Hart & Haddish Lead 'Night School' To An Unsurprising Win But 'Free Solo' Is The Real Box Office Star

As expected, when you combine the star power of Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, you get box office gold. And with the release of the comedy “Night School,” Hart and Haddish have another hit on their hands, but the biggest surprise this weekend doesn’t star any big A-listers. But before we get to that, let’s take a look at the top of the chart.

“Night School” finished at #1 with a three-day total of $28 million. The film marks one of only a few times this year that a broad comedy opened to such a high box office total. In fact, the opening weekend almost earned as much as the modest $29 million budget that Universal gave the film. Obviously, with a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, moviegoers weren’t lining up to see “Night School” because of critical buzz. The success of the film can solely be attributed to the incredible fan bases of Hart and Haddish.

At this point, Kevin Hart is a comedy film institution among audiences. You see his name on the marquee and you know exactly what to expect, good or bad. And Tiffany Haddish is quickly catching up, after a star-making turn in 2017’s “Girls Trip.” Since then, she’s become one of the most sought-after actresses around, and has a slew of films coming out over the next year, including two more this fall with “The Oath” and “Nobody’s Fool.” All this goodwill that Hart and Haddish have built up with audiences has paid off because, despite the terrible Rotten Tomatoes score, audiences seem to be eating it up with an A- CinemaScore.

READ MORE: ‘Night School’ Trailer: Tiffany Haddish Will Beat The GED Answers Out Of Kevin Hart If She Has To

Also sporting an A- CinemaScore is the #2 film of the weekend, the animated children’s film “Smallfoot.” The film, which stars the vocal talents of Channing Tatum as a Yeti who discovers his community’s first human (a “smallfoot,” get it?), opened with a strong $23 million after three days. James Corden, Zendaya, Common, LeBron James, and Danny DeVito also lend their voices to the Warner Bros. animated film. Despite the good opening weekend, WB definitely is praying for strong box office legs, as the film sports a $80 million budget, and needs a pretty great box office total to see profitability. Luckily, there’s a couple weeks before “Goosebumps 2.”

There were two other major releases this weekend with the micro-budget horror film “Hell Fest” and the faith-based “Little Women” remake hitting theaters. Opening at #6, “Hell Fest” scared up a respectable $5 million in its first weekend. With a budget of only $5.5 million, this is a decent start to the film’s box office run. Obviously, competition in the horror genre will heat up over the coming weeks, so Lionsgate is hoping that fans come out soon to check out the film. Luckily, with a C CinemaScore, the film has pretty good word-of-mouth potential, as horror films can routinely be seen with much lower audience survey scores.

READ MORE: ‘Hell Fest’ Red Band Trailer: A Slasher Guts Unsuspecting Teens At World’s Worst Halloween Carnival

“Little Women,” on the other hand, could not connect with audiences. Debuting in almost 650 theaters, the remake scored a dismal $747,000 in its opening frame. With a per-theater-average of only $1,162, the film is expected to disappear fairly quickly. The film is yet another example of faith-based fare not being the guarantee that it’s been in previous years. Like other genres, for faith-based films to succeed, there needs to be a bigger hook than just a remake of a popular story. We’ll see how this string of recent faith-based fails will affect studios in the future.

Okay, now it’s time to talk about the massive success of the weekend, “Free Solo.” The documentary, courtesy of National Geographic, surprised everyone with a massive per-theater-average of $75,201. For those keeping track at home, that gives “Free Solo” the biggest PTA of the year, and the largest of all time for a documentary. The film follows free soloist climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to climb the face of the 3,000 foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park…without a rope. Not only is the footage and story gripping on its own, but apparently, critics are eating it up, with an incredible 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. So, if you guys haven’t heard anything about this film yet, then it sounds like the Year of the Documentaries is continuing with yet another surprise, and everyone should go and check it out.

READ MORE: ‘Free Solo’: A Thrilling, Astounding Mountain-Climbing Doc [TIFF Review]

We’ll have to see how “Free Solo” does as it opens in more theaters in the coming weeks. Next week sees the release of two massive films — Sony superhero film “Venom” and Warner Bros. “A Star is Born.” “Venom” is expected to carry the weekend, but by how much is anyone’s guess. The Spider-Man spin-off is a bit of a mystery, as critics have yet to weigh in and the buzz is hard to gauge. On the other hand, “A Star is Born” is the early Oscar front-runner and is said to be a crowd-pleaser featuring incredible music and performances from its two lead stars. Should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

READ MORE: Lady Gaga Gives A Gift To Fans And Releases A Music Video For ‘Shallow’ From ‘A Star Is Born’

Here’s the entire top 10 for September 28 to 30:

1. Night School — $28M (Debut)
2. Smallfoot — $23M (Debut)
3. The House with a Clock in Its Walls — $12.5M ($44.8M Overall)
4. A Simple Favor — $6.6M ($43M)
5. The Nun — $5.4M ($109M)
6. Hell Fest — $5M (Debut)
7. Crazy Rich Asians — $4.2M ($165.7M)
8. The Predator — $3.7M ($47.6M)
9. White Boy Rick — $2.4M ($22M)
10. Peppermint — $1.8M ($33.5M)

Also, if you need more reason to see “Free Solo,” then check out the trailer below: