Box Office RESULTS: 'Mission: Impossible' Tops 'Christopher Robin'

 

August 2017 saw the worst grosses for the eighth month of the year in twenty years and the writing was on the wall very early with the disappointing debut of The Dark Tower to begin the month. While this weekend's crop of new releases didn't exactly light the box office on fire, with Disney's Christopher Robin debuting below expectations, the weekend's top twelve titles still finished 15% ahead of the the same weekend last year and featured a strong carryover weekend from Paramount's Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

With an estimated $35 million, Mission: Impossible - Fallout finished atop the weekend box office for a second weekend in a row as the film's domestic cume now stands just shy of $125 million after ten days in release. The film's 42.8% second weekend drop is the second best sophomore effort in the franchise behind Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which isn't quite an apples-to-apples comparison considering it kicked things off with a limited debut over the holiday season in 2011.

Internationally, Fallout brought in an estimated $76 million from 56 markets, including 20 new openings. The film's international cume is now $205 million, 21% ahead of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation for the same group of markets. Rogue Nation went on to deliver $487.6 million internationally and $682.7 million globally. Fallout's worldwide cume currently stands at $329.5 million with releases in Italy (8/29) and China (8/31) still on the horizon.

Landing in the runner-up position is Disney's Christopher Robin, falling short of expectations, delivering an estimated $25 million from 3,602 locations. While this is an improvement over the $21.5 million debut for 2016's Pete's Dragon, it's not a strong start for the film, though with little competition over the coming weeks and an "A" CinemaScore from opening day audiences it could hope for some decent legs. Overall, the film played to an audience that was 56% female and 50% of the audience was 25 years of age or older, both metrics compare closely to Pete's Dragon, which played to an audience that was 53% female and 47% was 25+.

Internationally, Christopher Robin debuted in 18 markets, estimated at 15% of the overseas marketplace, where the film brought in an estimated $4.8 million. Leading the way was Mexico ($1.4m) and Russia ($1.2m). Next weekend the film will debut in Belgium, Netherlands, Iceland, Thailand, India, Trinidad and Ecuador with several key openings over the next couple months, culminating an October 24 release in France.

Lionsgate's The Spy Who Dumped Me delivered an estimated $12.35 million for a third place finish. The performance is just below the studio's expectations. Looking ahead, the film can be compared to Hot Pursuit's Mother's Day debut in 2015. The $35 million production debuted with $13.9 million and finished with a domestic run just shy of $35 million.

The Spy Who Dumped carries a reported budget of $40 million, of which more than half was covered by foreign sales, and received a "B" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, an improvement over Hot Pursuit's "C+". The two films both played to an audience that was 62% female and for Spy, 70% of the overall audience was 25 years of age or older. Next weekend's performance will determine if this is a film that runs from $25-30 million or if it can leg out a domestic cume over $30 million.

Fourth place belonged to Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which brought in an estimated $9 million, pushing the film's domestic cume over $91 million as it begins its third week in release. Internationally, the film added another $19.3 million this weekend as it opened in seven new markets, pushing its overseas cume to $139.2 million for a global tally now topping $230 million.

Rounding out the top five is Sony's The Equalizer 2, which dropped just 37% for an estimated $8.8 million weekend and a domestic cume that now stands just shy of $80 million. The film is playing in just 11 markets internationally right now with a debut in Spain set for next weekend followed by releases in France (Aug 15), Brazil (Aug 16), Germany (Aug 16), Mexico (Aug 17), UK (Aug 17), Russia (Sep 6), Italy (Sep 13), South Korea (Sep 13) and Japan (Oct 5).

Outside the top five, it isn't until eighth position that we find Fox's new release The Darkest Minds. The YA adaptation debuted in 3,127 theaters and brought in a dismal $5.8 million, which ranks as the 11th worst opening all-time for a film opening in 3,000+ locations. Things weren't much better internationally for Darkest Minds where the $34 million production debuted in 37 markets and brought in an estimated $4.1 million led by Mexico with just over $1 million.

 

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	1	Mission: Impossible - Fallout	Par.	$35,323,815	-42.3%	4,395	+9	$8,037	$124,811,186	$178	2
2	N	Disney's Christopher Robin	BV	$24,585,139	-	3,602	-	$6,825	$24,585,139	-	1
3	N	The Spy Who Dumped Me	LGF	$12,103,043	-	3,111	-	$3,890	$12,103,043	$40	1
4	2	Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again	Uni.	$9,003,030	-40.4%	3,359	-155	$2,680	$91,247,580	$75	3
5	3	The Equalizer 2	Sony	$8,755,907	-37.5%	2,725	-663	$3,213	$79,812,172	$62	3
6	4	Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation	Sony	$8,004,571	-34.7%	3,162	-843	$2,531	$136,260,452	$80	4
7	6	Ant-Man and the Wasp	BV	$6,364,500	-27.4%	2,233	-780	$2,850	$195,645,935	-	5
8	N	The Darkest Minds	Fox	$5,842,609	-	3,127	-	$1,868	$5,842,609	$34	1
9	7	Incredibles 2	BV	$4,980,232	-31.4%	1,802	-814	$2,764	$583,112,522	-	8
10	5	Teen Titans Go! To The Movies	WB	$4,776,775	-54.1%	3,188	-	$1,498	$20,701,332	$10	2