Patrick Hughes' The Hitman's Bodyguard is one of only a small number of movies in summer 2017 to own the box office for two weekends in a row - but looking at the numbers that Hollywood put up in the last three days, there is nothing to be proud of here. Check out the full rundown in the chart below.
I'm afraid to report that your eyes are definitely not deceiving you here. While it's customary for at least a few movies in the Top 10 to make more than $10 million in one weekend, this weekend saw only one title hit that mark. The result is a historically low box office, the likes of which, according to Box Office Mojo, we have not seen since September 2001. This is what happens when there aren't any new exciting movies arriving in local cinemas.
Rather than being dethroned by either Leap! or Birth of the Dragon, The Hitman's Bodyguard managed to hold on to its number one spot during its second week with a not-great 53 percent drop. That brings it's total domestically to $39.6 million - which at least must be nice for investors, given that the whole thing reportedly cost $30 million to make. Clearly its not a big money maker, but it's also definitely not a flop.
To go back to those new releases, Leap! is at least keeping some consistency during the summer 2017 season, as it's yet another example of a disappointing animated feature this year. Most of the underwhelming titles to date have been sequels, including Cars 3, The Smurfs: The Lost Village, and The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature, but still the new movie fits right in with The Emoji Movie (which you can now see slipping off the Top 10 after dropping three spots in one week). Leap! hardly earned any excitement with reviews - as it stands with a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes with only 41 reviews registered - but apparently it has definitely won over the people who actually went to go see it. According to CinemaScore, audiences actually gave it an "A."
Hanging out with a "B" CinemaScore, Birth of the Dragon also didn't exactly inspire audiences to run out and buy tickets. The kung fu film, which is a fictional biopic of sorts about Bruce Lee, certainly didn't have a very high budget - but it's hard to imagine anyone being super happy with its opening weekend numbers. Even if this was a found footage movie made for pennies, nobody is walking away happy with a $2.5 million take over three days (that's only $1,546 per theater).
Thankfully, the cinematic doldrums of August are coming to an end this week - but I'm sad to report that we have yet another crazy bland weekend of new releases coming up. While we will see the arrival of IT, mother!, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle in coming weeks, this Friday we will see the arrival of the Michael Apted-directed thriller Unlocked, and Justin Chadwick's period drama Tulip Fever. Stop by next Sunday to see how it all shakes out!
