The Summer box office has finally come to an end during an extended four-day Labor Day Weekend. Unfortunately, this final weekend did nothing to stop Hollywood from seeing one of the worst summers in over a decade, as there were no new films with wide releases. However, the slow weekend once again benefitted “The Hitman's Bodyguard”, as the movie did something no other movie has done this summer.
'The Hitman's Bodyguard' is number one again
While the extended four-day box office weekend performed better than last week's disaster, it was still the second worse weekend of the year in terms of overall gross and gross by the top 12 movies.
The top ten films this Friday to Sunday only sold $47.6 million in tickets, making it the worst performing Labor Day Weekend since 2000 ($44.7).
However, this once again proved to be a boon for “The Hitman's Bodyguard”, starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. The film was number one for the third straight weekend, making it the only film this summer to do so. It made $13.72 million, performing better than last weekend and comfortably beating second place “Annabelle Creation” ($9.19) for the third straight time.
The summer box office runs from the first Friday in May through Labor Day weekend, meaning the movie did what “Wonder Woman”, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” and others could not.
In fact, it is only the fifth movie all year to hold the number one spot for three weekends in a row. The others were “Hidden Figures”, “Split”, “The LEGO Batman Movie” and “Fate of the Furious.” So far the R-rated action buddy comedy has made just under $58 million domestically with an estimated production budget of $30 million.
Another week of new films not making an impact
The best finish by a “new” film this weekend at the box office was a special 40th-anniversary showing of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” at 901 theaters across the country. The reshowing came in 14th place at the box office, taking in $2.22 million.
After that was the Mexican hit film “Hazlo Como Hombre” (Do It Like An Hombre), starring Mauricio Ochmann and Alfonso Dosal.
It came in 22nd place at the box office, earning $1.44 million at 382 theaters.
The other notable release was “Tulip Fever”, a historical drama set in 17th century Netherlands starring Alicia Vikander and Dane DeHaan. This movie was actually filmed three years ago but had since undergone a series of release day delays. It took in $1.39 million playing at 765 theaters.
