Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Black Mass’ and ‘Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials’ Battle It Out
After a slow start, September 2015 is shaping up to be a pretty solid month for the box office. After last week’s solid numbers, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Black Mass picked up the baton and ran with it, leading another strong weekend.
Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
1 | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | $30,300,000 | $7,386 | $30,300,000 |
2 | Black Mass | $23,360,000 | $8,156 | $23,360,000 |
3 | The Visit | $10,800,000 (-58%) | $3,431 | $41,798,000 |
4 | The Perfect Guy | $10,000,000 (-62%) | $4,484 | $41,710,000 |
5 | Everest | $7,100,000 | $13,028 | $7,100,000 |
6 | War Room | $6,700,000 (-14%) | $3,445 | $49,538,000 |
7 | A Walk in the Woods | $2,900,000 (-39%) | $1,344 | $24,959,000 |
8 | Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | $2,400,000 (-41%) | $1,090 | $191,882,000 |
9 | Straight Outta Compton | $1,900,000 (-52%) | $980 | $158,851,000 |
10 | Inside Out | $1,010,000 (-34%) | $842 | $352,929,000 |
In first place, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials fell a few million short of its predecessor’s opening weekend, but there’s no reason to scoff at $30 million. That’s a strong start for a YA series that doesn’t have the cultural caché of The Hunger Games or the inexplicable popularity of Divergent. The first film went on to scrape past $100 million and this one should follow suit. Mostly. In any case, international grosses will make this one a hit no matter what.
Black Mass followed in second place, giving Johnny Depp his first decent opening weekend in a while (remember Mortdecai?). The crime biopic delivered a more-than-solid $23 million, which is not bad for any R-rated film intended for adult audiences. It remains to be seen how it’ll fare in the long run, but with awards season upon us, it may stick around for a while as its massive ensemble cast attracts all kinds of Oscar attention.
Both of those openings are solid, but the real quiet victor of the weekend was Everest, which opened a week early on IMAX and large format screens. And from that limited selection of theaters, the based-on-true-events mountaineering drama made $7 million, which bodes well for its wide release next week. If these numbers are any indication, this thing could be looking at a lot of money in about seven days.
Meanwhile, last week’s champions took expected dives, with The Visit and The Perfect Guy falling 58 percent and 62 percent, respectively. Like many horror and thriller films, both of these look to be front-loaded, but it shouldn’t matter — both are already hits and with $41 million each, they are on the road to $60 million-ish grosses. That’s not bad for films with such modest budgets. It’s especially not bad for The Visit, which has officially released M. Night Shyamalan from director’s jail.
The rest of the top 10 followed the pattern established by the past two weeks. War Room took another tiny drop, bringing its total to $49 million. A Walk in the Woods continued doing alright, grossing nearly $3 million for a $24 million total. Straight Outta Compton is just about to end its run, but not before it crosses $160 million. And finally, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation still has its eye on the $200 million prize, but it’s going to be close.