The Maze Runner sequel easily won the weekend with 30 million, besting the other new release Black Mass by over 7 million, even if it didn't manage to beat its own predecessor's 32 million opening last year. This seems to be the least popular of the three YA franchises currently coming out every year, after Hunger Games and Divergent, so I wonder how they'll justify turning the final chapter in this middling series into two separate films. Johnny Depp's Black Mass meanwhile, came in with 23 million, on par with other Boston crime dramas The Town and The Departed, but it got just a B Cinemascore, so you have to wonder how it will hold up with other adult dramas flooding the marketplace in the coming weeks.
Universal's Everest opened on 545 IMAX screens only, and earned a stellar 7.6 million from the limited release, potentially boding well for its wide release next Friday, and managing to crack the top five for the weekend. Holdovers The Perfect Guy and The Visit rounded out the chart, coming in with 11 million for The Visit and just under 10 million for The Perfect Guy- not bad holds for either of them, and considering the low budgets, both can be labeled hits.
Top 5:
- Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials- 30.3 million
- Black Mass- 23.4 million
- The Visit- 11.4 million
- The Perfect Guy- 9.7 million
- Everest- 7.6 million
In specialty release, Sicario pulled in the best opening PTA of the year, earning 390,000 on just six screens, a 65k per theater average. The Emily Blunt/Benicio del Toro thriller doesn't go wide until Oct. 2nd though, so keep a look out. The Bobby Fischer movie, Pawn Sacrifice, earned 206k from 33 screens, while Grandma expanded to over 1000 theaters, bringing its new total to almost 4 million. Next week it's Hotel Transylvania 2 against the wide release of Everest, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there- see you then everyone!
