Last week, The Martian got bumped out of first-place by Sony’s Goosebumps, but this weekend it reclaimed the top spot at the North American box office for a third time, with $15.9M. Its domestic total is now at $166.4M. Goosebumps slides into second with $15.5M and has a 10-day total of $43.7M. And Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies took third with $11.4M.
The real story of this weekend is how poorly the newcomers performed. The Last Witch Hunter, starring Vin Diesel, opened in fourth with $10.8M. Early prediction from analyst were in the $15-to-$19M range. Jon Chu’s Jem And The Holograms live-action movie didn’t even crack the top ten. It grossed $1.3M, which is the worst opening ever for a major studio release playing in at least 2,000 theaters. Ouch! Thank goodness it only cost Universal $5M to produce. Even Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension missed its $9-to-$10M target. The “final” film in the series earned $8.2M, good enough for sixth.
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As for CinemaScores: Ghost Dimension received a ‘C,’ The Last Witch Hunter got a ‘B-,’ and for the few people that showed up to see Jem they gave it a ‘B+.’
Newcomers aren’t the only ones struggling at the crowded box office. Steve Jobs went nationwide this weekend and optimistic predictions earlier in the week were as high as $19M, no lie. It ended up in seventh with $10M. Then there is Guillermo del Toro’s gothic-horror film Crimson Peak, which clung to eighth in its second weekend with $5.6M.
