Hollywood screenwriters couldn’t have scripted a scary pre-Halloween weekend for the movie business — particularly for actor Matt Damon and director George Clooney’s Suburbicon.
On the second worst box office weekend of the year, their dark post-World War II drama earned just $2.8 million at 2,046 theaters over the weekend. That was low even for the modest expectations of the film after disappointing reviews from critics. And further proof that, as Jennifer Lawrence and Ryan Gosling discovered with the respective failures of Mother! and Blade Runner 2049, star power guarantees nothing but pretty “now playing” posters.
Instead, the box office crown was snatched by Lionsgate’s horror flick, Jigsaw, another stab at continuing the Saw franchise, which earned a solid $16.3 million. The studio also notched second place with $10 million for Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, which dropped one spot in its second week.
“For every big star, it’s their franchise films that bring in the big office,” ComScore senior box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told RealClearLife. “But when they venture into movies that are off their usual paths, they are often met with complete indifference.
“Star power is really predicated on the star power of the movie brand combined with the personal power of the actor.”
So Damon fans, for example, are more likely to get excited by another Jason Bourne movie than arthouse fare like Suburbicon or the upcoming, Downsizing.
Despite a record September, powered in large part by the Stephen King adaptation, It, this year has been a bloodbath, down 5% from last year at this time. So appropriately enough it’s low-budget horror movies like Jigsaw that have survived in recent weeks.
A scene from Lionsgate’s ‘Jigsaw’But there may be other sinister forces —at least if you’re a studio exec — to explain the dismal performance for Suburbicon and other recent releases.
Dergarabedian points out Netflix’s release of the second season of the Stranger Things on Friday combined with a much-hyped World Series have given other options for entertainment this weekend. Saturday night also likely saw its share of Halloween parties for 20-somethings, an important demographic at the movie theater.
Besides, with all the big movies looming for the holiday season, which unofficially kicks off with Thor: Ragnarok next Friday, the average movie-goer may be waiting for better reasons to splurge on popcorn and tickets.
“People don’t generally go to a movie theater ten times a month, they tend to do so five or six times a year,” says Dergarabedian. “And right now they seem to be saving their money for films like Thor, Justice League, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
