‘Jigsaw’ notches the biggest slice of a weak box office
NEW YORK – George Clooney’s Suburbicon notched one of the most dismal wide-release debuts in recent years on a sluggish pre-Halloween weekend when the horror sequel Jigsaw topped all releases despite an underperforming debut.
According to studio estimates Sunday, the eighth Saw film landed at No. 1 with $16.3 million in ticket sales. That was shy of industry expectations and suggested the revived Saw franchise isn’t connecting with audiences the way other recent horror entries have.
Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween took the No. 2 spot with $10 million in its second week of release.
In its first release since the Harvey Weinstein scandal began unfolding, the beleaguered Weinstein Company feebly released a horror sequel of its own: Amityville: The Awakening. It played an un- usual Saturday-only engagement on just 10 screens and grossed a mere $742.
Made for about $10 million, Jigsaw comes seven years after the notoriously gruesome franchise — famously dubbed “torture porn” — bid adieu with Saw 3D: The Final Chapter.
Critics weren’t happy to see its return: Jigsaw got a thumbs-up from 39% of reviewers at aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Opening-weekend moviegoers also weren’t overwhelmed, giving the film a modest B grade on CinemaScore.
But that rating still easily surpassed the D-minus that greeted Clooney’s latest directorial effort. Despite debuting on more than 2,000 screens, Suburbicon managed just $2.8 million, marking a new box office low for Clooney as a director and star Matt Damon.
“Obviously we are disappointed in these results, which we don’t feel are indicative of the quality and message” of Suburbicon, says Kyle Davies, president of distribution for Paramount.
Suburbicon, which had its debut at Venice Film Festival, was crafted as a fusion between an old Joel and Ethan Coen home-invasion comedy script and a more pointed satire of racism in a 1959 suburb. Critics didn’t respond well to the mix, either; the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score is just 26% fresh.
The Miles Teller PTSD drama Thank You For Your Service, directed by American Sniper writer Jason Hall, also opened weakly with sixth place and $3.7 million in just over 2,000 theaters.
Rounding out the rest of the top five: disaster epic Geostorm (No. 3, $5.7 million), Groundhog Day- like horror flick Happy Death Day (No. 4, $5.1 million) and Harrison Ford/Ryan Gosling sci-fi sequel Blade Runner 2049 (No. 5, $4 million).
Business overall was slow ahead of Halloween. Weekend ticket sales totaled about $75 million, according to comScore, making it the second-lowest grossing frame of the year in North America.
Final numbers are expected Monday.