Weekend box office: Inferno disappoints, but still takes the top spot

Brad Sturdivant October 30th, 2016

I don’t think anyone should be surprised by INFERNO’s disappointing performance at the weekend box office. THE DA VINCI CODE was a different situation spurned by an insanely popular book and an overreaction from the Catholic Church and that film went on to open to $74 million. But ANGELS AND DEMONS only opened to $46 million and although that’s respectable, it’s a huge drop for a sequel. So INFERNO opening with $15 million shouldn’t be surprising since people never really seemed on board with the Robert Langdon franchise. But we’ll have to wait and see how it performs overseas before we can take THE LOST SYMBOL off the table. But to be fair, if you’re a fan of the franchise, you should just be grateful you got as many films as you did.

Next week should be a nice shot in the arm for Hollywood. First is the latest Marvel film, DOCTOR STRANGE, which is getting good reviews and should be on par with ANT-MAN (about $57 million). I don’t see any reason this film won’t continue Marvel’s successful track record. Next we have the animated kids movie TROLLS, which should also do very well because there’s zero competition for kids and the void has been there for a while (sorry, STORKS). Then we have HACKSAW RIDGE, which looks incredible, but probably won’t do much damage at the box office given the competition. Hopefully that won’t hurt its chances come awards season. But DOCTOR STRANGE and TROLLS should provide a nice one-two punch, especially after this weekend’s dismal numbers. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

UPDATE: Looks like Madea ended up with more than originally thought, which means INFERNO can’t even claim to have taken the top spot.

1. Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween $16.7m

2. Inferno $15m

3. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back $9.1m

4. The Accountant $8.3m

5. Ouija: Origin of Evil $6.5m

6. The Girl on the Train $4.4m

7. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children $6.1m

8. Keeping Up With the Joneses $3.4m

9. Storks $2.6m

10. Deepwater Horizon $1.9m

(Deadline)