This weekend's big new releases were all about laughs, but one of the two titles managed to do much more business than the other. Patrick Hughes' The Hitman's Bodyguard toppled Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky. See the full rundown of the Top 10 in the chart below!
The Hitman's Bodyguard, which sees a trained guardian (Ryan Reynolds) try to protect a professional assassin (Samuel L. Jackson), did not get a ton of love from critics, but it still managed to get enough butts in seats to take the number one spot this weekend. Unfortunately, it's not much of a crown, as this was easily one of the weakest box office showings we've seen in 2017, with the Top 12 movies grossing only $81.5 million (for comparison, the release of Beauty and the Beast back in mid-March saw that particular weekend's Top 12 gross rise to $253.5 million). Only two movies managed to make eight-figure sums, and even Annabelle: Creation still fell off 55 percent following its strong start.
If we want to see a silver lining in this result, it's that people at least did seem to respond well to The Hitman's Bodyguard. The new number one movie was entirely sold on the expected chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, and those that went to go watch it were apparently happy with what they saw (it received a "B+" grade according to CinemaScore). As for the business side of things, the film was reportedly only made for $29 million, so it's on a good track towards making a profit. It will be curious to see how the feature winds up working internationally, as the jokes may not wind up fully translating, but it's possible that the action will.
Sadly, there are fewer positive things we can say about the results for Logan Lucky, as apparently the movie gods had the opposite fate in mind for the southern fried heist feature. The film marks the big screen return of Steven Soderbergh, who "retired" after 2013's Side Effects, and it has received some of the most positive reviews of the year, and yet apparently only few felt compelled to buy a ticket at their local theater. Having the same reported budget as The Hitman's Bodyguard, it looks like it will have a harder road to walk while aiming towards making a profit - but the good news is that buzz and names like Steven Soderbergh, Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Daniel Craig will help give it legs in the long term and hopefully ultimately make it a success.
With seven of the Top 10 movies at the box office only making between $3 and $7 million this weekend, there aren't really any more standout performances to analyze, but what is depressing to see is just how fast The Dark Tower is fading. Stephen King fans spent decades hoping for an epic blockbuster worthy of the material being adapted, but after just three weeks it looks like the would-be blockbuster is ready to already drop out of the rankings (it's never great to drop five spots in a single week). The $41.6 million that its made domestically is bolstered by the $30.2 million its made in foreign markets, but it's still hard to call any of it good news.
Being trapped in the cinematic doldrums that is August, unfortunately we can't tell you that we have any box office fireworks coming up in the near future. This week will see the wide release of the animated Leap!, the Bruce Lee-centered Birth of the Dragon, and the religion-themed All Saints - and we will be back next Sunday to analyze how the rumble goes down.
