It was the battle of movies from books…well kind of. I mean “Goosebumps” is based on all of R.L. Stine’s books while “The Martian” is just about one. Whatever, I’m sticking with the lit battle. So we get a movie based on hard core nostalgia for kids who grew up fiending for that bumpy G, and yet they kind of aimed it towards kids. It brought in around $23.5 million, which isn’t really great as the movie had a big budget. Those CG yetis aren’t cheap ya know.
While Jack Black was hitting the top spot Spielberg and Tom Hanks were teaming up for a Cold War spy flick in “Bridge of Spies.” That sounds like a huge hit right? Well…not so much. It didn’t have a strong opening, but it got strong reviews, and it’s Spielberg, it’s going to have a solid holdover. It won’t beat any of his recent movies but it will do well.
The same can’t be said for Guillermo Del Toro and “Crimson Peak.” A spooky flick, released in October, with tons of talent, and it bombed. I don’t know what didn’t appeal to movie-goers but they just weren’t interested in “Crimson Peak” and it’s about to get its audience eaten away with an influx of even more horror films.
| Rank | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | |||||
| 1 | Goosebumps | Sony | $23,618,556 | – | $23,618,556 | 1 | |||||
| 2 | The Martian | Fox | $21,300,120 | -42.4% | $143,595,778 | 3 | |||||
| 3 | Bridge of Spies | BV | $15,371,203 | – | $15,371,203 | 1 | |||||
| 4 | Crimson Peak | Uni. | $13,143,310 | – | $13,143,310 | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Hotel Transylvania 2 | Sony | $12,645,773 | -38.1% | $136,805,161 | 4 | |||||
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a film’s success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.