‘Kingsman’ dethrones ‘It’ with $39M
But ‘Lego Ninjago’ doesn’t build on its franchise’s success
The R-rated spy comedy Kingsman: The Golden Circle displaced horror sensation It as the No. 1 film, while the second Lego movie of the year didn’t assemble the expected audience.
The Kingsman sequel led the weekend with a $39 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. But It continues to pull in record crowds.
With $30 million for the weekend, the Stephen King adaptation is now the highest-grossing hor- ror film of all time, not accounting for inflation, with $266.3 million thus far.
The second Kingsman returned stars Taron Egerton and Colin Firth, while adding Channing Tatum, Halle Berry and Jeff Bridges.
The Lego Ninjago Movie was further off expectations, making its debut in third with $21.2 million. The Lego Movie — the 2014 hit that made $469 million worldwide. Ninjago, though, is the second spinoff of the calendar year, following February’s The Lego Batman Movie.
That release opened with $35 million and grossed $312 million in total — marks it appears Ninjago will fall well short of.
In its second week, Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller mother! failed to turn the tide. The film became one of the few movies to receive a grade of F from audiences on CinemaScore. The horror parable, starring Jennifer Lawrence, slid to sixth place with $3.3 million, bringing its two-week haul to $13.4 million.
The box office also saw the first wave of fall awards contenders. The Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs drama Battle of the Sexes, with Emma Stone and Steve Carell; the Boston Marathon bombing survivor tale Stronger, with Jake Gyllenhaal; and the Queen Victoria drama Victoria & Abdul, starring Judi Dench, all made their debut in limited release.
Stronger grossed $1.7 million on 574 screens. Victoria & Abdul scored a per-theater average of $37,933 on four screens. And Battle of the Sexes earned $525,000 on 21 screens.
Rounding out the top five: Dylan O’Brien’s American Assassin, adapted from the Vince Flynn book, finished fourth with $6.3 million and Reese Witherspoon rom-com Home Again fell to fifth with $3.3 million.
Final numbers are expected Monday.