Can 'Kingsman' or Lego Ninjas Conquer 'It'?
by EG
Stephen King's It has dominated the box office for two weekends in a row, and it's still going strong. This weekend an action comedy sequel and a spin-off of The Lego Movie will try to dethrone the movie about a terrifying clown. There's a good chance that Kingsman: The Golden Circle will pull off the win, but it's too early to tell for sure.
Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Golden Circle should have no trouble dethroning horror sensation It in its box-office debut this weekend, or lording over fellow new entry The Lego Ninjago Movie.
Tracking suggests the cheeky action-comedy, from 20th Century Fox, will debut in the $40 million-$45 million range, ahead of the $36.2 million domestic debut of Kingsman: The Secret Service in February 2015. A sleeper hit, the first Kingsman went on to earn $414.4 million globally.
Kingsman 2 reteams Vaughn with Taron Egerton and Colin Firth. Newcomers include Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal and Jeff Bridges. The story follows the Kingsmen as they head to Kentucky after their U.K. headquarters is destroyed. They must seek help from some U.S. counterparts (the Statesmen), who also have a still-alive Harry (Firth).
The sequel, which currently sports a 59 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, also makes a major push overseas.
Warner Bros. Animation's Ninjago, a spinoff of The Lego Movie, is tracking to open in the $30 million range. There's plenty of room for upside since it's the first family offering of fall.
Ninjago is based on the toy line of the same name, one of the brand's most popular with young boys. It's considered a smaller property than either The Lego Batman Movie (2017), which debuted to $53 million, and The Lego Movie (2014), which opened to an even bigger $69.1 million.
Ninjago is hoping for a second-place finish, but no one is counting out It, which enters its third weekend.
Today, New Line and Warner Bros.' film adaptation of Stephen King's novel will pass up The Exorcist ($233 million) to become the top-grossing horror film of all time domestically — that is, unadjusted for inflation. When accounting for inflation, the lifetime gross for The Exorcist (1973) is a massive $917.5 million.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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