Tyler Perry’s Halloween flick opens in first place
Tom Cruise’s new ‘Jack Reacher’ film came in 2nd
LOS ANGELES — Tyler Perry bested Tom Cruise at the box office this weekend.
Perry’s “Boo! A Madea Halloween” opened in the top spot with an estimated $27.6 million, edging Cruise’s “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” into second place according to studio estimates Sunday.
It’s the third best opening for a “Madea” movie, behind “Madea Goes to Jail” and “Madea’s Family Reunion” and a sign of the character’s longstanding appeal to audiences.
Tom Cruise’s “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” took in $23 million for Paramount Pictures, a far cry from his successes with the “Mission: Impossible” movies for Paramount. It did do significantly better than the first “Jack Reacher,” which opened right before Christmas in 2012 to $15.2 million.
Coming in third this weekend was the horror prequel “Ouija: Origin of Evil” with $14.1 million — just the latest in a string of highly fruitful and modestly budgeted horror pics this year, including “The Conjuring 2,” “Don’t Breathe” and “Light’s Out.”
Holdovers “The Accountant” and “The Girl on the Train” rounded out the top five with $14 million and $7.3 million.
Less successful was 20th Century Fox’s comedy “Keeping Up with the Joneses,” which launched with a tepid $5.6 million. The film, starring Isla Fisher and Zack Galifianakis as a pair of boring suburbanites intrigued by the arrival of a glamorous new couple played by Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot was savaged by critics.
In limited release, the critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama “Moonlight” had a robust start in four theaters with $414,740 and many sell-out showings, a massive result for a film with no big stars and a fairly unknown director in Barry Jenkins.
“It’s going to be on everyone’s Oscar radar now,” said comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.