'Madea' Is the Week's Top Movie, 'Geostorm' Washes Out
by EG
Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween was the most-watched new movie in theaters this weekend, but it still fell far short of the opening-weekend take of its predecessor. The week's biggest bomb, however, was the pricey Geostorm, which took in only about 10 percent of its production budget.
Lionsgate and Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween had no trouble scaring up a No. 1 finish in its big-screen debut with $21.7 million from 2,388 theaters.
Overall, however, inclement weather was the big story at the box office, where the four other new nationwide offerings were swept away. The biggest casualty is Geostorm, the long-delayed environmental disaster epic from Warner Bros. and Skydance Media that opened to $13.3 million domestically after costing a reported $120 million to make before marketing.
Not even Boo 2! Madea emerged unscathed, opening 24 percent behind the $28.5 million launch of Boo! A Madea Halloween in October 2016.
Perry, who directed the pre-Halloween sequel, reprises his role as Madea. This time out, Madea, Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis), Viv (Chandra Currelley-Young) and Hattie (Patrice Lovely) take a vacation to a campground with their family members, only to encounter monsters, goblins and boogeymen. Boo 2 nabbed an A- CinemaScore and skewed heavily female (65 percent).
Geostorm, starring Gerard Butler, placed No. 2 in North America. The movie will need to do notable business overseas, where it rolled out in more markets this weekend, grossing $36.4 million from 50 territories for a foreign tally of $49.6 million and global total of $62.9 million. It lost the foreign weekend crown to Fox's The Kingsman: Golden Circle, which debuted to $40.3 million in China for a $48.7 million weekend. (Kingsman's global cume stands at $344 million.)
So far, Geostorm is doing best in Asia, where South Korea turned in $5.4 million. It launches in China Oct. 27. "The numbers outside the U.S. are much better," says Warners distribution chief Jeff Goldstein.
From the outset, Geostorm has been plagued by challenges. Marking the feature directorial debut of Independence Day producer Dean Devlin, the movie underwent substantial reshoots after poor test screenings. Then Warners had to rejigger the marketing campaign in the weeks leading up to Geostorm's release because of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
In the film, the world's climate change control system — a network of satellites built to prevent natural disasters and keep the human population safe — goes haywire. A satellite engineer and former space station commander (Butler) must fix the problem before a worldwide geostorm is unleashed. Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Andy Garcia and Zazie Beetz also star.
Box-office observers say Geostorm was clearly hurt by dismal reviews and B- CinemaScore. Younger moviegoers had little interest in seeing the disaster film, with only 10 percent of the audience under the age of 18, and 23 percent under 25. The timing of Geostorm couldn't be worse, considering the devastating hurricanes.
Similarly, moviegoers may have been ambivalent about going to see firefighting drama Only the Brave, considering the recent fires in Northern California and elsewhere.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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