Fight hype knocks out box office

HOLLYWOOD HAD its worse weekend at the box office in 16 years.

An already slow August came to a screeching halt at the multiplex, where no major new releases were unveiled. That left the Samuel Jackson-Ryan Reynolds actioncomedy, “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” to top all films for the second week with an estimated $10.1 million in ticket sales.

The horror spinoff sequel “Annabelle: Creation” came in second with $7.4 million, bringing its three-week total to $77.9 million.

The animated “Leap!” — about an orphan girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina — was in third place with $5 million.

But the weekend’s entire slate of films grossed only about $65 million. It was the slowest weekend since Sept. 21-23, 2001, when the box office take was $59 million overall.

Mid-August through early September is historically the sleepiest time of the year for the movie business, but it’s been especially so this year. This August is down a whopping 35% from last year, according to ComScore.

“It’s a black eye for Hollywood but not a knockout punch,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for ComScore.

“Make no mistake about it, there was little foot traffic in theaters this weekend.”

For many, the weekend’s top entertainment option was Saturday night’s Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor match (photo inset), while Hurricane Harvey put a damper on South Texas theater receipts.

One of the few bright spots was the expansion of “Wind River,” Taylor Sheridan’s thriller set on an Indian reservation in Wyoming, which expanded to 2,095 theaters and earned $4.1 million in its fourth weekend.

Steven Soderbergh’s heist comedy “Logan Lucky” also held well in its second week, taking in $4.4 million. The film’s $15 million two-week total, though, isn’t the movie industry game-changer its makers hoped it would be .

And next week is expected to be just as bad — no new wide releases are scheduled for Labor Day weekend.