Box Office: ‘The Martian,’ ‘Goosebumps’ scare off new films in slow Halloween weekend
Matt Damon in a scene from the film, “The Martian.”
It looks as if moviegoers have been getting their candy at Halloween parties rather than theater concession stands. With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, box office ticket sales have been a bit of a fright.
Based on early projections, “The Martian” and “Goosebumps” top the slow Halloween weekend, while three freshman launches — “Burnt,” “Our Brand Is Crisis” and “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” — had disappointing starts.
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Fox’s “The Martian” with Matt Damon continued its starry run, bringing in $3.5 million Friday; it’s on track to finish the weekend at $10.5 million, which would bring its cumulative total to more than $180 million.
Sony’s “Goosebumps” scored $3 million in ticket sales Friday; it’s expected to end the weekend at $9 million, with an expected total of $56 million so far.
In the third and fourth spots, Disney’s “Bridge of Spies” and Sony’s “Hotel Transylvania 2” brought in $2.5 million and $1.8 million, respectively, as of Friday. Those films are on track to end the weekend at $7.4 million and $5.4 million respectively.
Lagging behind in the fifth spot, the Weinstein Co.’s “Burnt” — an R-rated comedy aimed at women and foodies and starring Bradley Cooper as a full-of-himself chef — brought in $1.8 million as of Friday. It’s expected to finish out the weekend at $5 million.
Warner Bros.’ “Our Brand Is Crisis,” starring Sandra Bullock as a high-powered political operative enlisted to help an embattled South American presidential candidate, landed at $1.1 million and is on track to bring in a weekend haul of $3 million.
Paramount Pictures’ R-rated horror-comedy “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” finished outside the top 10, with $679,000.
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