"Terrifier 3" Opens at #1 during Columbus Day Weekend while "Joker 2" Plummets

[JamesG]

Terrifier 3 Tops Box Office with $18 Million Debut, Joker: Folie à Deux Collapses with Brutal 81% Drop
by Rebecca Rubin
Oct. 13, 2024


There’s only room for one killer clown at the top of box office charts.

Terrifier 3 slashed its way to No. 1 in North America, collecting a stellar $18.3 million from 2,514 theaters in its opening weekend. It’s a huge start for the ultra-gory, independently made, low-budget slasher film about a demonic clown who brutalizes a small town.



Terrifier 3 has surprisingly positive critical and audience reactions for such an unsettling movie, scoring a “B” on CinemaScore and 77% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The blood-soaked threequel, which doesn’t have a rating by the Motion Picture Association, has been stoking conversation about violence, with the distributors at Cineverse launching a hotline for moviegoers to complain about the carnage.

The third Terrifier installment has already surpassed the entire global haul of its predecessor, 2022’s Terrifier 2.







Meanwhile Joker: Folie á Deux, which topped the box office last weekend, collapsed in fourth place with $7 million from 4,102 theaters.

Joker 2 suffered a tragic 81% decline in ticket sales from its already-disastrous $37.6 million debut. It ranks as one of the biggest-second weekend drops for the superhero genre.

So far, Folie á Deux has generated $51.6 million domestically and $165.3 million globally. The Warner Bros. film carries a hefty $200 million price tag and, at this rate, will struggle to get anywhere near the $450 million needed to break even, according to sources familiar with the financials.







Fellow newcomer, Piece By Piece, a documentary that tells the life story of Pharrell Williams using Lego animation, fell short of expectations, opening in sixth place with $3.8 million from 1,865 locations.

Focus Features released the $16 million-budgeted film, which landed a promising “A” grade on CinemaScore and holds an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes.







Sony’s Saturday Night struggled to breakthrough to mainstream audiences after two weekends in limited release. The high-wire look at the inaugural broadcast of SNL landed at No. 7 with a muted $3.4 million from 2,300 theaters over the weekend.

The film, directed by Jason Reitman, cost $30 million and will need to show endurance (and garner some awards attention) to turn a profit.







Another new release, The Apprentice crumbled in 11th place with $1.58 million from 1,740 venues. The biographical drama, in which Sebastian Stan portrays a young Donald Trump, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and struggled to find a buyer until Briarcliff Entertainment acquired the rights.

Reviewers and audiences were mixed on the movie, which earned a “B-” CinemaScore and 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. One prominent critic has been Trump himself, who has threatened legal action over the movie. His team issued a statement over the summer saying, “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked.”







Elsewhere at the domestic box office, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot soared in second place with $13.45 million in its third weekend of release.

The well-reviewed family film has amassed $83.73 million domestically and $148 million globally to date.





Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Transformers One rounded out the top five. The former, a sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 comedy horror favorite, took third place (ever so slightly ahead of Joker 2) with $7.3 million in its sixth weekend on the big screen.

The Beetlejuice sequel has grossed $275 million in North America and $420 million globally. The latter, an animated origin story about Optimus Prime and Megatron, secured the No. 5 spot over several newcomers with $3.65 million in its fourth outing.

It has earned $52.8 million domestically and $111 million worldwide so far.

https://variety.com/2024/film/box-of...es-1236176346/






October 11-14, 2024: Weekend Studio Estimates

1. Terrifier 3 $14,117,291
2. The Wild Robot $14,000,945 / $84,288,135
3. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice $7,323,508 / $275,890,643
4. Joker: Folie à Deux $7,002,654 / $51,559,127
5. Piece by Piece $3,851,355
6. Transformers One $3,763,855 / $52,964,909
7. Saturday Night $4,154,314
8. My Hero Academia: You're Next $3,007,027
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas (2024 re-release) $2,419,235
10. The Apprentice $1,613,233