Last week, studios dumped a few movies into theaters in order to dodge this Halloween weekend only to see those films flop hard.  But things didn’t improve this weekend, in which Halloween fell on Saturday.  Even so, Paramount, Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company released new movies and like those last weekend, they flopped.  There was little movement in the top five, with only The Weinstein Company’s ‘Burnt’ starring Bradley Cooper cracked the Top Five… AT #5.

Beside that, Warner Bros.’ ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’ starring Sandra Bullock landed with a thud at #8 and with it taking in $3.4 million, is the worst opening of Bullock’s career.

Here are the numbers:

  1. The Martian (20th Century Fox) – $11.4 million
  2. Goosebumps (Sony) – $10.2 million
  3. Bridge of Spies (Disney) – $8.1 million
  4. Hotel Transylvania 2 (Sony) – $5.8 million
  5. Burnt (The Weinstein Company) – $5 million

There’s little more to say about the stalwarts still topping the chart.  ‘Goosebumps’ and ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ certainly benefited from the Halloween holiday, but it more than helps that both have been very well-received by audiences, leading to great buzz and possibly even repeat viewing.  ‘The Martian’ is one of the best word-of-mouth movies in ages, so that has helped it stay at #1 for a fourth week.  It has been out for five, but ceded the top spot to ‘Goosebumps’ when it came out two weeks ago, only to reclaim the top spot last weekend and retain it again.  ‘Bridge of Spies’ works as excellent counterprograming, drawing in older movie-goers.

One movie (barely) worth mentioning is ‘Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse‘ from Paramount. The movie only made $1.7M and didn’t even crack the Top Ten, but it is the studio’s second film, following last week’s ‘Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, ‘Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse’ which had a risky strategy in place: Both films will be released on digital almost as soon as they leave theaters.  This obviously cuts into potential ticket sales, since people are more likely to wait for the VOD release, especially since neither looked to be particularly engaging.  In exchange for agreeing to show the movie, theater owners will get a cut of the digital profits.  But many chains simply chose not to carry either film.

But as movie-watching as an activity evolves with technology, one can’t blame a studio for trying new approaches and these were both fairly low-profile.  The ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchise is coasting on fumes and ‘Scouts Guide’ simply looked like a cheap throw-away.  It may be worth seeing the film On Demand as one of the titular ‘Scouts’ is played by Tye Sheridan, who appears next summer as Scott Summers/Cyclops in ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘.  He looks about 12 years old, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how he works in the mutant movie which will surely debut with more than $1.7M.

Next week, Hollywood gets back on track.  ‘Spectre’ should easily take the top spot, while ‘The Peanuts Movie’ should coast into a cushy spot, taking over the family film destination spot from ‘HT2’ and ‘Goosebumps’ which should see flagging interest now that October is said and done.  And ‘Bridge of Spies’ should lose some ground to ‘Room’ another mature-aimed drama.

Check back to see how these newcomers fare!

Source: Entertainment Weekly