9:07 AM PDT 10/19/2019
by
Pamela McClintock
Courtesy of Disney
‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’
Elsewhere, ‘Zombieland 2: Double Tap’ is on course for a pleasing $26 million-plus domestic start, while ‘Hustlers’ crosses the $100 million mark in a big win for STX.
Angelina Jolie-starrer Maleficent: Mistress of Evil earned $12.5 million on Friday from 3,790 theaters, putting in a course for a disappointing domestic start of $38 million.
While the live-acton Disney pic will still win the weekend, it had been expected to gross $45 million to $50 million. The follow-up opens five years after Maleficent, inspired by the villainous sorceress in Sleeping Beauty, started off with $69.4 million in North America on its way to earning $758 million globally.
Maleficent 2 — which could easily make up ground overseas — was originally set to open in May 2020, but Disney moved up the release to the 2019 Halloween corridor. While critics haven’t embraced the big-budget sequel, it drew an A CinemaScore from audiences.
Todd Phillips and Warner Bros.’ Joker will come in second in its third weekend with as much as $28 million as it approaches $250 million in the U.S. and crosses $700 million globally.
Sony’s early Halloween offering Zombieland 2: Double Tap opened to a pleasing $10.5 million on Friday in 3,468 theaters for a projected debut of $26 million to $27 million, slightly ahead of the 2009 film ($24.7 million), not adjusted for inflation.
Zombieland: Double Tap sees the return of Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson alongside newcomer Zoey Deutch in director Ruben Fleischer’s decade-later sequel.
Elsewhere, filmmaker Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers is making more headlines after dancing past the $100 million mark at the domestic box office on Friday. The film, a big win for STXfilms, stars Jennifer Lawrence, Constance Wu, Julia Styles and Keke Palmer.
At the awards box office, new offerings include filmmaker Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, an irreverent comedy about a German boy (Roman Griffin Davis) whose imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler (Waititi). The Fox Searchlight picture, starring Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson and Thomasin McKenzie, is on course to post a location average of $55,800 from five theaters.
Other new specialty offerings include The Lighthouse. From filmmaker Robert Eggers (The Witch), the A24 chiller stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as 1890s Maine lighthouse keepers locked in a battle of wills as a storm rages inside and out. The film, opening in eight cinemas, is on course to post a location average of $45,525.
