‘It’ scares off competition in tight box office race
WASHINGTON: ‘It’ was knocked into second place last week -- but as Halloween approaches, freaky box office sensation ‘It’ was back at number one in its fourth week in cinemas, industry estimates showed Sunday.
Starring Bill Skarsgard as a creepy clown who terrorises a sleepy Maine town, ‘ It’ -- the highest- grossing horror movie of all time -- earned US$ 17.3 million, according to Exhibitor Relations.
That is some US$ 12.4 million less than last week’s US$ 29.7 million takings -- but still enough for the top spot, bringing total earnings to a colossal US$ 291.1 million.
Close behind in the tight race for number one was Universal’s newly-released ‘American Made’, which raked in US$ 17 million.
Starring Tom Cruise, ‘American Made’ tells the story of a commercial airline pilot recruited to carry out reconnaissance missions over South America for the CIA.
Espionage comedy -- and last week’s number one -- ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ came in at number three, also with takings of US$ 17 million.
With a star- studded cast featuring Colin Firth, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry and even Elton John, ‘ Kingsman’ sees a British spy organisation join forces with its American counterpart to take on a new global threat.
But despite its A-list lineup, it took less than half of last week’s US$ 39 million earnings.
Sitting comfortably in fourth place, having rung up US$ 12 million, was animation ‘ The Lego Ninjago Movie’ -- the third instalment of Warner Bros.’ ‘ The Lego Movie’ franchise.
Sony’s remake of horror film ‘Flatliners’ did just that in its first week in theatres, earning an anti- climactic US$ 6.7 million.
Originally released in 1990, ‘Flatliners’ follows five medical students who try to find out if there is life after death by conducting experiments that cause near- death experiences. Rounding out the top 10 were: ( 6) Battle Of The Sexes’ ( US$ 3.4 million)
(7) ‘’American Assassin’ ( US$ 3.3 million)
( 8) ‘Home Again’ ( US$ 1.7 million)
( 9) ‘ Til Death Do Us Part’ ( US$ 1.5 million)
(10) Mother!’ ( US$ 1.4 million)