- Box Office
World Box Office, September 26-October 2
This weekend’s big winner at home and abroad was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Tim Burton’s dark fantasy romp is adapted from the popular 2011 novel of the same name by Ransom Riggs. Fox acquired the adaptation rights shortly after the book’s release and Burton was tapped to develop and direct the project later that year. Eva Green plays Miss Peregrine, the strict but beloved headmistress of a sanctuary for magically inclined children, while Hugo and Ender’s Game star Asa Butterfield plays the film’s protagonist, Jake Portman. As the wild fairytales that his grandfather Abraham (Terence Stamp) told him as a child begin to take form, Jake is forced to seek out refuge as Miss Peregrine’s home on a remote Welsh Island. There he learns of his peculiar powers and finds himself responsible for protecting his fellow magical children from a menacing group of witch hunters led by Samuel L. Jackson. Miss Peregrine’s took $28.5 million in its U.S. debut. It earned a B+ Cinemascore and could be looking at a domestic gross in the $100 million range.
Overseas Tim Burton’s new film came out on top as well, with a $36.5 million opening in 59 markets. Its biggest territory so far is South Korea, with $5.2 million. It made $4.6 million in the UK, where the film is set, and $3.8 million in Mexico. Australia was good for $3.1 million while the Philippines made for a notable $1.7 million opening. It opens next week in France, Germany, and Russia, among others.
Following on its heels at the domestic box office is Mark Wahlberg led disaster drama Deepwater Horizon. Director Peter Berg focuses on the events immediately following the explosion on the oilrig that would set off an ecological disaster that the Gulf of Mexico is still recovering from. Mike Williams (Wahlberg) and Caleb Holloway (Dylan O’Brien) are stationed on the platform in the midst of the crisis and find themselves scrambling to save their fellow workers in the aftermath of a catastrophic fire and explosion. John Malkovich plays a BP representative who underestimates the dangers of working on the Deepwater Horizon while Kate Hudson plays Williams’ wife, Felicia. It is her first time appearing onscreen with her stepfather, Kurt Russell, who plays rig boss Jimmy Farrell. Deepwater came in second on the domestic box office chart with $20.6 million in its opening run. It grossed $12.4 million from 52 markets, the biggest of which was the UK where it made $2.6 million. Next was Russia at $1.2 million. It opens in Australia and Italy later this week.
Third on the domestic chart is Sony’s The Magnificent Seven, which dropped 55% from its opening frame and came in third with $15.5 million. It pulled $14.8 million overseas as well for a global total of $108.1 million.
Several foreign films posted big numbers in their home markets as well. Chinese picture I Belonged to You, from director Yibai Zhang, opened to $33.6 million in the Middle Kingdom. Fellow Chinese entry Legend of Ravaging Dynasties, a coproduction from Lionsgate and Beijing based Le Vision Pictures, opened to $29.2 million. Indian picture M.S. Dohni: The Untold Story took an impressive $14.5 million in its giant and fast awakening home market. It is the second biggest release of 2016 in the subcontinent.
Next week we’ll follow the release of Nat Turner’s biopic The Birth of a Nation, and DreamWorks and Reliance Entertainment’s thriller Girl on the Train, starring Emily Blunt and, among others, Luke Evans, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett and Justin Theroux.
See the complete box office estimates for this week: