BOX OFFICE: A lamer than usual Labor Day… but SPIDER-MAN is back in the top 10!

BOX OFFICE: A lamer than usual Labor Day… but SPIDER-MAN is back in the top 10!

Welcome to the Beat’s weekly Weekend Box Office Recap!

There was a time when studios would release movies over Labor Day weekend, seeing it as a holiday weekend rife with business for fare that wouldn’t fit into normal summer releases. That time is no more, as there wasn’t a new movie released into more than 1,000 theaters this weekend and not one of those movies broke into the top 10. Instead, studios chose to re-expand previous summer hits, and in one case, it worked out quite well. Otherwise, many of the returning movies were up over the four-day weekend from last week, bringing in a bit of late-summer money before It: Chapter Two takes over on Friday.

Without much in the way of competition, Lionsgate’s Angel Has Fallen, starring Gerard Butler, remained in #1 with an estimated $14.8 million over the four-day weekend and $11.8 million on Friday through Sunday. That’s a pretty substantial drop of 32% compared to the other returning movies, but it has grossed $44 million in ten days and is well on its way to being profitable.

Universal’s Good Boys remained in second place with $12.5 million over four days, which is about 4% more than what it made last weekend in three days. Going by its $9.5 million three-day gross, it’s down just 18.4%, which is still fantastic for the Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg production, which has grossed almost triple its $20 million budget since opening with $59.1 million grossed in North America.

Disney’s The Lion King jumped back up to third place with $9.3 million over the four-day holiday, up about 14% from its three-day weekend last week, and it’s still doing well with $523.5 million grossed in North America since opening seven weeks ago in late July. It probably won’t get to the $600 million made by Incredibles 2 last summer, but who cares? It’s still so profitable that lots of Disney execs will be able to buy themselves new cars or houses with the profits.

Fourth place went to the action spin-off Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, which just managed to edge out the faith-based drama Overcomer, starring director Alex Kendrick, to maintain fourth place for a second weekend. It made $8.2 million over the four-day weekend, also slightly more than how much it made last weekend, while Overcomer took fifth place with $7.8 million over the four days. Hobbs and Shaw has grossed $159 million domestically which might force Universal to rethink it as a spin-off franchise, although it adds another $525 million from overseas box office. Overcomer has grossed $19.3 million in its first eleven days in theaters.

Fox Searchlight’s Ready or Not continues to perform abnormally from most other horror films by maintaining its sixth place slot with $7 million over the four-day weekend and $5.9 million over three days. The low-budget ($6 million) horror-thriller has grossed $21.5 million domestically since opening last week, a great showing for the filmmaking collective known as Radio Silence.

CBS Films’ Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Paramount’s Dora and the Lost City of Gold sand Sony’s The Angry Birds Movie 2 followed with $7 million, $6.3 million and $5.7 million respectably, the first two up almost 7% from last weekend.

Somewhat of a surprise this weekend was Sony Pictures re-expanding Spider-Man: Far from Home back into over 3,000 theaters with additional footage, and it worked to bring the movie back into the top 10 with $5.5 million over the four-day weekend. That was enough to jump back into ninth place with a running domestic total of $385.9 million. Maybe all the news about Sony’s split with Marvel over the character helped generate new interest in the last of the movies produced by the two studios in tandem. It probably won’t be able to hit the $400 million gross of Marvel’s Captain Marvel with so many strong movies taking back those theaters starting with next week’s It: Chapter Two.

I guess we should mention the new movies, even though none of them opened in the top 10.

The independently-released Bennett’s War managed to score the most theaters, opening in 970 theaters Friday. With little to no promotion, no one knew this movie existed, and its $553,000 weekend take (about $570 per theater) is one of the worst showings for a wide release in a long time.

Jacob Estes’ sci-fi thriller Don’t Let Go, starring David Oyelowo, opened in 922 theaters and fared slightly better with an estimated $3 million over the four days to take 15th place.

Pantelion Films, who has had a few minor Labor Day hits, released the delightful Mexican rom-com Tod@s Caen into 371 theaters Friday where it grossed just under $1.4 million in four days or $3,706 per venue. It isn’t that great but still better than some of the other movies above.

Yash Raj’s Bollywood action film Saaho also opened on Thursday in 319 theaters to take in $923,677 in its first day, but it only made $1.7 million over the four-day weekend (about $5,300 per theater) and $1.4 million over the three days, so not enough to get into the top 10 either.

This Week’s Top 10: (Note: All 4-day estimates)

Rank	Last Week Rank	Movie	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Total Gross
1	1	Angel Has Fallen	Lionsgate	$14.8 million	-31%	$43.9 million
2	2	Good Boys	Universal	$12.1 million	+4%	$59.1 million
3	5	The Lion King	Disney	$9.3 million	+16%	$523.5 million
4	4	Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw	Universal	$8.2 million	+2%	$159 million
5	3	Overcomer	Sony/Affirm	$7.8 million	-5%	$19.3 million
6	6	Ready or Not	Fox Searchlight	$7 million	-13%	$21.5 million
7	8	Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark	CBS Films	$6.3 million	+7%	$58.9 million
8	10	Dora and the Lost City of Gold	Paramount	$5.7 million	+7%	$51.2 million
9	7	The Angry Birds Movie 2	Sony	$5.6 million	-12%	$35.4 million
10	15	Spider-Man: Far from Home	Sony	$5.5 million	+227%	$386 million

Last Labor Day was significantly better with Crazy Rich Asians remaining in #1 with almost $29 million over the four-day holiday, while Jason Statham‘s The Meg remained in second place with $13.8 million.MGM released the historic Operation: Finale, starring Oscar Isaac and Sir Ben Kingsley, into 1,818 theaters where it grossed just under $8 million for fourth place, while Screen Gems expanded the thriller Searching into 1,207 theaters, which was enough for a fifth place finish with slightly less. Still, that was enough for the top 10 to make nearly $14 million more last year this weekend over this past one.

The weekly Box Office Preview will be back on Wednesday (probably later in the day than usual) but it will cover New Line’s anticipated horror sequel, It: Chapter Two!