‘Happy Death Day’ Blows Out The Candles At The Multiplex [Box Office]

In a year where studio executives have been grappling with tentpoles underperforming (see last week’s “Blade Runner 2049“) and trying to figure who to blame (Rotten Tomatoes? fickle audiences?) there are few things they can rely on….except cheap, easy to sell horror flicks.

Blumhouse Productions has once again scored another big hit with “Happy Death Day.” Made for a mere $4.8 million, the Universal distributed movie hauled in $26.5 million. Again, you can chalk it up to Blumhouse’s expert ability to cleanly market genre flicks with a simple premise and finding a receptive audience. Reviews weren’t ecstatic (66% on Rotten Tomatoes, if you’re wondering) but it perhaps underscores that moviegoers prefer to know what they’re getting into, instead of everything being kept mysterious….like “Blade Runner 2049.” It’s not a big shock that Denis Villeneuve‘s lauded sci-fi sequel, dropped down to second place.

Jackie Chan tried his hand at making a “Taken“-style thriller, and the results weren’t too bad, all things considered, with “The Foreigner” earning $12.8 million. Expectations were likely modest for the movie, which sees Chan going against his usually charming on-screen persona, for something a little more gritty and serious. However, overseas, the film is doing huge numbers, with the picture already crossing $100 million worldwide, largely thanks to $66 million coming from China alone. Impressive stuff.

Audiences at the arthouse weren’t feeling biopics at all this week. Open Road‘s “Marshall” earned a lacklustre $3 million, landing outside the top ten. On just nine screens, “Goodbye Christopher Robin” stitched together a lukewarm $55,800 for a pretty weak $6,200 per-screen-average. “Breathe” starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy pulled $26,254 from four screens for a $6,564 per-screen-average. However, it was “Professor Marston And The Wonder Women” which flopped hardest, with the worst debut of the year, earning $737,000 on just over 1200 screens for a disastrous $600 per-screen-average. It’s a figure made even more dismal that, try all they might, Annapurna just could not find a way to ride on the coattails of Warner Bros.‘ summer smash hit “Wonder Woman.”

1. “Happy Death Day” — $26.5 million
2. “Blade Runner 2049” — $15.1 million ($60.5 mil.)
3. “The Foreigner” — $12.8 million
4. “It” — $6 million ($314.9 mil.)
5. “The Mountain Between Us” — $5.6 million ($20.5 mil.)
6. “American Made” — $5.4 million ($40.1 mil.)
7. “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” — $5.3 million ($89.6 mil.)
8. “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” — $4.3 million ($51.5 mil.)
9. “My Little Pony: The Movie” — $4 million ($15.5 mil.)
10. “Victoria and Abdul” — $3.1 million ($11.3 mil.)