'The Equalizer 3' Has a Solid Labor Day Weekend

The Equalizer 3 sold enough tickets over the Labor Day weekend to win the box office race, even though its performance on the traditionally slow weekend was not huge. Second place went to the blockbuster Barbie, which is still going strong after seven weekends in theaters. The success of Barbie and the mediocre (at best) performance of the year's deluge of sequels and franchise installments may be a warning sign for studios that rely on sequels for just about all their revenue. Read on for details.

Via Variety.

“The Equalizer 3” is still on track to earn the second-biggest Labor Day opening weekend in history with an estimated $42.3 million.

While the holiday isn’t traditionally a box office draw, Denzel Washington’s assassin-thriller surpassed the previous Labor Day debut runner-up: Rob Zombie’s 2007 “Halloween” remake, which grossed $30 million through Monday. Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” still holds the Labor Day crown with a $94.6 million four-day opening in 2021.

Nevertheless, “Equalizer 3’s” three-day domestic figure of $34.5 million is nearly the same as its predecessors. The 2015 original grossed $34 million in a traditional three-day frame, while the 2018 sequel scored $36 million. With a $70 million production budget co-financed by TSG and Eagle Pictures, Columbia Pictures’ “Equalizer 3” is targeting a similar performance by the end of its run. The third installment earned an “A” grade on CinemaScore and holds a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Speaking of box office milestones, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” overtook “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” as the highest-grossing worldwide release of the year with $1.38 billion. In its seventh weekend of release, the hot-pink comedy remained in second place at the domestic box office with $13.1 million over the four-day frame.

“Blue Beetle” landed at No. 3 spot in its third weekend of release, earning $9.2 million through Monday. Although the DC Studios’ comic book film is maintaining better grosses than this year’s “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and “The Flash,” “Blue Beetle’s” $57 million in North American ticket sales will not likely justify its $104 million production budget.

Last weekend’s arguable victor “Gran Turismo” decelerated to fourth place with $8.5 million through the Labor Day holiday. Sony’s $60 million-budgeted racing drama has generated a domestic total of $30.6 million to date.

Universal’s “Oppenheimer” rounded out the top five with $7.5 million through Monday. Christopher Nolan’s historical epic crossed $850 million in global ticket sales, becoming the director’s third-highest grossing film of all time, behind “The Dark Knight” with $1 billion and “The Dark Knight Rises” ($1.08 billion).

Get the rest of the story at Variety.