1. It- $60M/$218.7M
It stayed afloat at the top of the box office this week with an incredible $60M, giving it $218M domestic and $371M worldwide. Think about that, the second week is a number practically any horror movie would kill for...well, any non-James Wan horror, that is. Actually, It is playing a lot like one of Wan's movies, although a bit better because of the familiarity of the source material. To show just how strong of a showing the $35M film is having, it actually gained 45 theaters in the second weekend, showing that demand is stronger than some locations can keep up with.
2. American Assassin (review)- $14.8M
Sniping the debut of mother! was the action thriller, American Assassin,which stars The Maze Runner's Dylan O'Brien as a Black Ops agent tracking terrorists. It's a simple concept to pick up on, and that may be why it got off to a solid $14.8M start, which isn't bad for the $33M budgeted flick. This is the first film adaptation of author Vince Flynn's popular Mitch Rapp character, and that it looks like a Tom Clancy movie is probably what attracted audiences. Let's be honest, there was too much going on with mother! for anybody to know what they would be paying to see, while American Assassin looked easy to follow. If it continues to play well, it could be the franchise kickoff Lionsgate was hoping for.
3. mother! (review)- $7.5M
So let's get the REALLY awful part of this out of the way. While the $7.5M weekend is bad for Darren Aronofsky and Jennifer Lawrence's mother!, the worst news is that it is one of the rare films to earn an "F" Cinemascore. Practically nothing earns an "F" Cinemascore. Think of the worst movie you've ever seen and I guarantee you it didn't get such an embarrassing grade. So what does that tell us? The film is going to be run out of town on a rail next week, and will only be mentioned when thinkpieces are written about the year's biggest flops. So what went wrong? I would say there was too much damn mystery surrounding the film, which kept its promos close to the vest until the last minute, and even then it was impossible to tell what it was actually about. Mystery is fine, ignorance isn't, and nobody's going to buy a ticket to a movie they know nothing of. On the other hand, there are plenty of folks out there who dig Aronofsky's audacity. I count myself as one of those who think mother! is probably going to go down as one of the fall's most enjoyable experiences, and I think there's a better than average shot the $33M budget will be made up for overseas. As for Lawrence, this is her first true dud since Winter's Bone, and if she only has one every seven or eight years that's a pretty good batting average. I've seen some (*cough*Mashable*cough*) trying to compare this opening to Black Swan, which opened with only $1.4M in 2010. Yeah...okay, but that was in 18 theaters. The "wide" release had 959 theaters and scored $8M. That's better than mother! did with 2400 theaters. Nope, this isn't secretly a great thing to start so poorly.
4. Home Again- $5.3M/$17.1M
The Reese Witherspoon rom-com Home Again actually held pretty well, falling 37% for a $5.3M second weekend. The $17M total isn't great, but the film only cost $15M so no harm, no foul.
5. The Hitman's Bodyguard- $3.5M/$70.3M
6. Annabelle: Creation- $2.6M/$99.9M
7. Wind River- $2.5M/$29.1M
8. Leap!- $2.1M/$18.6M
9. Spider-Man: Homecoming- $1.8M/$330.2M
10. Dunkirk- $1.3M/$185.1M
