Box office: Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ takes on Taylor Swift, but falls short of #1

Edward Douglas
·5 min read
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Taylor Swift retained her box office title with a second weekend at number-one, as Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon” didn’t pose as big a threat as some may have expected. Read on for the weekend box office report.

Although Scorsese’s first movie in four years was met with a lot of excitement, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” continued to bring in business even with a large second weekend drop from its opening. In its second weekend it has made an estimated $31 million in 3,855 theaters, down 67% while bringing its domestic total to $129.8 million after reopening on Thursday.

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Apple (via Paramount Pictures) released Martin Scorsese‘s three-and-a-half-hour true-crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone, into 3,628 theaters months after it first debuted to acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival in May. With a certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie’s biggest stumbling block may have been its running time, since it limited the number of showings per screen.

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After making $2.6 million in Thursday previews and $9.4 million on Friday (including those previews), Scorsese’s latest opened with an estimated $23 million in second place. That is Scorsese’s third-best domestic opening after 2010’s “Shutter Island,” which opened with $41 million and his 2006 Oscar Best Picture-winning “The Departed” with $26 million.

Audiences generally liked Scorsese’s latest as much as critics, giving it an “A-” CinemaScore, the same as “Goodfellas” back in 1990 and “The Departed” in 2006. Overseas, “Killers” brought in another $21 million in 63 territories for a global opening of $44 million.

David Gordon Green‘s horror sequel “The Exorcist: Believer” earned another $5.6 million this weekend, down 49% to take third place with $54.2 million grossed domestically. The movie will be released on VOD on Tuesday, so we’ll see if Universal will be able to keep it in theaters the weekend before Halloween. Either way, it’s already surpassed $100 million globally with another $8.2 million overseas this weekend for a worldwide total of $107.6 million.

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The animated “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” took fourth place with $4.5 million (down 35%) to bring its domestic total to $56.06 million.

Disney gave “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” a 30th anniversary re-release into 1,650 theaters, appropriately timed just before Halloween. After making $1.5 million on Friday it took in an estimated $4.1 million for the weekend. Further down the chart, Disney’s 30th anniversary re-release of “Hocus Pocus” added another $600,000 to bring its re-release total to $4.3 million in North America.

Overseas, Universal continued to expand the DreamWorks Animation threequel “Trolls Band Together,” which opened in 21 further markets, including the UK and Ireland, where it opened with $4 million, and Brazil, where it grossed $2.6 million. It made $14.3 million internationally this weekend for a total of $16 million, yet it won’t be released in North America until November 17.

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Lionsgate’s own horror sequel “Saw X” took sixth place with $3.6 million, down 37%, for a four-week total of $47.2 million.

“The Creator” took seventh place with $2.6 million, down 40% in its fourth weekend, to bring its domestic total to $36.8 million. It added another $4.1 million overseas, debuting with $1.1 million in Japan for an international total of $53.6 million and a worldwide gross of $90.4 million.

A24 expanded Larry Charles‘s comedy-musical “Dicks: The Musical” into 345 theaters where it grossed $377k or $1,095 per theater.

Sony Classics opened Maryam Keshavarz‘s “The Persian Version” in nine theaters this weekend where it debuted with $87,000, or $9,708 per theater.

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Disney’s re-release of “Nightmare Before Christmas” was a real spoiler in the Gold Derby box office prediction game, because it wasn’t in our predictions center this week and only two players correctly picked “None of these” for fifth place. Did these players know about the re-release? Was it just plain luck? We’ll find out next week when we see if any players went six-for-six.

Only four players went six-for-six in the October 13 game, predicting “The Eras Tour” to open under $100 million, but it was Gold Derby’s own Marcus James Dixon who topped the points by putting his Super Bet behind that prediction.

On Friday Universal will open the horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” based on the popular video game, and you can check back on Wednesday for our weekend preview of how it might do.

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