LOS ANGELES -- It was a spooky weekend at the box office for nearly everyone but Tyler Perry.
Perry's comedy sequel Boo 2! A Madea Halloween scared up a healthy $21.2 million in its first weekend in theaters, but the waters were rough for other new openers including the costly and long-delayed disaster epic Geostorm, the firefighter drama Only the Brave and the crime thriller The Snowman.
Made for a reported $25 million, Perry's film drew a mostly older female audience, who gave it an A- CinemaScore. Boo 2! did a little less business than the first film, which opened to $28.5 million just last year.
"Given that it's a sequel, its performance is at the higher end of our expectations," said David Spitz, who heads up domestic distribution for Lionsgate.
The studio expects the film to hold well into this weekend due to increased interest because of Halloween, but it will also face some competition with the horror pic Jigsaw.
But a slight drop for a sequel hardly compares to the catastrophe of Geostorm, a once-shelved $120 million disaster epic starring Gerard Butler that only managed to open with about $14 million from North American theaters.
A co-production between Skydance Media and Warner Bros., Geostorm marks the directorial debut of Independence Day producer Dean Devlin. The film was shot in 2014 and lousy test screenings resulted in $15 million of reshoots, pushing back the release to now.
But the reshoots didn't seem to help the final product, which has been widely panned by critics and shunned overall by audiences. Those who did turn out gave it a B- CinemaScore.
Another possibly too-timely film, Only the Brave, about the Granite Mountain Hotshots who took on the June 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, also failed to attract sufficient audiences this weekend. The Columbia film starring Josh Brolin, Jeff Bridges and Jennifer Connelly opened in fifth place with $6 million.
At $38 million, the production budget was more reasonable than Geostorm, however.
But despite good reviews, Brave opened behind two holdovers -- the horror pic Happy Death Day which landed in third place with $9.4 million and Blade Runner 2049 which took in $7.3 million in its third weekend in theaters.
Universal and Working Title's The Snowman, starring Michael Fassbender and based on the Jo Nesbo book, also failed to make a splash. The critically derided film debuted in eighth place with about $3.4 million from 1,812 theaters.
The director, Thomas Alfredson has been widely acknowledging the film's shortcomings and confusing plot in the press, saying that they did not have time to shoot the entire script. Audiences gave it a deathly D CinemaScore.
Things looked a little brighter for the limited releases last weekend. Both playing in four theaters, the Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman film The Killing of a Sacred Deer, took in $114,585 and Wonderstruck, starring Julianne Moore and directed by Todd Haynes, earned $68,762.
"As great as September was, October has been really scary," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for comScore.
Theatrical exhibitors and studio distribution heads are gathering in Miami Beach this week for the ShowEast Film Expo to discuss the state of movie going and it couldn't come at a better time, when old truisms about what works and what doesn't work at the box office are being challenged weekly.
Dergarabedian said even releasing a quality film isn't a sure path to success anymore.
"Even well-reviewed movies like American Made, Only the Brave and Blade Runner 2049 are having trouble gaining traction," Dergarabedian said.
The industry will be looking to the big event films, such as Thor: Ragnarok, out Nov. 3, Justice League and Star Wars: Episode VIII -- The Last Jedi, to get the year back in the black.
"Trying to figure out audiences and what they want is the key to the future. Audiences are voting with their presence or absence at the movie theater," Dergarabedian said. "They're staying away now, but that might change in two weeks."
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:
Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, Lionsgate, $21,226,953, 2,388 locations, $8,889 average, $21,226,953, 1 week.
Geostorm, Warner Bros., $13,707,376, 3,246 locations, $4,223 average, $13,707,376, 1 week.
Happy Death Day, Universal, $9,363,415, 3,298 locations, $2,839 average, $40,672,780, 2 weeks.
Blade Runner 2049, Warner Bros., $7,353,151, 3,203 locations, $2,296 average, $74,203,354, 3 weeks.
Only the Brave, Columbia, $6,002,665, 2,577 locations, $2,329 average, $6,002,665, 1 week.
The Foreigner, STX Entertainment, $5,787,447, 2,515 locations, $2,301 average, $23,181,700, 2 weeks.
It, Warner Bros., $3,451,663, 2,560 locations, $1,348 average, $320,186,279, 7 weeks.
The Snowman, Universal, $3,372,565, 1,812 locations, $1,861 average, $3,372,565, 1 week.
American Made, Universal, $3,131,650, 2,559 locations, $1,224 average, $45,473,385, 4 weeks.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle, 20th Century Fox, $3,011,307, 2,318 locations, $1,299 average, $94,580,239, 5 weeks.
The Mountain Between Us, 20th Century Fox, $2,773,757, 3,151 locations, $880 average, $25,552,642, 3 weeks.
Same Kind of Different as Me, Pure Flix, $2,591,985, 1,362 locations, $1,903 average, $2,591,985, 1 week.
The Lego Ninjago Movie, Warner Bros., $2,226,261, 2,102 locations, $1,059 average, $54,709,763, 5 weeks.
Victoria and Abdul, Focus Features, $2,126,115, 1,060 locations, $2,006 average, $14,836,649, 5 weeks.
My Little Pony: The Movie, Lionsgate, $2,027,064, 2,301 locations, $881 average, $18,556,663, 3 weeks.
Marshall, Open Road, $1,482,383, 821 locations, $1,806 average, $5,434,374, 2 weeks.
Golmaal Again, Reliance Big Entertainment PVT. Ltd., $1,013,893, 267 locations, $3,797 average, $1,013,893, 1 week.
Secret Superstar, Zee Studios International, $764,152, 211 locations, $3,622 average, $764,152, 1 week.
Mersal, AIM Distribution, $696,410, 143 locations, $4,870 average, $696,410, 1 week.
The Florida Project, A24, $602,171, 112 locations, $5,377 average, $1,340,794, 3 weeks.
MovieStyle on 10/27/2017