The numbers are in for this weekend’s box office and there’s nothing particularly surprising that’s come up since we reported the Friday numbers yesterday. As expected,Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the latest eccentric fantasy-comedy fromTim Burton, has taken the weekend with a commanding $28.5 million; here’sMatt’s reviewfor the film. the movie, which starsAsa Butterfield,Eva Green, andSamuel L. Jackson, cost some $110 million to make. That number puts it clearly abovePeter Berg’sDeepwater Horizon, which was made for about the same amount of money and came in with $20.8 million; here’sMatt’s reviewof Berg’s real-life drama. Though that might seem like under-performing, both films did much better than what pre-tracking suggested.
Mind you, Burton’s last blockbuster,Dark Shadows, made $29 million in its opening weekend, off of a $150 million budget, only to quickly fade out of memory for moviegoers. That might very well beMiss Peregrine’sfate as well, especially withThe Girl on the TrainandThe Birth of a Nationhitting screens next weekend. Regardless, bothDeepwater HorizonandMiss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Childrendid a whole heck of a lot better than the other major release of the weekend,Jared Hess’Masterminds, which came in with a total of $6.6 million. It’s failure, unfortunately, only goes to underline the decisions that led to Relativity having to file for bankruptcy recently.
The Magnificent Sevencame in third place with $15.5 million, which would be a 55% drop from its opening weekend take, whileStorkscame in at number four with $13.4 million.Mastermindscame in at sixth place whileClint Eastwood’s exquisiteSullytook the fifth spot with $8.4 million in its fourth week at the multiplex. On one hand, Eastwood’s triumph at the box office, following the tremendous box office performance ofAmerican Sniper, suggests that auteur filmmaking is not out of the realm of interest for even the most populist audiences. On the other hand, the focus on famous heroes that are still fresh in people’s memories probably plays a hand, as does both characters' work in the armed forces. As such, just how wellMiss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Childrendoes in its second week should prove to be a better indicator of just how much audiences care about established artists in this day and age. We shall see how this shakes out next week.
