- Terrifer 3 (review)- $18.3M
Sometimes it takes a deadly clown to unseat another deadly clown. Terrifier 3 took over the top spot from Joker: Folie à Deux, earning $18.3M. That’s pretty remarkable for the third film in a gory R-rated horror franchise that has never had the widest distribution plan. But the 2514 theaters were more than enough this time around, earning a whopping $7,263 per site average. Terrifier 2 only took in $10M for the entirety of its run, which just goes to show the power of word-of-mouth buzz. Art the Clown might be this generation’s Freddy Krueger at this rate.
2. The Wild Robot– $13.4M/$83.7M
3. Joker: Folie à Deux– $7.055M/$51.6M
Joker: Folie à Deux‘s reign at the top was brief, as the poorly-reviewed sequel fell 81% from last week and into the #3 spot. Thanks to overseas earnings the film still has $165M worldwide but that’s a far cry from the $1B over its 2019 predecessor.
4. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice– $7M/$275.6M
5. Piece by Piece (review)- $3.8M
Positive reviews didn’t build a strong enough audience for the Lego biopic on hit-maker Pharrell Williams, Piece by Piece. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville, the film featured Pharrell and a number of his musical pals from Gwen Stefani and Snoop Dogg to Jay-Z and Daft Punk. The $3.8M haul is pretty low, but then this was a confusing film for people to wrap their brains around. It looks like a kids’ movie in Lego form, but it’s geared toward adults. I think that may have hurt it, but if the film gets Oscar accolades, as it could, expect a bounce to come later.
6. Transformers One- $3.6M/$52.8M
7. Saturday Night (review)- $3.4M/$4.1M
In its third week of release and first wide, Jason Reitman’s SNL tribute Saturday Night earned $3.4M. Not a great number, but despite a large ensemble there weren’t a lot of marketable names. Reviews have been pretty good with critics and audiences, but it’s best shot is to earn some awards season love.
8. My Hero Academia the Movie: You’re Next– $3M
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas– $2.3M/$89.9M
10. The Apprentice (review)- $1.5M
Legal threats and partisan cowardice stopped major distributors from backing The Apprentice, but Briarcliff Entertainment managed to release the controversial Trump biopic into 1700 theaters. The results weren’t great, though, with just $1.5M and a $900 per site average, this despite Sebastian Stan as the grab ’em by the pu**y Prez and Jeremy Strong as his evil mentor Roy Cohn.
