci-fi family film Kin, which managed to recruit Dennis Quaid and James Franco to its supporting cast. Neither should stand in the way of Crazy Rich Asians threepeating this weekend, or taking in at least $20 million more over the 4-day weekend. At least this Labor Day is getting new films. Last year, the biggest Labor Day opening was the re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which opened in 14th.

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to go back and review how my pre-summer box office predictions worked out. For today, however, I'll be looking at the fall/holiday release schedule. I'll only be listing movies that are currently scheduled to go wide before the end of the year.

The films will be listed alphabetically in each category, and the categories reflect domestic box office predictions only. And this list will only be predicting how the film will do box office-wise. There will be no guesses on quality on this list.

Over $200 Million

Dr. Seuss's The Grinch
Mary Poppins Returns
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

$100 Million-$200 Million

Alita: Battle Angel
Aquaman
Bumblebee
Creed 2
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
First Man
Night School
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Smallfoot
A Star is Born

Under $100 Million

Bad Times at the El Royale
Bohemian Rhapsody
Fahrenheit 11/9
The Girl in the Spider's Web
God Bless the Broken Road
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
Green Book
Halloween
The Hate U Give
Hell Fest
Holmes & Watson
The House With a Clock in Its Walls
Hunter/Killer
Indivisible
Instant Family
Johnny English Strikes Again
Life Itself
Little Women
Mortal Engines
Nobody's Fool
The Nun
On the Basis of Sex
Overlord
Peppermint
The Preditor
Robin Hood
Second Act
Serenity
The Silence
A Simple Favor
Unbroken: Path to Redemption
Venom
Welcome to Marwin
White Boy Rick
Widows

You want horror the Friday after Labor Day? From now on, you're probably going to get horror the Friday after Labor Day, as for the second year in a row, a new scary movie has drawn unexpectedly huge crowds. The Nun didn't do nearly as well as It did last year, but no one expected it to. No one expected The Nun to open to $53.8 million, either. That's the second-best opening ever for a horror movie, better than either Conjuring or either Annabelle. Even if it follows the trajectory of the first Annabelle, which had the weakest legs of any of the Conjuring films, it should make around $120 million domestic. Expect an announcement about The Nun 2 any day now.

Finishing a distant second was the poorly-received Jennifer Garner revenge flick Peppermint. Its $13.4 million was almost identical to the opening of the Death Wish remake back in March. That film topped out at $34 million, which seems likely to be around the final total of this distaff version of that film.

Finally having a drop like a modern day normal movie, Crazy Rich Asians fell to third, with $13.2 million. The romcom padded its total to $135.8 million, and still seems likely to make it to at least $175 million, if not more.

The Meg ate up another $6.1 million, as the giant shark movie begins to swim toward the end of its run. So far, it has consumed $131.6 million domestically. Searching had the smallest drop in the top 10, though it had to add an additional 800 screens to do it. The cyberthriller still looks like a good bet to finish between $25 million and $30 million. Mission: Impossible--Fallout took in another $3.9 million for a total of $212.2 million. It's now a bit more than $3 million away from becoming the franchise's highest grosser.

In 7th is Christopher Robin, which made $3.4 million to rise to $91.9 million. If the film was released by any other studio, I'd find the next few weeks fascinating, as I'd watch to see if the film could make that final $8.1 million to pass $100 million, despite school starting, robbing it of weekday business and the arrival of The House With a Clock in the Walls in two weeks. But it's released by Disney, so it will make $100 million (and likely only a couple thousand more).

Operation Finale is already facing its box office finale, as it slipped to 8th and $2.9 million. 10-day total is $13.9 million. BlacKkKlansman made $2.6 million to bring it's total to $43.5 million. Alpha rounded out the top 10 with $2.5 million and $32.5 million total.

Opening in 11th is the latest Christian flop, God Bless the Broken Road, which made $1.4 million. The Christian movie market is very fickle, and for every I Can Only Imagine, there are numerous God Bless the Broken Roads. Perhaps this failure will keep ambitions Christian producers from trying to adapt Christian pop songs into movies. It probably won't, though.

This weekend's big new arrival is the sixth feature film to feature the alien hunter Predator, called simply The Predator (none of the 6 movies have had particularly clever titles). With The Nun certain to slip at least 50%, The Predator should easily win the weekend. Also opening is the black comedy/thriller A Simple Favor, Paul Feig's first movie in 12 years not to star Melissa McCarthy. In addition, there's White Boy Rick, about a 15-year-old drug kingpin, starring Matthew McConaughey as the kid's father, and Unbroken: Path to Redemption, an explicitly Christian sequel to the Angelina Jolie-helmed 2014 hit about American solder and Olympian Louis Zamperini's time in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. The follow-up, which was originally intended to be straight to DVD and hence has none of the key personal from the original back, explores his life after the war, as he becomes a devout Christian. It probably won't be the next I Can Only Imagine, but being a name brand should help it outgross God Bless the Broken Road. Look for the other two to be competing for third, behind The Nun, but probably ahead of Crazy Rich Asians.

This was a good weekend for one movie, an OK weekend for several other films, and a flat-out awful weekend for the rest of the movies in wide release.

As expected The House With a Clock in Its Walls easily opened at #1, taking in $26.6 million. That's a little bit more than the last Jack Black-starring, kid-friendly horror comedy, Goosebumps, made on its opening weekend three years ago, and a bit less than Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which also had a long-winded title but was aimed at somewhat older kids, opened to two years ago. Goosebumps finished with $80.1 million and Peregrine with $87.2 million, which suggests House will finish with around $85 million itself. And while it certainly could, House will be up against something neither of the other movies really had to face until several weeks into their runs--direct competition, specifically in the form of the animated Smallfoot, which opens this weekend, not to mention the Jack Blackless Goosebumps 2, arriving in mid-October. How House holds up this weekend will go a long way toward determining if this House has a solid box office foundation.

Finishing second is the darkly comic thriller A Simple Favor, which fell a fairly small 36% this weekend to $10.3 million. The 10-day total is $32.4 million. That's roughly where another, very different female-driven film from May, Book Club, was after 10 days itself. Book Club's final take of $68.6 million seems higher than Favor is capable of, but a final gross between $55 and $60 million would make this a triumph for all involved.

Coming in third is The Nun, which was blessed with an additional $10 million, bringing its total to $100.6 million. It should pass both Annabelle: Creation and The Conjuring 2 in the next few days to become the second-highest grossing movie in the franchise, though it doesn't really have a prayer of passing the original Conjuring's $137.4 million.

Turing out to be prey this weekend was The Predator, which slid all the way to 4th and $9.2 million. It's 10-day gross stands at $40.9 million. That puts it just slightly ahead of where 2010's Predators, a film that cost less than half of what it cost to make the new one, was. That film finished with $52 million, which seems like a likely final destination for this one as well.

Crazy Rich Asians continued to live up to the middle word in its title in 5th, taking in another $6.4 million. Its total now stands at $159.3 million. It's running about $12 million ahead of where The Help was at this point in its run, with similiar weekend takes, suggesting a final gross of around $180 million for these Asians.

White Boy Rick held up a bit better than expected, earning $4.9 million this weekend for a 10-day total of $17.3 million. This seems to be heading toward about $25 million. Peppermint continues to hew closely to the grosses of Death Wish, taking in another $3.7 million for a total of $30.3 million.

In 8th, Fahrenheit 11/9's $3 million opening is great for a documentary, but awful for a film playing in over 1,700 theaters. Michael Moore's latest opens worse than the wide releases of not only Fahrenheit 9/11, but also worse than the wide releases of Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story, both of which played in fewer theaters. At least Moore can take comfort in that 11/9 outgrossed last month's opening of the pro-Trump documentary Death of a Nation.

Rounding out the Top 10, The Meg gobbled up another $2.3 million for a total of $140.4 million, and Searching took in $2.2 million for a total of $23.1 million.

Opening in 11th is the pretentiously titled Life Itself, which was doomed to flophood the moment the awful reviews started rolling in (dramas like this are reliant on good reviews). It opens to $2.1 million and a per-screen average of $814. That's still better than the final wide release this weekend, the gory satire Assassination Nation, which could only muster up $1.1 million for a 15th-place opening. It made less, both overall and per-screen than last week's Christian flop Unbroken: Path to Redemption, the 9-week-old Mission: Impossible--Fallout, and the 8-week-old Christopher Robin. You should hurry if you want to catch either title--by Friday, they might each be down to one daily showing at your local theater.

This weekend's biggest release is the aforementioned Smallfoot, starring the voice of Channing Tatum as a Yeti who is stunned to discover that humans actually exist. This is the third consecutive year Warner Animation is releasing a film in late September, and by this point it's tempting fate, as previous September openings Storks and The Lego Ninjago Movie were both flops. Also challenging for #1 is Night School, starring Kevin Hart, coming off of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Tiffany Haddish, in her first leading role since breaking out last summer in Girls Trip. Not challenging for #1 is generic slasher Hell Fest and a modern-day updating of Little Women, not to be confused with Greta Gerwig's all-star adaption scheduled for next year. Has time run out for The House With a Clock In Its Walls? Will Smallfoot make a big imprint? Will Night School get an A+? We'll find out soon.

After a few lackluster weekends, during which the top movie did decent, but unremarkable business, the smash hit returned with a vengeance this weekend as two movies broke out in big ways.

Shattering the October opening record was Venom, the Spider-Man spinoff that separates the character from its origins (since Spidey is now off being part of the MCU). The latest comic book movie opened to $80.3 million, well ahead of the $55.8 million Gravity opened to in 2013. Reviewers weren't impressed, and audiences have been somewhat lukewarm, so expect a big second weekend dive. Still, absolute worst case scenario is a final gross of $160 million. The film is more likely to finish above $200 million, though.

Opening strongly in second was the fourth official version of the old chestnut A Star is Born, with Bradley Cooper as the star on his way down, and Lady Gaga making her leading lady debut as the star who is born. Reviews were rapturous, with critics proclaiming that the film is a strong contender for multiple Oscar nominations, for the film itself and for the performances of Cooper, Gaga, and Sam Elliott. Audiences were equally enthusiastic, as the film opened to $42.9 million, the biggest opening for an adult-aimed non-action/horror drama since Fifty Shades Freed last year. This should make a minimum of $150 million, and with strong word-of-mouth, it could have a shot at $200 million.

Coming in a distant third is the animated Smallfoot, which held up decently in its second weekend with $14.4 million, for a ten-day total of $42.3 million. That puts it slightly ahead of where Storks was at the same point in its run two years ago, meaning a final gross of around $75-80 million seems like a strong possibility at this point.

Last week's champ, Night School, fell about as hard as most Kevin Hart vehicles do on their second weekends, slipping to fourth with $12.5 million. It's current gross stands at $47 million, and it seems to be on its way to about $70 million.

The House With a Clock in Its Walls chimed in at fifth, with $7.3 million, for a three-week total of $55.1 million. It has now fallen behind Goosebumps at the same point in its run, and with Goosebumps 2 arriving this weekend, House will be hard-pressed to equal the first Goosebumps's $80 million final gross.

A Simple Favor took in $3.4 million in its 4th weekend, for a total gross of $49 million. The Nun scared up another $2.7 million for a gross so far of $113.5 million, in what will likely be its final days as the top movie of the fall. Crazy Rich Asians took in $2.2 million for a total of $169.2 million.

Hell Fest could only manage $2.1 million in its second weekend, for a ten-day total of $8.9 million. That puts it behind Upgrade at the same point in its run, which suggests that the Fest might come to an end with a hellish $11 million final gross. The Predator became the first movie in a year and a half to make the Top 10 despite grossing under a million for the weekend, as it took in only $947,358. That at least was enough to knock it just over $50 million.

Outside the Top 10, the documentary Free Solo and the drama The Hate U Give both had impressive weekends, as they finished #12 and #13 for the weekend, despite playing on only 41 and 36 screens, respectively. Meanwhile, Disney expanded Christopher Robin back into over 1,600 theaters in an effort to get the film over $100 million. However, it took in less than half a million, leaving its gross at $98.1 million. This is Disney we're talking about, so its final gross will eventually climb over the century mark. They might just have to redeploy the efforts they used for A Wrinkle in Time and Black Panther to get them over the milestone grosses.

This weekend's biggest landing is First Man, the biopic of Neil Armstrong, with Ryan Gosling reuniting with his La La Land director Damien Chazelle as the man who made that one small step. The bizarre controversy that erupted about a month ago, when conservatives whined about how there was no scene where the American flag was planted on the moon, seems to have been forgotten, and with reviewers proclaiming this film a shoo-in for a Best Picture nomination (and Gosling likely to be in the Best Actor race), a solid opening seems assured. Fall is a good time to release an astronaut film, as the grosses for Gravity, Interstellar, and The Martian can attest, so an opening between $40 and $50 million seems like a good possibility.

Also opening is Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, which appears to have a similar plot to the first film (R.L Stein's creations escape his books and run amok in PG ways). There was no hint that Jack Black was coming back as Stein until a couple of weeks ago, and now he's all over the ads (whether that was because Sony was contractually prohibited from highlighting his role until after House With a Clock opened or because poor tracking caused the studio to reveal what was supposed to be a surprise, I do not know). House With a Clock might have sated audience's desire to see Black in a kid-friendly fantasy/horror/comedy, but I still expect an opening somewhere between $20 and $25 million. The weekend's other wide opening is the impressively cast Bad Times at the El Royale, in which a group of mysterious strangers descend on the titular hotel and...well, read the title. This appears to be a twisty black comedy, which means it should live on as a cult hit, but these types of movies don't tend to do good business these days, so don't expect a big opening. We'll see if First Man can take a giant leap to the top of the box office, or will have its grosses poisoned by Venom next week.

With every summer movie now out of the weekly Top 10, it's a good time to take a look at what movies did well over the summer and what movies have already been forgotten. I'll be running though every summer wide release, as well as any limited release movies that outgrossed any wide release movies. This is limited to movies that opened in May, June, July, and August, which is why April release Avengers: Infinity War isn't listed.

1. Incredibles 2--$607.5 million The biggest animated film of all time. Ninth film in history to gross over $600 million domestic. Strong front-runner for Animated Feature Oscar (and potential dark horse for Best Picture nomination). Will we have to wait another 14 years for Incredibles 3?

2. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom--$416.8 million The highest-grossing non-Disney movie since the first (fourth?) Jurassic World in 2015. Universal doesn't seem to mind it's going to finish with nearly $240 million less than JW.

3. Deadpool 2--$318.5 million Another smash hit if you ignore how much less it made than the previous entry. Admittidly, the deficit between the Deadpools is far smaller than the one between the JWs, but still, expect Deadpool 3 to have a smaller budget.

4. Mission: Impossible--Fallout--$220.1 million Not only the highest grossing film in the franchise, but Tom Cruise's second-highest grossing film overall. We now have two full years before seeing if the good will from this will carry over to Top Gun 2.

5. Ant-Man and the Wasp--$216.5 million It outgrossed the first Ant-Man by nearly $40 million, which should be enough to satisfy Disney, especially since they have plenty of cash from Avengers and Black Panther to keep them occupied.

6. Solo: A Star Wars Story--$213.8 million Good news! This outgrossed the original run of The Empire Strikes Back, from 1980! Sure, it was by less than $5 million, but you take your victories where you can. In other news, after next year's Episode IX, we probably won't be seeing any more Star Wars movies for a while.

7. Crazy Rich Asians--$171.6 million That this is the highest-grossing non-franchise film of the summer isn't a big surprise (especially given how little competition there is for the title). The surprise is how much better it did than many of the much more expensive franchise films. Hopefully, we'll get to see more movies revolving around minority groups after this--but I wouldn't hold my breath.

8. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation--$167 million Sony probably hoped that moving the series to July would juice the grosses. Instead, it made almost exactly what 2 did out of September. So basically a wash.

9. The Meg--$142.7 million People like sharks. People like people getting eaten by sharks. This won't be Jaws, but is probably the new Deep Blue Sea.

10. Ocean's Eight--$139.4 million. Warners was probably hoping for more cash, but the distaff reboot of the heist franchise did pretty well, even with no George Clooney in sight.

11. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again--$120.6 million Killing off Meryl was probably not a wise move, box office-wise, but the film will dance and jive to profitability.

12. The Equalizer 2--$102.1 million Denzel Washington makes the first sequel of his long career, and the result is a film that makes almost as much as its predecessor. We'll see if Washington is interested in more sequels after this.

13. Christopher Robin--$98.7 million The blah gross of 2011's delightful, fully animated Winnie the Pooh probably should have tipped off Disney that the bear of very little brain also had very little box office potential. The fact the studio is struggling to get this over $100 million is probably a sign that the franchise should, at least for a while, stick to TV.

14. The First Purge--$69.1 million Rebooting the franchise with a distinctly anti-Trump bend might have pissed off some red staters, but this fourth entry did about as well as the first three, probably meaning The Purge 5 is coming soon.

15. Book Club--$68.6 million The year's quietest hit, the quartet of seasoned ladies who star in this easily pulled more viewers than the other female-driven comedies of the late spring and early summer.

16. Skyscraper--$67.8 million Dwayne Johnson might be our biggest movie star right now, but not even he could convince audiences to turn out to see a ripoff of Die Hard and The Towering Inferno. Perhaps if this wasn't his 5th movie since the beginning of 2017, more people might have been persuaded to come out.

17. Tag--$54.6 million Warners was probably hoping this would be the new Hangover. Even with Ed Helms involved, it was not the new Hangover.

18. Life of the Party--$52.9 million A typical-looking Melissa McCarthy film, which audiences are clearly getting tired of. That's probably why her next two films were such changes of pace, only one of which paid off.

19. Overboard--$50.3 million Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez aren't Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, but this gender-switched remake of their 80s romantic comedy proved to be charming, while removing a lot of the misogymy of the first film.

20. Sicario: Day of the Soldado--$50.1 million This action movie traded the original's excellent reviews and Emily Blunt for a couple million more at the box office. It probably wasn't worth the trade-off.

21. BlacKKKlansman--$48.3 million Spike Lee's biggest hit in years is a pretty nice launching pad for John David Washington, whose dad collaborated with Lee on several films in the 90s.

22. Breaking In--$46.5 million This thriller starring Gabrielle Union will make a nice profit, though similar films have done better business outside of the summer months.

23. Hereditary--$44.1 million Raves about this horror movie drove surprisingly large audiences to see it, even after it started getting bad word-of-mouth after its opening. If any summer movie has a shot at becoming a long-lasting cult hit, it's this one.

24. Uncle Drew--$42.5 million Kyrie Irving is not Michael Jordan, and Kyrie Irving in old age makeup is not Michael Jordan playing with Bugs Bunny.

25. Mile 22--$36.1 million This generic Mark Wahlberg actioner couldn't pick up any traction, and ended up crashing and burning.

26. Alpha--$35.6 million Of the three dog movies that opened in August, only this prehistoric-set tale got anyone into the theater--and even then, not too many people.

27. The Spy Who Dumped Me--$33.6 million If Kate McKinnon decides to stick around SNL for a while longer, it will be because her attempts to become a movie star keep crashing. At lest Mila Kunis can probably do another Bad Moms movie.

28. Adrift--$31.5 million Summer seemed like an odd time to release this shipwreck drama, and the box office backed that idea up.

29. Slender Man--$30.5 million Typical late summer low-budget PG-13 horror entry did typical late summer low-budget PG-13 horror business.

30. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies--$29.6 million This movie version of the long-running animated series got surprisingly warm reviews, but viewers opted to stay home and just watch reruns.

31. Searching--$25.6 million Not a blockbuster, but this thriller did much better business than anticipated.

32. Won't You Be My Neighbor?--$22.6 million The year's biggest art house title was this documentary about Mr. Rogers, which crossed over and became a hit with mainstream audiences as well.

33. The Happytime Murders--$20.7 million Awful reviews ensured a short run for this R-rated puppet comedy noir, even with Melissa McCarthy playing the lead human.

34. Superfly--$20.6 million How badly did this slick remake of the 70s blaxploitation classic bomb? The original outgrossed it--in 1972 money.

35. Show Dogs--$17.9 million This talking dog movie got some brief notoriety when a scene in the movie was accursed of teaching children that sexual abuse was OK. That's about all it will be remembered for.

36. Operation Finale--$17.6 million The plot--the hunt for and capture of notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann--and the cast--Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley--suggest an Oscar bait movie. It's release--Labor Day weekend--indicated it wasn't. The reviews and box office confirmed that it wasn't.

37. Sorry to Bother You--$17.5 million Reviews were strong for this quirky comedy. However, it failed to cross over to mainstream success.

38. RBG--$14 million Liberals happily turned this biodoc of the beloved Supreme Court justice into one of the biggest art house hits of the year.

39. Eighth Grade--$13.5 million This acclaimed dramady about a girl struggling with middle school didn't really cross over, but will likely be watched and related to by future generations of tweens and teens.

40. The Darkest Minds--$12.7 million The latest dystopian YA adaption gave off a distinct X-Men ripoff vibe. Audiences decided to wait for the real thing.

41. Three Identical Strangers--$12.3 million The fascinating and tragic story of triplets split up at birth proved to be another documentary hit.

42. Upgrade--$11.9 million Strong reviews for this sci-fi actioner couldn't get many people into the theater, thought they seem to be flocking to Venom, which pretty much has the exact same plot.

43. Tully--$9.3 million After some missteps, director Jason Reitman returned to critical acclaim by reteaming with Charlize Theron with this dramady about a harried mother and the nanny she befriends. Unfortunately, audiences weren't interested.

44. Unfriended: Dark Web--$8.9 million The first Unfriended was a surprise hit a couple of years ago, but that didn't mean audiences were all that interested in movie with a completely different story and completely different cast.

45. Sanju--$7.9 million This Indian biopic about the bizarre life of a Bollywood actor is the summer's highest-grossing non-English language film.

46. The Wife--$7.2 million If Glenn Close doesn't get an Oscar nomination for this drama about the supportive wife of a Nobel Prize winning author, expect the debate about whether it should have been released closer to the end of the year to commence.

47. Dog Days--$6.8 million An all B-star cast tried to recreate Love, Actually (or Valentine's Day, or Crash) with this comedy about interconnected people and their dogs. No one cared.

48. Hotel Artemis--$6.7 million Despite a cast led by Jeff Goldblum and Jodie Foster(!), no one was much interested in this actioner about a secret hospital for criminals under siege.

49. A.X.L--$6.5 million Maybe if this boy and his robotic dog-whose-actually-a-top-secret-military-weapon movie had merged with Dog Days...

50. Leave No Trace--$6.1 million Debra Granik's first directorial effort since Winter's Bone did good arthouse business and got solid reviews, but is unlikely to leave much trace on year-end awards.

51. Death of a Nation--$5.9 million Trying to get people to pay money to hear about the awesomeness of Donald Trump is considerably harder than getting people to pay money to hear about the evilness of Obama and Clinton.

52. Kin--$5.7 million This sci-fi actioner about alien technology and the young boy who possesses it had a decent cast (James Franco, Dennis Quaid) and had a sequel hook, but with those grosses, no sequel will be forthcoming.

53. Action Point--$5.1 million Johnny Knoxville's days as the man mostly likely to maim himself in pursuit of a laugh appears to have come to an end with this scripted comedy.

54. Gotti--$4.3 million John Travolta's career is in danger of falling back into pre-Pulp Fiction irrelevance. The story of the famed mobster might have made a decent FX series.

55. Blindspotting--$4.3 million Despite good reviews, audiences weren't much interested in this dramady about a police shooting.

56. Ya Veremos--$4.2 million Lionsgate subsidiary Pantelion continues to have luck releasing Mexican comedies over Labor Day weekend. This one is no Instructions Not Included, but it is the second-highest grossing foreign title of the summer.

57. First Reformed--$3.5 million Ethan Hawke could be up for consideration for year-end awards in this drama about a conflicted minister.

58. Bad Samaritan--$3.4 million The lowest-grossing wide release of the summer was this thriller starring David Tennant as a rich guy who has a very dark secret at his house.

Spookily Early Christmas Movies: A Box Office Discussion Special Report

Wednesday night, kids nationwide will be going door-to-door trick-or-treating.  24 hours later, they can be sitting in a movie theater, watching one of the first showings of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Disney's dance-free adaption of the beloved Christmas ballet.  A week later, they can return to catch Dr. Seuss's The Grinch, a fully-animated adaptation of the classic Christmas book.  Two weeks later, they will celebrate Thanksgiving.

These titles are hardly the first films to come out during the first two weeks of November.  Over the past 30 years, a number of holiday-themed films have rushed the season, arriving in multiplexes well before the Thanksgiving turkeys have been bought and the Halloween candy consumed.  Over the next couple of days, we're going to take a look at these movies, and how they did, despite arriving at a time when most people have yet to get in the Christmas spirit.

In 1988, the holiday movie season didn't really begin until the Friday before Thanksgiving.  That's why it was so odd that Disney decided to send out Ernest Saves Christmas, the second movie starring Jim Varney as Ernest P. Worrell, bumbling commercial spokesman-turned-movie star, on November 11th.  Despite opening so early, it proved to be a moderate success, coming in at #2 for its opening weekend.  It ultimately spent 6 weeks in the top ten, grossing $28.2 million, enough to be the 38th-highest grossing film released that year.

Despite the success of the Ernest movie, it was three years before another studio would try an early Christmas movie again, and this time, the results were less than impressive.  Paramount released the family comedy All I Want For Christmas on November 8, 1991, apperently to get it out ahead of the studio's two big holiday films, The Addams Family and Star Trek VI.  The comedy, starring a young Ethan Embrey and a younger Thora Birch, along with Lauren Bacall and Leslie Nielsen, had a poster that seemed to try to invoke the previous year's holiday season blockbuster, Home Alone, but it didn't help.  All I Want for Christmas opened to terrible reviews and awful boxoffice, finishing in 4th behind three holdovers, none of which grossed even $5 million that weekend.  All I Want for Christmas did manage to hang around the Top 10 for four weekends, but was long gone by the actual Christmas, grossing only $14.8 million.

The next early Christmas movie came in 1994, from Disney, and had a surprisingly similar basic plot to Ernest Saves Christmas (ordinary guy tasks with becoming the next Santa).  But by 1994, the holiday movie season had moved its opening date to the first Friday of November, and The Santa Clause would prove to be a considerably bigger deal than Ernest Saves Christmas.  Opening on November 11 (exactly 6 years after Ernest Saves Christmas), the comedy, starring Tim Allen, who was riding high thanks to the success of his sitcom Home Improvement, was successful counterprogramming to that weekend's big release, the controversial movie version of Interview With the Vampire, starring Tom Cruise.  Santa Clause opened in #2 with $19.3 million, but then, it stuck around as Interview quickly burned out.  By Thanksgiving weekend, Santa was #1, and was still #2 by Christmas.  Ultimately, Santa Clause would gross $144.8 million and end up as the 4th highest grossing film of 1994.

Oddly, it would take another 4 years before another early Christmas movie would see a wide release, which also came from Disney.  The studio tried to replicate the success of The Santa Clause with a second holiday comedy starring a Home Improvement star trapped in a Santa outfit.  However, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was no Tim Allen, and I'll Be Home For Christmas, starring Thomas as a college kid who has to make it from California to New York by Christmas Eve, was no The Santa Clause.  It opened on November 13, 1998, in 6th, earning only $3.9 million that weekend, and was largely out of theaters after Thanksgiving, ultimately grossing only $12.2 million.

I'll Be Home for Christmas was Thomas's last starring role in a major studio film, and by 2002, Tim Allen's career was also on the decline.  Home Improvement was long over, and his film projects weren't getting the traction they had used to get.  So that's probably why, 8 years later, he agreed to make The Santa Clause 2.  What he probably didn't expect was that Disney would open it on November 1.  Despite opening when most kids were still digesting Halloween candy, the film proved to be successful, arriving at #1 its first weekend with $29 million.  It would go on to have a solid run, with decent grosses until New Year's and finishing with a final total of $139.2 million.

The success of Santa Clause 2 seemed to finally break the dam, because in 2003, there were two early arrivals, both on November 7, both serving as counterprogramming to the weekend's big sci-fi action sequel.  But while audiences quickly tired of The Matrix Revolutions, they fell in love with Elf and Love, Actually.  The former, starring Will Ferrell as a human who is raised at the North Pole and returns to New York to find his father, opened to $31.1 million, an impressive haul given that this was Ferrell's first non-SNL-related starring role.  As Revolutions quickly faded, Elf rose to #1 its second weekend, and was in the Top 10 all the way till Christmas, ultimately grossing $173.4 million, good enough to be 2003's 7th highest grossing film.  Meanwhile, Love, Actually was a more modest hit, opening in 6th to $6.9 million, and falling out of the top 10 after only 5 weeks.  But it still grossed $59.7 million, and became a cultural touchstone, perhaps even more than Elf has.

Tomorrow, we'll continue the exploration of early Christmas films from 2004 onward, including a failed experiment to release a title in October.