UPDATE 1-Box Office Massacre: 'Last Witch Hunter,' 'Paranormal Activity 6' and 'Steve Jobs' Flop

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By Brent Lang
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25 (Variety.com) - It was a pre-Halloween
massacre at the multiplexes.
Four new films, including "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost
Dimension" and Vin Diesel's "The Last Witch Hunter," crowded
into theaters this weekend and were swiftly pulverized and left
for dead. Another, "Steve Jobs," expanded after a brisk limited
run in a few key cities, only to be given the cold shoulder by
the general public.
Their failures allowed a trio of holdovers -- "The Martian,"
"Goosebumps," and "Bridge of Spies" -- to retain the top three
spots on the box office chart.
The quality of many of these films was so atrocious that it
didn't matter where you opened them," said Jeff Bock, a box
office analyst with Exhibitor Relations. "They were never going
to do well."
hen the dust settled it was Ridley Scott's "The Martian" in
first place, adding $15.9 million to the Fox release's
impressive $166.4 million domestic haul. Sony's "Goosebumps"
showed some endurance in its second weekend, slipping a mere 35%
to end the period with $15.5 million. The family film's total
stands at $43.7 million. And "Bridge of Spies," the Steven
Spielberg and Tom Hanks Cold War drama, got a lift as older
crowds caught up with the awards-contender. It earned $11.4
million, a mere 26% drop from its opening weekend, bringing its
stateside gross to $32.6 million.
But the results for the rest of the bunch were bleak. The
glut of new releases was partially attributable to the timing of
Halloween. The holiday falls on a Saturday, the busiest day for
moviegoing, so studios were hoping to steer clear of what is
shaping up to be a dead period by pushing lots of new content
into this weekend. The plan backfired spectacularly.
Lionsgate's "The Last Witch Hunter" cost $70 million to make
and only brought in $10.8 million across 3,082 theaters for a
fourth place finish. This paltry result came despite Diesel's
recent success with "Furious 7" and his robust social media
presence. Any ambitions of launching a new franchise have been
extinguished.
The top five was rounded out by "Hotel Transylvania 2,"
which made $9 million to push its domestic results to $148.3
million after five weeks.
Paramount's "Paranormal Activity" sequel whiffed, producing
the lowest grossing opening in franchise history with $8.2
million. That said, it's a hard film to assess. The studio
partnered with exhibitors like AMC and Cineplex on a move that
allows the film to make its home entertainment debut early. The
exhibitors will receive a cut of digital revenues in return for
allowing the studio to release the latest "Paranormal Activity"
electronically 17 days after the movie leaves most theaters.
However, many chains balked, worrying that the plan threatened
theatrical exclusivity and thus their business models. They
refused to show the picture, leaving it to open on 1,656
screens, roughly 1,000 less than the previous film in the horror
series.
Paramount is pointing to "Paranormal's" strong results in
circuits like AMC, where it was the top grossing film for the
weekend, as evidence that audiences didn't stay away because
they could see the film digitally early.
"There's no question it cost us a lot of box office that
major circuits wouldn't play the film," said Rob Moore,
vice-chairman of Paramount Pictures. "It wasn't about consumer
rejection."
Perhaps the most frustrating stumble was "Steve Jobs," After
scoring the best per-screen average two weeks ago and slowly
expanding with positive results, "Steve Jobs" failed to stick
the landing when it was finally ready to go nationwide. It made
a disappointing $7.3 million from 2,443 locations. That barely
beat the $6.7 million that Ashton Kutcher's critically
excoriated "Jobs" made in its initial weekend.
The talky drama always faced commercial headwinds --
something that caused one studio, Sony, to pass on the project,
before producer Scott Rudin found a backer in Universal. But the
strong reviews and eye-catching posters seemed to be working.
Ultimately the buzz didn't translate into box office, and making
it unlikely that "Steve Jobs" will earn back its $30 million
budget and millions more in marketing costs. So far it has made
just under $10 million.
Universal said the picture is doing well in major markets
like New York and San Francisco, and the studio believes that
mounting Oscar buzz will help "Steve Jobs" attract audiences
going forward.
"Where this film works, it works like a champ," said Nick
Carpou, Universal's domestic distribution chief.
The weekend also hosted two low-cost duds in Universal's
"Jem and the Holograms" and Open Road's "Rock the Kasbah," which
opened to $1.3 million and $1.5 million, respectively. That
wasn't even good enough to crack the top ten and mark the lowest
openings for studio films released in at least 2,000 theaters.
At least these films won't result in oceans of red ink. "Jem and
the Holograms," which adapts the 1980s cartoon, has a $5 million
budget. "Rock the Kasbah," which features Bill Murray as a rock
promoter in Afghanistan, cost $15 million to make.
What's particularly alarming is that pre-release tracking
had many of these films doing substantially better ("The Last
Witch Hunter" was expected to do as much as $17 million, while
some estimates had "Steve Jobs" expanding to the tune of $19
million).
In the art house world, Focus Features debuted historical
drama "Suffragette" in four locations where it made $77,000 for
a per-screen average of $19,250, while Broad Green fielded the
Sarah Silverman drama "I Smile Back" in two locations to
$16,036, for a per-screen average of $8,018.
Overall, box office revenues were down more than 10% from
the year-ago period when "Ouija" and "John Wick" topped charts.