Friday Estimates: ‘The Dark Tower’ Guns Down $7.725M; ‘Dunkirk’ Adds $5.015M; ‘Kidnap’ Debuts to $3.68M; ‘Detroit’ Modest w/ $2.619M

Saturday Update: The Dark Tower pulled an opening day gross of $7.725 million (including Thursday night), taking first place for the day as Stephen King fans came out in support of the awaited adaptation. The modestly budgeted sci-fi/fantasy film was notably behind the $12 million opening day of The Mummy back in June and the $9.94 million opening day of 2 Guns back in August 2013. Overseas returns will be key for the film’s overall bottom line as word of mouth appears to be struggling early on (Flixster stands at an underwhelming 63 percent this morning). Still, the film is in position to win what had been projected to be a close race for first over the weekend. Sony projects $18.85 million for the three-day frame, while we’re sitting at around $19 million for now.

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk eased just 37 percent from last Friday to $5.015 million yesterday, bringing its 15-day domestic cume to $120.97 million. Of note, $1.07 million of yesterday’s take came from IMAX alone, with the format’s total-to-date standing at $26.89 million. Overall, the WWII action thriller is pacing 10 ahead of where Interstellar stood at the same point in release, and just 4 percent behind Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (which slipped 39.8 from its second to third Friday). Dunkirk‘s third weekend should take in around $17 million.

The Emoji Movie landed in third with $3.85 million and an eight-day tally of $40.95 million, heading toward $13.3 million this weekend.

Kidnap debuted to a solid $3.68 million yesterday, a healthy start for the freshman release from distributor Aviron. The studio projects a $10 million weekend.

Girls Trip rounded out the top five with $3.633 million, giving it $77.66 million in all so far and eyeing another $11.5 million weekend.

Detroit expanded into nationwide release with a modest $2.619 million in sixth place, giving it $3.135 million total so far. Its weekend should register around $6.7 million.

Perhaps the most notable opening of the weekend came from Wind River as it earned $52,212 from four locations on opening day yesterday, giving it a $13,053 per-theater average. By comparison, last year’s Hell or High Water debuted to $193,623 from 32 locations (a $6,051 per-theater average).

Key weekend projections are below with studio estimates to follow on Sunday.

WIDE (1000+)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 The Dark Tower $19,000,000 3,451 $5,506 $19,000,000 1 Sony / Columbia
2 Dunkirk $17,000,000 -36% 4,014 266 $4,235 $132,955,738 3 Warner Bros.
3 The Emoji Movie $13,300,000 -46% 4,075 0 $3,264 $50,401,704 2 Sony / Columbia
4 Girls Trip $11,500,000 -41% 2,582 -66 $4,454 $85,525,020 3 Universal
5 Kidnap $10,000,000 2,378 $4,205 $10,000,000 1 Aviron Pictures
6 Spider-Man: Homecoming $8,800,000 -34% 3,116 -509 $2,824 $294,907,776 5 Sony / Columbia
7 Atomic Blonde $8,000,000 -56% 3,326 22 $2,405 $33,880,375 2 Focus Features
8 Detroit $6,700,000 1813% 3,007 2987 $2,228 $7,215,482 2 Annapurna Pictures
9 War for the Planet of the Apes $5,900,000 -44% 2,704 -670 $2,182 $130,180,255 4 Fox
10 Despicable Me 3 $5,600,000 -26% 2,445 -585 $2,290 $241,090,910 6 Universal
11 Baby Driver $2,600,000 -35% 1,424 -537 $1,826 $97,100,930 6 Sony / TriStar
12 Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets $2,400,000 -62% 1,795 -1758 $1,337 $36,141,883 3 EuropaCorp/STXfilms
13 Wonder Woman $2,300,000 -31% 1,307 -344 $1,760 $399,446,079 10 Warner Bros.
14 The Big Sick $2,100,000 -34% 1,005 -584 $2,090 $33,864,428 7 Lionsgate

LIMITED (100 — 999)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power $1,000,000 701% 180 176 $5,556 $1,152,371 2 Paramount
2 Cars 3 $600,000 -37% 477 -384 $1,258 $147,680,945 8 Disney
3 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 $430,000 55% 252 21 $1,706 $388,375,435 14 Disney
4 Transformers: The Last Knight $280,000 -50% 322 -216 $870 $129,371,313 7 Paramount
5 Captain Underpants $200,000 -33% 229 -38 $873 $72,858,672 10 Fox / DreamWorks Animation
6 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales $175,000 -16% 167 -43 $1,048 $171,332,528 11 Disney

PLATFORM (1 — 99)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Wind River $157,000 4 $39,250 $157,000 1 The Weinstein Company
2 Step $145,000 29 $5,000 $145,000 1 Fox Searchlight
3 We Love You, Sally Carmichael! $50,000 7 $7,143 $50,000 1 Purdie Distribution
4 Love, Kennedy $12,000 31% 14 -3 $857 $353,276 10 Purdie Distribution

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Friday Update: Sony reports this morning that The Dark Tower earned $1.8 million from Thursday night’s first showings. That’s a fair start considering the film’s modest (for its genre) $60 million production budget. In the realm of comps, The Mummy earned $2.66 million back in June — and that was without a fan base like Stephen King’s to drive early show attendance. For the weekend, we’re still currently projecting a close race for first place between Dark Tower and the third weekend of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

Meanwhile, Detroit earned $525,000 last night as it hopes to ride strong critical reviews into nationwide release this weekend, while Halle Berry’s Kidnap took in $500,000. Both films look likely to settle in the recently expected $8-10 million range for the weekend, but things will become clearer with full Friday results.

Check this post on Saturday morning and follow us on Twitter for official Friday estimates from the studios.

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