Open Road’s Honest Thief was the No. 1 film at the North American box office over the weekend, coming in slightly ahead of our pre-release forecast with an estimated $3.7 million from 2,425 screens. That brings the total for the Liam Neeson thriller to an estimated $4.2 million, which includes grosses prior to the weekend.
Starring Neeson as a bank robber who gets double-crossed by FBI agents, Honest Thief came in lower in its opening frame than the similar Unhinged, which debuted to $4.02 million back in August on significantly fewer screens (1,823). That said, the Russell Crowe thriller had a couple of extra elements in its favor: For one thing, it received an organic press push as the first wide release in theaters in five months. For another, it opened in a marketplace with virtually zero competition, whereas Honest Thief arrives on the scene with a handful of other wide releases in play.
According to Open Road, Honest Thief played well in key markets including Miami, Chicago, San Diego and Atlanta. Next weekend, it will presumably be expanding into New York state, where theaters have been cleared to reopen on Friday, October 23 (though New York City theaters have been ordered to remain shuttered for the time being).
Though Honest Thief did not play well with critics (its Rotten Tomatoes score is just 38%), the studio points out that its Audience Score on the review aggregator is 88% — albeit from just 300 ratings.
Coming in second place in its sophomore frame was last weekend’s No. 1, The War With Grandpa, which grossed an estimated $2.5 million from 2,260 screens. That’s a drop of 31% from last weekend, marking a solid hold for the Robert De Niro comedy. Top markets for the film this weekend included LA DMA (despite theaters in the city of Los Angeles remaining closed), Dallas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Detroit. The 101 Studios release now stands at $7.2 million to date.
Coming in significantly below our pre-release forecast was the romantic drama 2 Hearts, which opened in sixth place to $565K from 1,683 screens. The Freestyle Releasing title fared even worse with critics than Honest Thief, garnering a dismal 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though it came in with a “B” Cinemascore from audiences. The film predictably over-indexed with women, who made up 76% of the opening weekend audience, according to exit polls.
The final major release of the weekend, Stage 6 Films’ The Kid Detective, grossed just $135K from 865 screens in tenth place, about in line with our pre-release forecast.
Still demonstrating strong legs, Tenet eased just 25% to third place with an estimated $1.6 million in its seventh weekend on 2,001 screens. That gives the Christopher Nolan title $50.6 million in North America to date, about 32% of which has come from premium and large formats. Warner Bros. notes that five of the top 10-grossing theaters were in the Seattle area, where many theaters reopened this weekend.
Overall, the top 10 DMA markets for Tenet this weekend were: Orange & Riverside Counties/Greater Los Angeles; Seattle; Greater San Francisco; Detroit; Dallas; Salt Lake City; Chicago; Sacramento; Phoenix; and Greater New York – NJ/CT/PA.
Tenet – Top 10 Locations (Domestic) – October 16-18, 2020
1. Paramount Drive-In (Greater LA DMA)
2. Cinemark Lincoln Sq. 22 (Seattle)
3. AMC Alderwood 16 (Seattle)
4. Capitol 6 Drive-In (Greater San Francisco DMA)
5. AMC Southcenter 16 (Seattle)
6. Regal Irvine Spectrum IMAX (LA/OC DMA)
7. AMC Block Orange with IMAX (Greater LA/OC DMA)
8. AMC Pacific Place (Seattle)
9. AMC Woodinville 12 (Seattle)
10. Cinemark Redwood 20 (SF DMA)
Internationally, Tenet grossed an estimated $6.6 million this weekend, bring its overseas cume to $283.3 million and its global tally to $333.9 million. The film held well in several markets, including Japan (-36%), Germany (-17%), Russia (-19%), Holland (-35%) and Australia (-42%). International admissions now stand at 35.7 million; Tenet next releases in Brazil and Panama on October 29.
Tenet – Top Overseas Markets – Cume
China $66.3m
United Kingdom $22.1m
France $21.9m
Japan $21.6m
Germany $18.2m
Korea $14.9m
Taiwan $11.7m
Russia $11.6m
Spain $8.7m
Australia $8.4m
Elsewhere this weekend, Disney re-released Tim Burton’s 1993 classic The Nightmare Before Christmas on 2,194 screens and brought in an estimated $1.32 million, a good enough showing for fourth place. That’s just a tick below our pre-release forecast and a tad higher than the studio’s re-release of Hocus Pocus last weekend.
Studio Weekend Estimates (Domestic)
FRI, OCT. 16 – SUN, OCT. 18
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honest Thief | $3,700,000 | — | 2,425 | — | $1,526 | $4,200,000 | 1 | Open Road Films |
| 2 | The War With Grandpa | $2,501,707 | -31% | 2,260 | 10 | $1,107 | $7,256,039 | 2 | 101 Studios |
| 3 | Tenet | $1,600,000 | -24% | 2,001 | -214 | $800 | $50,600,000 | 7 | Warner Bros. |
| 4 | Nightmare Before Christmas (2020 re-issue) | $1,579,000 | — | 2,194 | — | $720 | $1,579,000 | 1 | Disney / Touchstone Pictures |
| 5 | Hocus Pocus (2020 re-issue) | $756,000 | -35% | 1,640 | -473 | $461 | $3,842,000 | 3 | Walt Disney Pictures |
| 6 | 2 Hearts | $565,000 | — | 1,683 | — | $336 | $565,000 | 1 | Freestyle Releasing |
| 7 | The New Mutants | $465,000 | -34% | 1,293 | -370 | $360 | $22,721,526 | 8 | 20th Century Studios |
| 8 | Unhinged | $425,000 | -38% | 1,276 | -332 | $333 | $20,038,300 | 10 | Solstice Studios |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Love and Monsters | $255,000 | — | 387 | — | $659 | $255,000 | 1 | Paramount Pictures |
| 2 | The Kid Detective | $135,000 | — | 865 | — | $156 | $135,000 | 1 | Sony Pictures |
| 3 | Coco (2020 re-release) | $131,000 | -78% | 775 | -1124 | $169 | $734,000 | 2 | |
| 4 | Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (2020 Re-release) | $79,000 | -46% | 480 | -345 | $165 | $2,482,000 | 15 | |
| 5 | Infidel | $72,000 | -65% | 471 | -488 | $153 | $3,970,774 | 5 | Cloudburst Entertainment |
| 6 | Possessor Uncut | $71,500 | -53% | 188 | -115 | $380 | $661,967 | 3 | NEON |
| 7 | Yellow Rose | $67,000 | -55% | 900 | 0 | $74 | $306,573 | 2 | Sony Pictures Stage 6 Films |
| 8 | The Call | $63,370 | -29% | 160 | -35 | $396 | $350,851 | 3 | Cinedigm |
| 9 | The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run | $45,000 | -7% | 131 | -60 | $344 | $4,714,794 | 10 | Paramount |
| 10 | The Broken Hearts Gallery | $21,000 | -77% | 259 | -462 | $81 | $4,008,009 | 6 | Sony Pictures |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ava | $25,500 | -59% | 69 | -105 | $370 | $464,172 | 4 | Vertical Entertainment |
| 2 | Kajillionaire | $15,000 | -61% | 91 | -176 | $165 | $526,515 | 4 | Focus Features |
| 3 | A Call to Spy | $12,000 | -60% | 44 | -35 | $273 | $104,087 | 3 | IFC Films |
| 4 | Pray: The Story of Patrick Peyton | $10,101 | -59% | 51 | 7 | $198 | $43,081 | 2 | ArtAffects Entertainment |
| 5 | Henchmen | $8,500 | -72% | 87 | -94 | $98 | $47,797 | 2 | Vertical Entertainment Vertical Entertainment |
| 6 | The Last Shift | $8,000 | -60% | 51 | -213 | $157 | $627,784 | 4 | Sony Pictures Stage 6 Films |
| 7 | Shithouse | $6,750 | — | 28 | — | $241 | $6,750 | 1 | IFC Films |
| 8 | The Personal History Of David Copperfield | $5,000 | -21% | 64 | -29 | $78 | $1,874,141 | 8 | Searchlight Pictures |
| 9 | No Escape | $4,500 | -37% | 24 | -16 | $188 | $163,369 | 5 | Vertical Entertainment |
| 10 | Twiceborn | $3,715 | — | 6 | — | $619 | $3,715 | 1 | Freestyle Releasing |
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